Anyone who has been to the Wagner Post Office recently may have seen a new face behind the counter and in the office. As of December 2nd, Wagner has a new postmaster, Callie Strand. This is Callie’s first position as a postmaster, but she comes to the position with a breadth of knowledge and experience. In her most recent position with the post office, she worked as a clerk and did a lot of traveling. With this position, she traveled all over northern Minnesota helping in different offices where needed. This was a great opportunity for her to learn from different postmasters and different sized post offices and distribution centers. Callie saw and was exposed to many different aspects of the postal service, making her a great candidate to move up to the postmaster level.

Callie joins a great team at the Wagner Post Office. She currently has seven employees. Cindy Krcil and Laurie Jurrens are both postal clerks. There are three full-time mail carriers Don Mudder, Dennis Merkwan and Tom Abdouch. The office has two mail carrier substitutes James Kotab and Tracy Blaha with the potential to one day have a third substitute.

To become a postmaster, one must apply for the position and interview. They take into consideration the applicants previous experience, communication skills, leadership skills, and knowledge about postal programs, rules and regulations. A good postmaster would have very good communication skills, lead by example, be easy to work with and willing to put in the time and work to keep their employees happy and enjoying their positions. Callie is a great fit for the postmaster position. Callie is very family oriented and very understanding when it comes to needing time for her employees to be off for family obligations. She has very good communication skills and with her knowledge of the post office ins and outs, she will be a good leader in her position.

As a postmaster, Callie has many duties that she has to do daily. Callie is in charge of all the scheduling, managing employees, daily safety talks with employees, daily paperwork, customer service, making sure that the mail gets to its destinations, oversees the proper scanning and distribution of packages, sorting and distributing mail, address verifications, etc. There is a lot of paperwork, reports and documentation that Callie has to deal with and address daily in her position.

Before taking the position in Wagner, Callie did her homework. She researched the area to see if it would be a good fit for her and her family. After researching, Callie came to visit the Wagner community and the post office. She and her husband, Ryan had decided that they had wanted to move west from their town of Blackduck in northern Minnesota. She also wanted to be a part of an office that was comparable to the main postal office that she had worked at. Wagner was the right fit for their family in so as wanting to be a part of a small town with values and to live in an area that aligned with their views and values.

Even though Callie has not been in the postmaster position for very long, she has had a very positive and enjoyable experience thus far. She has enjoyed the customers and her team of employees. “I have a great team who has put their time in, they know the job and are good at what they do,” says Callie. Those are the things that make her happy as a boss.

Callie does have a few goals for the Wagner Post Office. She plans to find areas where the post office can be more efficient and improve what can be to provide great customer service and experience to their customers and community.

Callie and her husband, Ryan, have two children. A son that is three and half years old and a daughter that is 11 months. Ryan is in the process of moving his business to Wagner. He owns Aced Concrete & Landscaping. In her free time, Callie enjoys spending time with her family, her horses, family trips, hunting, fishing and camping.

Welcome to Wagner Callie and Ryan.