Mission Com-Plate

50 YEARS ago, when the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate sought to raise funds to build a shrine, the beneficent Catholic organization relied on a priest to hand-write and mail letters soliciting donations. A one-man in-house printing and direct-mail operation, Father Edwin Guild was instrumental in the creation of Our Lady of the Snows, among North America's largest outdoor shrines—while incidentally founding what would become a fully staffed, full-service in-plant facility.

Today, the Missionary Oblates count on the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate (MAMI) for direct-mail fund-raising, as well as for the creation and dissemination of educational, spiritual and other faith-based materials. MAMI employs 98 people who handle everything from concept to delivery, including writing, design, photography, prepress, printing, finishing, mailing and storage.

"We mail about 20 million direct-mail packages a year [to established and prospective supporters], with each package containing up to 10 components," reports MAMI Director of Operations Bill Undertajlo. Typical package components are a variety of letters and response forms, as well as greeting cards to commemorate holidays and holy days and to send birthday and get-well wishes to benefactors.

Located across the street from Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Ill., (near St. Louis), the in-plant also produces printed products for the shrine, which attracts a million visitors a year and features a restaurant, hotel, gift shop, visitors' and conference center, and even a retirement community.

The shop evolved slowly over the years. Undertajlo reports that Fr. Guild, who passed away in 1995, remained active in the association until the 1980s. During that time, MAMI traded up to movable type, initially purchasing a Multilith press, and has since continued to expand its capabilities. The Oblates began bringing in the laity, and the in-plant is now staffed completely by lay people.

Large Offset Operation

The operation currently depends on a five-color, 40˝ Komori press for the bulk of its jobs. The shop runs a single shift with three press operators.

"About 95 percent of our work is offset because our volumes are so large," Undertajlo explains. Runs average 500,000 and typically range from 200,000 up to a million impressions.

A Ricoh C900 digital color printer handles the in-plant's short-run needs, such as for some response (thank-you) mailings.

"We do see room for digital printing growth, but in my estimation, digital hasn't reached the point at which it is profitable for our long runs," Undertajlo contends.

Undertajlo joined MAMI about three years ago, bringing with him a background in commercial printing.

"I expected that working in this environment would be a piece of cake. I thought that, when you control your own destiny, so to speak, there wouldn't be deadline and scheduling issues, but then I realized that we had the same problems as a commercial shop," he laughs.

During Undertajlo's tenure, the in-plant has taken on more and more of the Oblates' workload.

"The in-plant used to buy out a lot, but we now do the vast majority of our printing in house," he states, noting that the shop still outsources foil stamping, catalog printing and one direct mail package. Even most of the greeting cards, which are particularly important package components, are now generated on site.

"Approximately 80 percent are produced in-house now, compared to less than 5 percent three years ago," Undertajlo estimates, "which has resulted in tremendous savings." MAMI uses a database to track each benefactor's card preferences.

CTP Boosts Print Quality

Print quality received a particularly big boost when the shop went computer-to-plate about a year ago. Converting to a CTP system required a lot of research, Undertajlo says, so the transition took about six years.

"Since we're a non-profit and in the business of raising funds, we're very money conscious," he notes. "We had to prove that the investment would return."

But when Undertajlo took the reins of the operation, he knew the time was right.

"The price of equipment has come down, and CTP is now a proven technology," he observes. To seal the deal, he worked with Director of Finance Joe Pytlinski to put together a proposal that would—and did—pass muster with management. He also acknowledges Production Supervisor Billy Kauling and Prepress Operator Dwight Cooke as key to the in-plant's CTP success.

MAMI installed a Fuji Javelin PlateRite 8300E with a TrueFlow front end, along with an Epson 9880 ink-jet proofer. The shop has already reaped significant rewards.

"We've saved $20,000 in supplies in the first year," Undertajlo reports. "Quality and efficiency are up. Makereadies have gone from an hour and a half to half an hour, and registration problems have gone away.

"Fuji has been great," he continues. "We have a good salesman who helped get us up and running. Going CTP was the best thing we ever did. We anticipated a return on investment (ROI) of five to seven years, and we'll beat that easily."

Refurbishing the Pressroom

Before installing the CTP system, Undertajlo also called for a pressroom overhaul.

"We took the Komori, which was six or seven years old at the time, stripped it down, dry iced it and cleaned off years of ink," he recalls. "Then Press Supervisor Bob Braun—who is a great mechanic—went over the press and practically re-built it." The whole process took about two weeks of press time, including one week in which the press was shut down completely.

Now that the press is better maintained, it will last longer, Undertajlo asserts, which more than justifies the time and effort spent on the rehab. One of the shop's press operators has received master pressman certification, and the Komori boasts commercial-quality status.

As a result, Undertajlo contends, "we're now even getting work from other Oblate organizations that wouldn't have dealt with us previously, but are now choosing us over commercial printers.

"The Oblates' Chief Communications Officer Stephen Cooke, who works out of Washington, D.C., has touted our good efforts and good work," he relates. The Missionary Oblates, which have approximately 400 priests in mission in the United States and more than 4,000 worldwide, are a large organization with numerous branches.

In 2009, the in-plant earned a National Catholic Development Conference (NCDC) Lumen Award, which acknowledges "excellence in the ministry of fund-raising." Undertajlo certainly appreciates praise for the in-plant, but MAMI staff members also find great satisfaction simply in the end result of their work.

"We are reminded often by visits from missionary Oblate priests how the donations we receive are put to good use, in missions throughout the world and right here in the U.S.A.," he states. "We are inspired to do the best we possibly can. It's a good feeling to know your hard work is helping a good cause."IPG