Into Print, The University of Iowa Business Services' quarterly newsletter, aims to educate, inform, and entertain its readers, with a goal of fostering positive communication between the department, its staff, and its clients.

TypeStrikes

General news
Stores takes role in toner cartridge recycling, fluorescent bulb disposal
Quality Report--Open book management: Join the fun!
Boundaries dissipate with shared staff
OK to recycle Xerox ream wrappers
Planning for fy '00 billing? Order now.
Classes, training for our customers scheduled in April
Sign me up!

Central Mail System
Character Counts: Meet Debi Shalla
Postal endorsements talk
Recycle Campus Mail envelopes!

Laundry Service
Water reclamation system reduces, reuses, recycles
Laundry maintenance crew keeps 'em covered

Materials Management
Core items: best deal around
Order correct unit of measure to receive quantity you expect
Transition to new vendor complete
Keeping track of surplus, at both ends
Stock list, prices on Web
General Stores now accepts UI procurement card for orders

Printing Department
DocuTech does online addressing
Using procurement card to buy off-campus printing, copying not allowed
Want your disks back?
Thesis copying
Software support

We are . . .

Business Services directory

  Hot off the Press

One of Eichler's recent contributions was to help establish and lead a task force in creating the College and University Mail Guide, which has now been distributed to every institution of higher education in the country.

  Stores takes role in toner cartridge recycling, fluorescent bulb disposal

Copier toner cartridges
General Stores drivers pick up about 120 toner cartridges for recycling each week. A Cedar Rapids company takes them, and "they remanufacture what they can and dispose of the rest," says Bill Burch, General Stores' delivery supervisor. Mark the used cartridges "recycle," and place them where your Stores driver drops off your orders. You may return any type of cartridge for recycling. There is no charge for the service.

Fluorescent bulbs
Stores sells fluorescent light bulbs, which contain mercury. Because it is a hazardous substance, mercury disposal is regulated by the federal government. According to a May 1999 memo to deans, directors, and department executive officers from Vice President for Finance and University Services Doug True and Vice President for Research David Skorton, "All forms of mercury are poisonous if absorbed; chronic mercury poisoning results in neurological effects; and mercury is harmful to aquatic life in very low concentrations. Under no circumstances should any waste containing mercury be disposed of in the trash, put down the drain, or placed in biohazard bags or sharps containers."

To facilitate the proper disposal of fluorescent bulbs, General Stores provides cylindrical cardboard containers in which to store used ones. "When the container is full, the customer calls for pickup," says Burch. "About once a month, when we have enough tubes, A-TEC (a Des Moines recycling company) picks them up. They count them, do the paperwork, and the department is billed." The disposal program, in place for about six years, is conducted primarily through Facilities Services' custodial staff. The hospital has its own storage and pickup site for used bulbs, but General Stores picks them up at all other buildings on campus.

"It's about 2,000 bulbs a month that we properly dispose of--24,000 a year," says Burch. The disposal program is "a win, win, win situation for everyone involved," he says, explaining that it's good for the environment because the bulbs are disposed of properly; it's good for the departments because they don't have to worry about disposal; and it's good for General Stores because it fits in easily with the regular workflow there. "This is something I'm really proud of. If you can imagine, six pallets of bulbs going to the landfill..." he says. "It's a small price to pay for being environmentally responsible."

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It has been more than two years since our first meeting. We have come a long way since then. This is one meeting that I can honestly say employees look forward to attending. I believe it gives them a good feeling to be able to participate and know that their ideas are being heard and acted upon. The thing that still amazes me is we still have a multitude of items to discuss.

Recently, we took another step forward by inviting other employees to our meetings. Just as I did with the initial group, I went through the whole process of what we are doing and why. I also gave them a quick lesson on financial statements so they would not feel lost.

At the present time, we are also in the process of starting our budgeting for the next fiscal year. Each member of the group will be involved: we know they have expertise and information that can assist us. Each of them will be informed of the budget after it is approved by central administration.

For me personally, it is a very rewarding process. I see that we have a more informed employee, one who sees value in what he or she is doing, and one who is willing to learn and to step forward with new ideas. I look forward to getting together each month to share information and ideas. It gives us all a sense of purpose and belonging to be part of a group that is trying to improve our work environment and ourselves.

Strategic planning is a must for all of us in management. I feel that if we want to do an effective job, we must enlist the involvement of our workforce. Who knows better how to do a job than those who are doing it? Open Book Management does work for those who take the time and make the effort.

• Find out as much as you can about Open Book Management ("The Great Game of Business," a book by Jack Stack, would be a good start).
• Talk to others in your organization and get their views on the concept prior to starting the process.
• Once you start, always ask for feedback.
• Realize that once you start, there is no turning back.
• Make it fun!

