I am going to Germany and have been trying to find a reasonable way to convert US currency to Euros. My bank wants to charge any where from $9-$15 dollars just for the postage plus a charge to get the Euros from a member bank. I understand you must pay a 3% surcharge on any charges you make on Mastercard or Visa and there is now a charge on using your check card in an ATM machine in Europe. Has anyone found a good way to get some money here in the US before leaving?
I tried the search function and did not find an answer.

You are using very general terms. Not all credit cards or banks charge for using an ATM machine or a surcharge on the transaction. My last bank had no fees what so ever, not even a transaction fee on ATM's overseas, my current bank charges a whopping dollar but no percentage. Considering using the card down the street is $1.50, a dollar is a deal.

Are you an AAA member? Many of their offices will convert for you without fee, and their card is good for a discount at many Travelex (I think it's Travelex, may be wrong there) booths around the world.

Look into many of the prepaid cards, they don't have fees either (again AAA, paypal, etc offer cards, but fees are always changing, so check)

Most ATMs in Europe (and in my experience elsewhere in the world) do not charge a fee for withdrawals by non-customers, unlike many/most ATMs in the US. The bank that issues the card (i.e. your bank) may well charge a fee, and if you plan frequent travel you may wish to open an account somewhere that does not. Even if your bank charges at the upper end of fees, as long as you keep the number of transactions small this is still likely to be a far better option than anything stateside. Even the 2-3% commission you will likely pay on credit card transactions is not a bad deal; any transactions with credit/debit/ATM cards are made over a wholesale interbank rate, whereas cash you obtain from a bank/exchange point in the US or Europe will be at retail rates--which have their own built-in commission even before service fees and commissions are applied to the specific transaction.

Most major European airports have ATMs in the arrival halls, though I did once get caught at BLQ when one ATM was out of order and the other was out of cash, with no other options on Sunday. Fortunately (?) an exchange machine was happy to happy to exchange my �20 note for eur 28, enough to cover bus fare into th city (and a functioning ATM).

As others noted, the ATM machines will give you the best deal, and you can find them all over; google (or used to be here on FT) for an airport map that will give you locations.
My USAA card charges no fee for ATM, and none for currency conversions. Some mastercards only charge an additional 1%. Amex, of course, is the high charge card (and there is a class action lawsuit pending against them for their conversion charges). Should be lots of info on the credit card forum here. You probably will not need advance euros, with ATMs so prevalent in arrivals.

Do the math and take cash. Travelers cheques usually incur fees. Decide to change with commission at a better rate or change at a lower rate w/o commission.

No, No, No .... Get Euros from an ATM!
I have an account at Netbank, and they never charged a fee.

A firend of mine used his standard (german) citibank-client-card to get cash from an US-Citibank ATM without any fees.
As Citi is present in many countries, why shouldn't it work the other way?!

JN ;-}