In-plant Profiles

DON’T CONFUSE Kerry Mehle with a “professional student,” a person who milks college with watered-down academic effort year after year, using education as an excuse to avoid the real world and real work. A former skilled student turned consummate print professional at Moorpark College, Mehle gives maximum effort, makes no excuses and produces excellent work. Mehle is graphic communications technician for the Moorpark, Calif.-based community college. A one-man production band, he executes the gamut of responsibilities—from customer service, estimating and billing, to running film, plates, press and bindery equipment, and even job delivery—handily and happily. “I like to be involved in the

IF YOU want to avoid talk of outsourcing by your parent company, get a few of your fellow departments on your side. Scott Thompson, supervisor of Printing Services for Brookdale Community College, in Lincroft, N.J., says that his in-plant works closely with the marketing department, which has led to strong support. “We have a great relationship with them,” he reports. “They’re giving us a lot of color work, so we now have a new wide-format color printer that prints 44? by up to 150 feet. The cost of the printer is less than half the cost of us sending the jobs outside, so

THE STATE of Washington’s King County Library System is reportedly the second busiest library in the nation. As the county continues to grow, the library system is being called upon to expand its collection and to provide more resources for its 43 community libraries. J. Tarner manages the five-employee graphics department in Issaquah, Wash., part of the public relations team for the library system. The team develops concepts, creates graphic design and manages print production for a range of promotional and program support materials. The group had been using a two-color A.B.Dick duplicator and Digital PlateMaster (DPM), as well as two Canon image

THE LEANDER (Texas) Independent School District has been growing continually for more than a decade, going from six campuses in the mid-1990s to 30 campuses for the current school year—and there’s still more to come. “We’re opening two elementary schools and a high school this summer,” says Jennifer Espinoza, the district’s manager of document production services. Volume has grown from 35 to 47 million impressions over the past three years. What’s even more amazing than the volume is the number of orders. “We don’t have lots of long jobs or packets that are constantly printing,” says Espinoza. “We take any order of

IN SOME people’s minds, “in-plant” equals “print shop.” Dan Adams, duplicating assistant at Chippewa Valley Technical College, in Eau Claire, Wis., views his job more broadly: To provide clients with whatever they want. “Five years ago we started taking on other responsibilities,” says Adams. The mail room was the first acquisition. The in-plant then took on commercial work, mostly from non-profits. The help desk for the IT department was outsourced, so Adams became first in line to repair the copiers. When the bookstore was outsourced, the in-plant started selling envelopes and other paper items. The shop now processes the student evaluations of

The State of Ohio Printing and Mail Services held a ribbon cutting ceremony last month to officially open its new 9,000-square-foot printing center. The new center is in the heart of downtown Columbus, near the majority of state agency customers. In addition to moving into this new facility, Ohio’s printing operation recently added two new Heidelberg Printmaster QM-46 presses, a Konica Minolta C6500 color imaging system, a Halm Super Jet Plus XL envelope press and two additional Canon imageRUNNER Pro 7110s. “We are making great strides in centralizing print production for Ohio’s government,” says Joe Tucker, state printing administrator, “and in doing so

SPEND SOME time talking with Jimmy Robinson and you’ll quickly learn a few things about him. He’s a proud Navy veteran who’s fond of college football, loyal to his friends and proud of his Alabama upbringing. Knowing all this, you might be surprised to learn that Robinson, director of the University of West Alabama’s Department of Printing for more than two decades, actually hails from New Eagle, Pa. That’s where he spent his first five years, until that fateful day in 1965 when the printing company where his father worked—McGregor Printing—pulled up stakes and moved south to York, Ala. It was a move that

JOHN SARANTAKOS is not shy about revealing his intentions. “I want to print everything,” declares Sarantakos, administrator of Printing & Mailing Services at the University of Oklahoma (OU). “Obviously that’s not feasible, but that’s always been the goal.” To bring his award-winning in-plant closer to this lofty ambition, he and his staff recently made a move virtually unheard of in the in-plant sector. They installed an eight-color sheetfed offset press in their Norman, Okla., facility. Adding the rebuilt 28x40? Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 perfector had become something of a necessity, Sarantakos contends, “because of the vast amount of four-color work we’re doing—and it’s almost

Customers and staff of The University of Texas at Austin Printing Services gathered recently to hear a powerful and entertaining presentation on sustainable business practices given by Derek Smith, president of Derek Smith and Associates. Smith’s firm specializes in highlighting the business opportunities presented by the sustainable environmental market, stressing that “green is good for business.” Approximately 25 university print buyers attended the event, co-hosted with Clampitt Paper Co. Smith challenged them to consider the entire eco chain rather than just recycled paper content when producing their documents. UT staff suggested the idea of a sustainability event after hearing the topic discussed during

THE UNIVERSITY of Vermont Print & Mail Center has gone underground. More specifically, the 22-employee in-plant opened a retail center on the lower level of the new Dudley Davis Student Center last fall. Called Underground Copy, it has been slowly building business, with gross monthly revenues averaging more than $10,000. “The students like the convenience; they like the array of service offerings,” says Rick Carlson, director of the UVM Print & Mail Center, in Burlington, Vt. Those offerings include design workstations, self-service copiers, photo kiosks, wide-format printing, tape and coil binding, mailbox rental and, of course, mailing and shipping. “At least 50 percent of