Vasquez, a Business Services program consultant, implemented open book management, the practice of including employees in financial planning, at General Stores. This article was first published in College Services Administration, the journal of the National Association of College Auxiliary Services. Next: "By the numbers"-teaching the basics of the department's finances.

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  Boundaries dissipate with shared staff

"We're sharing marketing, computer, administrative, and human resources staff," says Printing Department manager Lin Hartman. "It's good to have backup for everybody."

Campus Mail and General Stores' staff also share delivery duties, and Laundry will soon join them in this effort.

The system works.

"After a vacation or being sick, you're not coming back to a huge mess with piles and piles of paper on your desk," says General Stores' office manager Judy Rockafellow. "No one is going to do your job the way you do it, but at least papers keep moving when you're gone. It's nice to know there's somebody to help keep you going."

Francis Fang, senior systems analyst, has been shared for the last three years. "Shared staff for us involves maintaining Web sites for a bunch of people. Right now, I'm writing a program for Surplus to manage its sales and inventory, writing Web sites, and maintaining systems," he says.

The computer staff's workload is constantly increasing, says Fang. "In the last year-and-a-half, the number of projects has tripled, and I don't see it slowing down as more people are interested in e-commerce," he says. "As long as people are patient, sharing staff does not become overwhelming."

Computer consultant Mike Cash agrees. "It helps share the load," he says. "You're not afraid to be gone a day if you need to be, and you're not letting everybody hang if you're tied up with something."

Cash, who primarily supports Printing, assists customers in sending electronic documents and does e-forms. He says taking one step at a time is the secret to success in sharing staff. "I put out the biggest fire first," he says.

Meeting common needs is at the root of sharing staff. "Everybody's got payroll and administrative needs. We all have to live by the same rules," says Hartman. "It's definitely improved our efficiency and decreased overhead somewhat."

Rhonda Wetjen, who performs payroll duties for the departments at MBSB, has no complaints about being part of a shared staff. Like the others, she cites time management as a key to success. "Planning ahead is a big part of it," she says. "Planning around different departments' schedules helps. Learning to prioritize helps; knowing what can wait a day is a real important factor."

Marketing administrator Jenean Arnold, editor of Into Print, and her assistant, Virginia Leupold, produce a variety of printed material, maintain Web sites, and organize outreach events and staff development classes for the departments. "While marketing is a relatively new idea for college and university service units, Printing has been doing this for years," says Arnold. "We knew it was working. It made sense to include the other departments when they were consolidated into Business Services."
Virginia Leupold

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  OK to recycle Xerox ream wrappers--with corrugated waste only

  Planning for fy '00 billing? Order now.

Contact Margie Yoder, 384-3720, or Diane Bird, 384-3702, for a Copier Feature Request Sheet, or use the Web version. Complete it, and fax or mail it to us (384-3727, 130 MBSB) by April 28. We'll honor later requests, but you may run short of time for machine trials.

After you make a decision, send us a requisition by noon Friday, June 23. We'll process and send it to Purchasing in time for the deadline there. Specify that you want the funds encumbered for fy '00.

For printing orders, only the work performed as of 4:00 p.m. on June 30 will be charged in fy '00. The balance of charges for jobs in progress will be made when they are completed and closed. Place orders soon if you want all charges applied to fy '00, so they can move through the entire printing process.

State printing orders that we receive by 4 p.m. June 30 will be billed in fy '00. The charges will be based on the estimated invoice from the vendor.

  Classes, training for our customers scheduled in April

• General Stores and On-line Ordering, April 11;
• Printing Plus, April 13; and
• a tour of Laundry, April 25.

The Printing Department offers on-site assistance for those who want to use the DocuTech publishing system. Contact Tim Blake at the IMU Document Center to arrange this.

Central Mail manager Lou Eichler conducts on-site presentations that are tailored to each department's particular mailing needs. Contact him if you would like to schedule a presentation for your department.

  Sign me up!

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  Character Counts: Meet Debi Shalla

Debi works in Mail Service, where mailing payroll and billings takes up most of her time at the end of each month. She can often be found operating one of the many machines in Central Mail. Because mailing jobs can differ greatly, so can her job duties. Debi and her fellow workers send each mailing in trays that are passed from station to station, and each station performs a different task.

"Basically, we do the payroll through here, and billing. I run the Pitney-Bowes machine," she says. "I set the machine up and then the job gets sent up through trays. There are around 15,000 University employees, so a lot goes through here."

