A More Intimate ACUP

IT WAS a reunion well worth waiting for. Two years after its last conference in Florida, the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP) finally met again in April in Charlotte, N.C., bringing old friends and newcomers together for an enjoyable and enlightening event.

With fewer than half the attendees of a traditional ACUP, this year's event was more subdued than usual. But that smaller head count also made it much easier for managers to get to know each other. A significant number of ACUP newcomers joined the group this year, helping to dispel any notion that ACUP's relevance may be fading.

Quite to the contrary, the issues brought up by attendees reflected a greater need than ever for peer discussion groups like ACUP. And this year's conference gave ample opportunity for attendees to discuss those issues and get advice. Several sessions were geared toward group discussion, letting managers bring up problems and listen to suggestions from their peers.

Despite the smaller turnout (about 45), ACUP still drew three international attendees (from Australia, New Zealand and Scotland), as well as managers from all over the U.S., from Oregon to New Hampshire, with a large contingent from Texas.

Host and ACUP President Richard Griffin, director of Campus Printing at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), put together an excellent program. It started with a pool-side reception on Sunday evening, which also drew several retired and current managers from the area who were not able to attend the full event. The networking continued on a dinner boat cruise the following night. Trips to the Cadmus Whitehall Group's Printing Facility and the Charlotte Motor Speedway offered attendees an even broader view of the Charlotte area.

The Power of Thought

The conference got started with a keynote presentation by Dr. Tony Zeiss, president of Central Piedmont Community College, who cautioned that negative thoughts will influence your outlook on life.

"We really do become what we think," he said. "Our thoughts determine our beliefs. So be careful what you think about. In the end, if you're pessimistic, are you helping yourself?

"We're in control of the way we see life," he continued. "If you don't like the facts, change your attitude about them."

Look at them from someone else's point of view, he suggested.

Zeiss went on to discuss how to attract and retain peak performers, by providing relevant training, motivation and a supportive environment. Employees are motivated by recognition, a sense of significance and personal growth, and fair compensation tied to achievement and productivity.

He encouraged managers to improve their operations by identifying their weaknesses. He suggested they ask themselves, "How would I compete with myself?"

Roundtable Discussions

ACUP included two user roundtable discussions. The first was on online ordering systems, and featured a panel of six managers describing the systems they use. These included EFI's Digital Storefront, MyOrderDesk from PagePath, Printable Technologies' Marcom Central, and NowPrint from NowDocs. Two shops talked about the benefits and perils of their home-grown systems.

Joyce Mahaffey, of Appalachian State University, noted that, to keep expenses down, she had one of her employees create the shop's online ordering system, which is now used for all orders. The downside is that only one person truly understands the system.

The University of Tennessee's Gary Williford said that setting up and modifying the 130 or so templates on his shop's system was time consuming, so managers should allow ample time for this when starting up. Cathy Chambers, of Virginia Tech, added that she has budgeted money for template setup costs.

Issues that came up from the audience included the PDF converting capabilities of systems, whether adding an online ordering system might help a shop reduce its head count (one manager said it did) and the security of internal data when systems are hosted on vendors' servers.

Another roundtable featured eight managers talking about the pros and cons of the digital printing equipment they use, which included not only Xerox iGen4, Kodak NexPress and HP Indigo presses, but machines from Canon and Konica Minolta as well. The consensus was that, despite some startup issues, the move to digital printing has been a wise one.

Xerox iGen4 user Rodney Brown, from the University of Delaware, noted that his shop can move work easily from its Komori press to the iGen4. He touted the fact that the iGen4 creates less waste than an offset press, and has allowed his shop to produce variable data pieces for Admissions. He had some samples on hand.

Jim Lyons, from SUNY-New Paltz, said that after upgrading to a Xerox 700, his shop now prints about 60,000 color impressions a month. He uses the 700 for scan-to-file jobs, and noted that "you can scan as you're doing production."

In-plants cited different reasons for picking the printers they did. Most noted that they picked products that had good vendor support in their areas. Clem Deussen, of the University Of North Texas, said when his in-plant added its first HP Indigo in 2001 (it now has two), it tested all the major digital presses, and picked the one that could hit UNT's colors most accurately.

Most noted a drastic increase in color printing since they added their equipment. Jimmy Robinson, from the University of West Alabama, said his shop's Xerox DocuColor 5000 is selling itself; people see the quality of its printing and want more. He expects to double his color volume by next year.

Peer Review

Long-time ACUP attendee Andrew Scott, from Scotland's Glasgow Caledonian University, led an informal peer review session. Managers took turns telling the group about issues they are facing, then listened to suggestions.

One manager noted an upcoming change in administration at her school. Others in the room suggested that she collect accurate production figures in advance, and be able to show that the in-plant is returning money to the school.

Some brought up challenges to print that they're facing from departments that want to switch to e-mail or digital course materials. Joe Geffre, of the Pennsylvania College of Technology, said that after some of these e-mail projects failed to bring in results, his shop was able to step in and offer printed pieces with personalized URLs, to combine print and Web marketing.

Robert Mascarenhas, from the University of Technology, in Sydney, noted that when course materials have been put online in the past, students ended up printing them, either on school printers—at a cost of 11 cents per single-sided print—or at home, with their parents footing the bill. By communicating these costs to students through the faculty, Mascarenhas' department convinced many of them to order their course materials through Printing Services. They received bound materials at a lower cost and with less waste.

This theme of print vs. e-mail was brought up again in a presentation by Bucknell University's Lisa Hoover. She has been trying to counter the perception that e-mail is free and better for the environment than print by using facts and statistics proving the value and sustainability of print. After studying the response rates from print and e-mail fund-raising campaigns at Bucknell, she showed that printed pieces generated more returns than e-mail solicitations.

Using Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media may be challenging print in some ways, but it can also be used by in-plants to increase their business. This was the theme of a session by Consultant Ray Chambers and his wife Cathy Chambers, of Virginia Tech. They noted that managers can use their connections on LinkedIn to find the marketing person in a department they want do business with and ask for an introduction. They can use Facebook to post news about the in-plant or even announce discounts and promotions.

They pointed to the University of New Hampshire's in-plant, which posts several times a day and has a large number of fans. UNH Manager Paul Roberts said he has one staff person in charge of updating the shop's Facebook account, and that person stockpiles interesting information, then picks items to post a couple of times a day.

Cathy Chambers observed that Facebook and Twitter are essentially an extension of the "word-of-mouth" marketing that many in-plants are limited to. Also, with all the red tape in-plants have to go through to change their official university Web sites, a Facebook fan page offers a faster way to get out news.

In his "State of the Industry" presentation, IPG Editor Bob Neubauer revealed the results from a major in-plant industry survey, and discussed the reasons behind several recent shop closures. Neubauer noted an increase in in-plants that charge back for services and compare their costs with outside providers, and said that more university in-plants are using good business practices like these than in-plants from other sectors.

On the last day of the conference, before the field trips, Tom Tozier, then with University of Colorado-Boulder (now president/consultant with TNT Sustainable Business Solutions), talked about sustainability. He traced the evolution of the environmental movement, noting that most universities now have sustainability programs, and in-plants would be wise to participate in them. He said that when he needed to replace printing equipment at UC-Boulder, he looked for machines that used less energy and were made from recyclable steel components.

Tozier encouraged managers to join their schools' sustainability committees, so that when others at the school start talking about printing, the in-plant is there to change the conversation from "stop printing" to "print smarter." His session included a spirited discussion of the merits of FSC certification vs. using FSC-certified papers. One manager said his in-plant is dropping its FSC certification to save the expense. He said his shop only got four jobs because it was FSC certified. IPG