NSPA Conference Bayou Reunion

Louisiana offered government printers a warm welcome as they gathered for the 25th year to trade tips and ideas.

Despite coming less than three weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the National State Publishing Association's 25th annual conference went on without a hitch last month.

Held in Baton Rouge, La., the conference drew 54 government attendees from 33 states. United States Public Printer Michael DiMario was also in attendance.

With American flags at every table, a color guard leading the Pledge of Allegiance, and renditions of the "National Anthem" and "God Bless America" to kick things off, the event was infused with a strong feeling of patriotism. In fact, members dedicated their Silver Anniversary conference to the victims of the terrorist attacks and to the spirit of the U.S.A.

Baton Rouge Mayor Bobby Simpson welcomed the group, commending it for going ahead with the conference, despite troubled times.

Conference organizer Irene Babin, Louisiana's director of general services, put together an excellent program, aided by NSPA President Jerry Wilson and incoming President Linda Engmann. In addition to numerous educational sessions and member panels, the event featured several authentic Louisiana evening excursions. The group took a boat trip through a bayou swamp, spent an evening in New Orleans and enjoyed an opening reception at Baton Rouge's castle-like Old State Capitol.

Useful Information

Perhaps the most useful segments of any NSPA conference are its member sessions, in which government printers from various states exchange ideas. During one member panel entitled "Educating Your Customer," Steve Gerriets, of North Dakota's Central Duplicating Services, provided a host of useful tips on how an in-plant can market its services.

One thing his department does is host a userseminar once a year to tell agencies about changes, new laws and other information.

"We're able to meet with a large number of agencies at one time," he said.

Such meetings also let you show off jobs that customers might not know you can do, he said, and provide an open forum for them to bring up concerns.

Gerriets also advocated holding an open house. He offered numerous suggestions, including:

• Involve your entire staff.

• Be creative, but not extravagant.

• Don't use a formal program.

• Keep tour groups small, and don't get too technical.

• Provide staff with business cards.

• Hand out promotional materials.

Gerriets also sends out an e-newsletter to agencies with reminders about things like postal rate increases, technical notes describing how to make and send a PDF, for example, and cost comparisons of different printing methods.

Joe Tucker, of the Ohio Office of State Printing, went on to describe his marketing efforts, which include a Web site and a quarterly newsletter, sent as an e-mail attachment. He also sends customers a flyer four times a year. When customers fill out comment cards about jobs, he shares this feedback with his staff, and tends personally to negative comments.

More advice came from Rod Corbit, Nevada's Deputy State Printer. He encouraged ongoing education, both for customers and for staff. When talking to customers, he cautioned, don't use industry terms (i.e. stripping, signatures). Such lingo only makes customers feel stupid and they become afraid to approach you.

Managers should become mentors on printing, publishing and communications issues, Corbit said. He encouraged participants to be enthusiastic when explaining the benefits of new technology.

Too Many Sick Days

At another member session on personnel issues, Bruce Dutton of the Iowa Department of Transportation talked about the problems in-plants face when employees call in sick and the shop is already understaffed. At his shop he realized if he could cut the number of sick absences, he could reduce the amount of part time help and overtime needed to get the work done.

In accordance with the union contract, and with approval from the personnel officer, Dutton implemented a sick leave review requiring supervisors to monitor sick leave usage. After each three-month period, if an employee has used sick leave above the agency average, supervisors do a review. If employees are abusing sick time, it will appear on their performance reviews and could lead to discipline.

Dutton said when he implemented such a program in 1996, sick leave dropped 500 hours the next year.

This session engendered much discussion, with other states sharing their sick leave policies.

Employee Motivation

One way to keep employees from calling out sick when they shouldn't is to keep them motivated. Attendees shared their suggestions at another session:

• Don Bailey, Nevada State Printer, suggested putting good employees' names in the newsletter, along with a description of their accomplishments.

• Keep employees involved, added Rod Corbit, Nevada's Deputy State Printer. Put them on committees where their suggestions can be heard.

• Kansas State Printer Richard Gonzales suggested getting workers to submit money-saving ideas. If their idea works, give them 10 percent of the base savings.

• Let employees know their ideas are valuable, said Raul Guevara, of the Kansas Department of Transportation. Meet with them and ask for their suggestions. Also, offer them perks like extended lunch breaks, he said.