Debi has been with Central Mail since August, and her coworkers are her favorite part of the job. "It's nice that everybody can get along and is willing to help out each other if things are slow," she says. "We have the ability to go over and help out First-Class [metering USPS mail] if things get slow on our side."

Before coming to Central Mail, Debi was a production coordinator for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills at National Computer Systems. "I grew up in Iowa City and attended City High before working at NCS for 20 years," she says.

Her husband, John, works for Moore Business Forms as a production manager. They belong to a bowling league, which meets on Friday nights, and their children--Ashlee, Travis, and Trenton--have activities such as 4-H on weekends. Ashlee and Travis will be showing hogs at the Washington County Fair this year, a departure from their usual home economics activities.

Debi and her family will be building a house soon, she says, which will take up most of their summer.

Say "Hi!" to Debi the next time you are at Central Mail, and don't worry-the check is in the mail!
Virginia Leupold

  Postal endorsements talk

The endorsement is an instruction to the Postal Service about how to handle your mail if the addressee has moved or if the address on the mail piece is incorrect. The two major classes of mail, First-Class and Standard (bulk) mail, offer different treatments for an address change or correction.

The process begins with some questions. What do you want the Postal Service to do with your mail if the address is wrong or the addressee has moved: Do you want it forwarded? Do you want it returned? Do you want to pay an address correction fee? Do you want to save postage on the original mailing?

There are three general endorsements that offer you a variety of choices. They are:

Return Service Requested We use this for the majority of outgoing First-Class mail because it is the most cost-efficient endorsement and allows the mail to achieve a postage discount. The piece is returned with the reason for nondelivery attached, and no additional fees are assessed. For Standard mail the piece is returned with the reason for nondelivery attached, and the applicable First-Class postage is charged.

Forwarding Service Requested Using this is the same as applying no endorsement. The piece is forwarded for the first 12 months following a move, no fees are charged for First-Class or Standard mail, and no address correction is given. For months 13 through 18 following a move, the piece is returned with the new address attached. There is no charge for this on First-Class mail, and a weighted fee of 2.472 times the applicable First-Class rate is charged for Standard mail. After 18 months or if it is undeliverable, the piece is returned at no charge for First-Class, and the weighted fee is charged for Standard mail. No postage discounts are earned for First-Class mail that uses Forwarding Service Requested or carries no endorsement.

Address Service Requested A mail piece with this endorsement is forwarded for the first 12 months following a move, a separate notice of the new address is provided, and a 50-cent address correction fee is charged for First-Class and Standard mail. After 13 months or if the piece is undeliverable, it is returned at no charge with the new address or the reason for nondelivery attached on First-Class mail. The weighted fee is charged for Standard mail.

Two seldom-used endorsements are Change Service Requested and Temp-Return Service Requested. The first requires an additional line above the address that is recorded by the Postal Service and an address correction fee is charged for undeliverables. For the second, mail pieces are returned at no charge, and the new address is attached. The mail is forwarded if a temporary change of address is on file, no notice is sent to the mailer, and no charge is incurred.
Lou Eichler

  Recycle Campus Mail envelopes!

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  Water reclamation system reduces, reuses, recycles

The system consists of four, 5,000-gallon tanks (one for fresh hot water, two for fresh tempered water, and one for reuse water); two subfloor holding pits (for wastewater and reuse water); and a network of concentric pipes for heating and cooling the water.

Reuse water is recovered from the final rinse of a wash and mixed with a chemical which loosens soiled particles in fabric. It is used at the beginning of a new wash cycle; then a series of hot-water washes, using fresh water and detergent, begins.

The hot-water tank is the only part of the system that uses direct heat, from a natural gas fired hot-water heater. Water in this tank is heated to 170 degrees first thing each morning. It doesn't take long--about 15 minutes--because the tanks don't lose much heat overnight. The water recirculates through the heater until it is up to temperature.

Tempered water is used in rinses and "cooldowns," the process of gradually cooling linens after washing them, because, says maintenance supervisor John Connelly, "the polyester in linens is susceptible to what they call 'heat shock.' It tends to set wrinkles; it can cause shrinkage."

This water is warmed as it flows through recycling pipes that are inside the pipes carrying 170-degree wastewater. The resulting heat loss from the wastewater lowers its temperature for discharge.

Water and utility use are down by at least a third from the old plant, says Connelly. While some of this can be attributed to new equipment, in this case, it's clear that the system works.

  Laundry maintenance crew keeps 'em covered

The crew's responsibilities have grown. The UI Power Plant had provided compressed air and steam before Laundry moved to its new location. Now, "We furnish our own," says supervisor John Connelly. "This mechanical room alone [for the water, steam, and compressed air systems] has added quite a bit to the maintenance."

