TIME is always trying to learn more about its readers--their jobs, their homes, their families, their likes and dislikes. But one thing TIME doesn't have to survey is how much its audience moves around. We are constantly reminded of that by change-of-address notices, so many of them that we are convinced that TIME-readers are among the world's most restless and gypsy-like people. One out of four of you will be changing your address at some time during the coming year, and sending TIME a notice to that effect.

A little more than half of those changes will be temporary--mostly for vacations--and you will want TIME to follow wherever you go. Last year there were 352,600 changes of address handled by TIME'S Subscription Service for U.S. and Canadian subscribers, an average of about 7,000 a week, or 1,400 on each working day. Right now, the peak period for receiving these changes is beginning, when the weekly number reaches about twice that high.

Most of the changes (about 95%) go through without a hitch, taking about three weeks from receipt of the notice to delivery of the magazine at the new address. The other 5%, for any one of a number of reasons, take longer, and sometimes result in inconvenience.

What can go wrong with a change of address? Most commonly, the old address as given differs in some respect from the way it is listed in our records. If the subscription is in the husband's name, Mr. Thomas Jones, his wife may write, signing her name Agnes Jones. Or a post office box number may have been changed, or the postal zone number may be left off. Other essential information may be missing from the new address. And sometimes subscribers are over-optimistic about the completion of their new homes.

Copies will be returned because nobody is living there and the carpenters haven't yet nailed on the mail box.

The simplest way to assure smooth handling of an address change is to send in the actual addressing imprint from your copy of TIME, or an exact copy of it, including the code numbers at the bottom of the address. Then add the full new address. If it's a temporary change, tell us how long it will last, and whether you will be returning to your old address at the end of that period. One caution: don't start the change so early that you won't be at the new address by the time copies arrive there.

One subscriber's lack of faith in TIME'S address-changing system once cost him the price of a hat. He bet his wife a new hat that the change couldn't be made in less than four weeks. The usual three weeks was enough, and he lost. But another subscriber, in Albuquerque, almost had too much faith, bet a friend a subscription that it could be done in two weeks. He wrote TIME about the bet, and his address change, especially handled, came through on time.

All addresses must be those that the Post Office recognizes. One subscriber recently decided to change the name of his town, and asked that his copies be sent to him addressed to the new name. Such a name change wasn't illogical, he argued, because the earth is continually moving and his town isn't where it used to be. The Post Office wouldn't go along with him.

Another kind of snarl developed when one couple separated, the man staying in New York and his wife moving to Virginia. First she sent in a change-of-address notice, then he changed it back. After the address had changed five times, the Subscription Service realized what was happening, left it with the wife. The subscription was a gift from her uncle.

One reader, who moved from 440 Marlborough Street, sent in his request for a change : "Would you please see that my address is changed to 350 Marlborough Street? As the mailman delivers the route from the high numbers to the low numbers, he will be able to read my TIME 90 street numbers longer every week. This should take him pretty well through Milestones. As it was, the poor fellow learned little about Radio-TV and still less about the Theater."

After that much exposure to TIME, the Subscription Service guessed, the postman probably had his own subscription, and was getting clear through to Books and Miscellany.

Cordially yours,

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.