The Little Things

When you're the only guy in the print shop, everything's your fault. So if the in-plant isn't pulling it's weight, it's your job on the line.

"Over the years, watching so many shops go out of business, I've looked for different avenues to take [to ensure the shop's survival]," says Larry Clements, director of printing at Redlands Community College and the shop's only full-timer.

The solo operation is especially tough because the El Reno, Okla., school won't let Clements charge more for printing than the cost of the materials. With a profit margin thinned out to a big fat zero, Clements did what anyone might when staring down a goose egg.

He asked for money.

"I knew of a private foundation in the area, and I wrote a grant for $9,000," he says. Clements didn't expect much—maybe a piece of the request, tops. But to his surprise, the grant was approved and the shop was nine grand in the black.

The printing department's bread and butter was black-and-white copying, and that was doing just fine. So Clements used the money to make the in-plant an indispensable part of the campus scene. He invested most of the cash in a digital camera and a laptop computer.

"I've had some experience with photography in the past. I took on photography here to help myself out in the print shop," he says. Now the in-plant manager is also a photographer-for-hire, and the college eats it up.

"Having pictures on printed material is very important to the administration," Clements says.

But he doesn't stop at photography. Clements has added dozens of extras to the list of services provided to make sure the in-plant is cemented into place. There's CD burning, paper shredding and copier management. The shop recently picked up a heat transfer press and an ink-jet system to handle mouse pad and T-shirt printing (always a hit with the kids), and Clements is in the process of transforming part of the facility into an on-campus supplies store.

And if funds look like they're dwindling, Clements has always got that ace up his sleeve.

"Just recently—six months ago—I wrote another grant for a new laptop and a new digital camera."

And yes, that one was approved, too.

—by Mike Llewellyn