Lubbock

It's been a very active Autumn for in-plants. After all the September in-plant gatherings, like the ones at PRINT 13 and then the SUPDMC conference, October brought even more meetings for managers.

When University Printing Services at Texas Tech University made the decision to step beyond two-color production and into high-quality offset printing a few years ago, the Lubbock-based in-plant  chose a six-color ROLAND 300 perfector press with aqueous coating, from manroland. As word spread, more work flowed in and the in-plant pushed that press to its limits. Now, nearly six years and 48 million impressions later, Printing Services is preparing to add a second ROLAND 300.

I WAS proofreading this issue, just getting to the end of John Sarantakos’ article on reporting to upper management, when I saw it. It was perfect. John had hit upon what is essentially the theme of this entire issue: “The best strategy is to become indispensable.”

Perhaps because it’s so large, Texas is the only state that has its own in-plant association. Called the Texas Association of College and University Printers (TACUP), the in-plant group has been meeting for 30 years. Earlier this month, managers from Lubbock to Brownsville and everywhere in between converged on the University of North Texas (UNT) for three days of networking, educational sessions and plant tours. Host Jimmy Friend modeled the conference’s theme on the reality show “Survivor,” splitting attendees into two tribes, the Inkadinkas and the Paperwampus. Members fielded questions throughout the event, getting points for correct answers (and humiliation for wrong ones: RGB

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