NSPA Overcomes Hurricane, Adopts New Name

Despite losing its original hotel to Hurricane Katrina, the National State Publishing Association rebounded, holding a successful 29th annual conference in Tunica, Miss.

By Bob Neubauer

Joe Tucker said it all in his opening statement as he addressed the crowd at last month's National State Publishing Association conference.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to see today come, after all that's happened," said Tucker, NSPA president and State of Ohio Printing Administrator.

"All that's happened" includes Hurricane Katrina, which wiped out Biloxi, Miss., the intended location for the 29th annual meeting of government printers. The Casino Magic Biloxi—the conference's original venue and the source of this year's conference theme, "Don't Miss the Magic in Mississippi"—was virtually destroyed by the storm.

Back in September, its demise seemed to spell doom for the conference, as well. But by channeling some of that Mississippi magic, Tucker, along with Ronny Fore, director of Mississippi's Joint Legislative Operations, and Lamar Evans, of NSPA's management company, were able to secure conference space farther north in Mississippi, in the casino town of Tunica, while retaining vendor and speaker support.

As a testament to the importance of this conference to NSPA members, nearly every registrant was able to change plans and attend on the new dates. Last month, NSPA 2005 took place without a hitch at the Hollywood Casino, one of a cluster of casino/hotels poking out of the flat cotton fields along the Mississippi River. Located a few miles west of historic Highway 61, the casinos have breathed new life into Tunica County, once the country's poorest county.

Though the weather during the three-day event was clear, temperatures were surprisingly cold (to the shock of a certain magazine editor who neglected to bring a jacket). The group's dinner outing on a paddleboat cruise of the Mississippi River was a chilly, though lively, affair.

Tucker addressed his opening remarks to 36 government attendees from 20 states. He was joined at the podium by a grateful Senator Doug E. Davis, of the Mississippi State Senate, who thanked NSPA for keeping the conference in his state. He detailed the devastation wrought by Katrina, as well as the state's efforts to rebound and rebuild.

Similarly, Andy Sherman, of the U.S. Government Printing Office, read a letter from U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) welcoming and thanking the group. Sherman also expressed the greetings of U.S. Public Printer Bruce James.

NSPA Changes its Name

One of the very first issues discussed by members was also one of the most consequential. To broaden the scope of the association, members voted overwhelmingly to change its name to the National Government Publishing Association. This marks the second name change in the group's history, since it was founded as the National State Printing Association in 1977.

The group hopes the latest alteration will make it more attractive to all government in-plants, not just those at the state level. The association also wants to bring in more procurement, data center and fulfillment managers from the government sector, which includes universities and school district in-plants that handle government work.

Adding Fulfillment Services

Fulfillment, in fact, was the topic of two of the conference's sessions. Dan Swisher and Jennifer Forte, of the Washington State Department of Printing, gave an excellent presentation on the flourishing fulfillment program started a few years ago there. Similarly, consultant Clint Bolte offered compelling reasons for in-plants to get involved in the fulfillment business, a new service that many commercial printers are starting to move into. (A full article on Bolte's presentation will appear in our December issue.)

The Washington Department of Printing ventured into fulfillment back in 1999, and by the spring of 2001 had established a fulfillment center with 216 different items in its inventory. Under the management of Jennifer Forte, the operation gradually added customers and increased the volume of pieces it shipped. Today it serves 27 state agencies and one school district, shipping an average of 1.5 million pieces a month, which equals about 2,000 orders.

Financially, the fulfillment operation has been a boon for the in-plant, generating $1.2 million in the past 15 months. The fulfillment center ships items like forms, brochures, videos, CDs, DVDs and signs to both individuals who order from the various agencies and to other agencies.

By letting the Department of Printing handle fulfillment, agency customers have eliminated their own warehousing costs and staff. The fulfillment center assists these customers with their printing decisions, helping them move to a print-on-demand model, thus cutting paper waste.

"We're reducing the cost to Washington state," remarked Forte.

Prison In-plants

During meals and breaks between sessions, NSPA members compared notes about their operations and discussed topics like outsourcing and competition from their states' prison industries print shops. Donna Hall, director of the Kentucky Division of Printing Services, noted in a session that her operation is transferring its offset presses to correction industries, along with some bindery gear, and moving to a color digital environment. Hall, whose division is responsible for most executive branch printing, said she plans to treat the prison in-plant like other vendors, with the same quality and turnaround requirements.

In another member presentation, Audrey Marrocco, director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Publications, detailed some of the difficulties and antiquated mindsets she inherited when she took her job, along with her plans to improve the operation. When she arrived, her department did not market its services, it had old equipment and the print and design areas did not communicate well.

"We had this incredible design vs. print mentality," she said. Design, printing and mailing were viewed as separate services, not as interwoven elements of the same job.

She started having joint meetings between the print and design staff, making everyone feel like part of a team and mobilizing them to participate in decisions that would impact the future of the operation. She has tried to get her staff to focus on the entire document production life cycle, from design and print to mail and fulfillment. She said that a third-party assessment of existing state printing and mailing operations is being conducted, with the hope that some of these functions can be consolidated.

Also, Marrocco has spearheaded a marketing effort for the in-plant, developing brochures, creating a logo and organizing an open house.

"We really want to look at running the commonwealth as a business," she said.

Vendor Voices

A number of vendors had booths at the conference, and representatives from several of them spoke at sessions:

• Heidelberg's Joerg Daehnhardt described how offset is staying competitive in an on-demand world. He detailed improvements to the equipment, special applications using new types of consumables and the advantages of process integration.

• Don Johnson of Xerox discussed automated workflows, variable data opportunities and he urged attendees to get out of the inventory business and move to a print-on-demand model.

• Heath Cajandig, who was with the University of Missouri-Columbia's in-plant for years until recently going to work for EFI, talked about the importance of digital storefronts, such as the one he helped build at MU. Such systems create PDFs from customer job files, display on-screen proofs, create electronic job tickets and transfer the files to the in-plant. A digital storefront provides a technology-oriented face for your shop, he said.

• MAN Roland's Dan Siewert discussed computer integrated manufacturing. He said most of an in-plant's money is spent in the press room, so it's important to use CIM to reduce steps and get jobs press-ready faster.

Other vendors offering sessions included Océ, NexPress, DuPont, ComDoc, Konica, Presstek and Avanti. A vendor panel, hosted by incoming NSPA President Debby Messina, of the state of Delaware, featured representatives from Heidelberg, Xerox, ComDoc and NexPress. In addition, IPG Editor Bob Neubauer gave a session that offered tips on how to market an in-plant.

After the conference ended with the annual banquet, talk turned to NGPA 2006. It is set to take place in Rochester, N.Y., next fall.