• California's retired State Printer Celeste Maia Cron said that when a customer praises a job, take the customer to meet the staff that produced it. This will boost their pride. Also, she added, if letters of thanks are received, put them in the newsletter along with the names of key employees.

• Dan Swisher, assistant director of the Washington Department of Printing, wrote personal thank you notes to each of his 160 employees after their hard work during the legislative session. The employees said the letters—each one different—had made them feel great. Additionally, the department's director visits employees every day and talks to them.

Industry Overview

To keep NSPA members up to date on industry trends, keynote speaker George Ryan, president of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, offered a look at how printing is faring. The number of printing plants is decreasing, he said, and offset revenue growth is modest. But fewer plants may lead to more skilled help, he said.

"The shortage of qualified employees might be easing," he stated.

In the meantime, the tight labor market has led to an increase in equipment automation. Ryan predicted a dramatic reduction in investment over the next couple of years. Other predictions and points he made:

• 78 percent of printers say recruiting is their single biggest problem.

• 14 percent of printing purchased in 2005 will use some kind of e-commerce vehicle.

• 24 percent of printers have digital printing (out of 2,000 surveyed by GATF).

• There are 1,500 direct imaging presses in operation worldwide.

• Flatbed scanners are becoming so high in quality they may soon obviate the need for drum scanners.

• New, less-expensive laser technologies are driving the cost of computer-to-plate equipment down.

• There are about 190,000 sheetfed presses in North America.

Who Moved My Cheese?

To help managers deal with change, Yvette Brooks and Kim Gardiner of Louisiana State University gave a presentation called "Who Moved My Cheese?" They showed an animated video illustrating what happens when one's comfortable ways don't work any more. In it, the characters who realized things were changing were able to move on; others kept waiting for things to return to the way they always were.

No one likes change, the speakers said, but since it's inevitable you must anticipate it, adapt to it and enjoy it. But recognize that it won't be easy to force your employees to change.

"Change imposed is change opposed," Brooks said. Give employees some involvement in decisions, and explain why changes are being made.

During the conference attendees had many opportunities to get together in informal groups and discuss their operations. To continue that sharing and communication after the conference, Larry Weber, chief information officer for the State of Washington, unveiled an Internet "Virtual Community" for NSPA members.

Here, members can share business practices, discuss vendors, compare prices and more. The site includes member links, online surveys, a discussion forum, plus links to vendors and state printing Web sites.

Industry vendors are a big part of the NSPA conference. Though there's no exhibit hall, vendors like MGI and Riso had equipment on hand. Others offered their expertise in sessions:

• Xerox sponsored a poolside luncheon on a beautiful afternoon. Spokesman Robert Warden reviewed various product lines and told of Xerox's continued investments in research and development. More than half of Xerox's revenue comes from digital products, he said.

• At another session, Xerox's Ron Kendig offered additional details on the features of the new 100-ipm iGen3 color printer. He also spoke about Xerox direct imaging offset presses. By 2005, he said, 33 percent of all jobs will be required in 24 hours.

• MAN Roland discussed its DICOWeb digital imaging press, which offers a digital changeover in less than 10 minutes.

• Danka gave a lighthearted presentation featuring Dick Olenych dressed as "The Wizard" of digital technology. In between throwing Mardi Gras beads at the audience, Olenych traced digital technology from the days of typewriter-generated originals to the present. He also suggested new services in-plants can offer, including job storage, scanning, variable data printing and digital education of customers.

Perhaps trying to one-up the Wizard, Heidelberg USA's Richard Sand dressed as a chef for his presentation, in keeping with the conference's theme "Recipe For Success." He suggested that in-plants create a marketing plan—because your competition has one. In-plants should be able to list 10 things that differentiate their business from anyone elses.

Also, he said, technology decisions should be driven by customer requirements, so in-plants must talk to customers to find out how their businesses are changing—and how the in-plant can help.

"It's very important that you get from behind the desk and thank your customers for their business, and ask them some questions," Sand said.

NSPA 2002 will take place September 29 - October 2 at the Interlaken Inn in Lakeville, Conn. For more info, visit NSPA online at www.govpublishing.org/

Read about past NSPA conferences:

• NSPA 2000 (Carson City)

• NSPA 1999 (Bismarck)

• NSPA 1998 (Washington, D.C.)