Along with Connelly, Terry Roberts and Richard Bollinger work on preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, and general upkeep of the building and equipment. "Basically, we're on call to take care of problems as they arise," says Connelly. There are other projects as well; currently they are developing a list of critical parts to keep on hand to avoid shutdowns during working hours.

The crew works in overlapping shifts, beginning with Connelly getting things up and running so that laundering can begin, and ending with Bollinger working primarily on maintenance that includes greasing bearings, checking belt tensions, cleaning electrical boxes, and entering data in the computerized maintenance program. "There is a certain amount of preventive maintenance that can be done while we're running, but most of it needs to be done after the plant is shut down," says Connelly.

It takes a broad base of knowledge to do the job. "You need to know basic electrical, plumbing, and pneumatic principles, with each machine having its own particular characteristics," Connelly says. "This knowledge of the machines helps in diagnostics and repair. You have to know your equipment."

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  Core items: best deal around

Each classification has a different price schedule. Some are discounts from list price, some are additions to cost. Check MIGS or our new online Web price listing (see below) for current costs to UI departments.

Because the core items are offered at the best prices, it is to your advantage to purchase them from General Stores/Corporate Express. Here are a few items that are on the core list.

  Order correct unit of measure to receive quantity you expect

The description area of the catalog may include such information as how many items are included in the unit of measure or how many items are in a carton or box. If you have questions or want to order a catalog, please call us.
Gary Anderson

  Transition to new vendor complete

Now that we are past the initial challenges associated with changing vendors and stock numbers, the new contract is operating with few problems. We expect even more improvements: Corporate Express will be moving into a new, state-of-the-art distribution warehouse, where a computerized system will identify most errors before orders leave the facility. We'll provide more information as this program develops.

General Stores and Corporate Express requisition forms are available on the Web at www.uiowa.edu/~eforms/gs/gs.htm.

  Keeping track of surplus, at both ends

At your end, here's what you can do to make sure the items you send to Surplus are tracked correctly and any departmental money due from a sale is properly returned.

• Obtain and complete a Surplus Removal Form from Property Management, 335-0075. Obtain an authorized signature on it-Surplus cannot remove items without one. Include a valid MFK number if your department expects to receive money for the items.
• Send the completed form to Property Management, 734 JB.
• Clearly mark the items to be picked up or have someone available to point them out so that only those items destined for Surplus are removed. Include all cables, documentation, and software with electronic equipment in order to get the most money for it.

  Stock list, prices on Web

The searchable, frames-formatted database is best used with Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator, versions 4.0 and above. Access to the site is restricted to computers with a University of Iowa address. Contact Gary Anderson if you have questions, comments, or suggestions.

  General Stores now accepts UI procurement card for orders

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  DocuTech does online addressing

"Address labels are not stuck on or sprayed on to the document. We take address data files and print the addresses as we are printing the document," says Tim Blake, information specialist at the IMU Document Center. "Our only limitation is we can't take individual pieces of paper after a document is printed and print the addresses on them."

Customers need to provide the original document either as hard copy or as an electronic file, let the document center know they need addresses, and give the center a data source file with all the addresses in it. The system uses the data source file to create a "mail merge" document, which the DocuTech uses to print the addresses, according to Blake.

"The only extra step the customer needs to do is provide us with a data source file," Blake says. "Customers can call up Personnel or ITS to get a data source file, and the file will be forwarded to me."Customers may also use a data source file created on their own computers. The most common programs the center works with are Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and Macintosh FoxPro. "The source doesn't matter as long as we can access the data," Blake says.

For the fastest and most economical service, customers should put the addresses in building order for campus deliveries or zip code order for off-campus deliveries.

The document centers can help customers get started with their orders, says Blake. "Tell us what kind of mailing it is; we can help with how to design the document. For example, some documents don't need to be folded or put in an envelope."

Before preparing documents for a bulk mailing, customers need to be aware of the procedures involved in the mailing. "For all documents, there are standard mailing requirements," Blake says. "The address must be clearly seen, there must be a return address, and customers need a permit approval for bulk mail." Document Services cannot grant permission to use bulk mail permits; this is done by Central Mail.

"We can deliver directly to Mail Service," says Marge Kline, manager of Document Services. "We can also provide customers with a proof to examine before the document is mailed out."

Blake assists customers with questions about the DocuTech and online addressing, and he trains customers on how to use the DocuTech system. "He provides technical support for those using the system, from drivers to software programs and compatibility," Kline says. "If Tim can't talk the customer through it over the phone, he will go help out in person, at no charge." Call Blake or Kline for more information.

  Using procurement card to buy off-campus printing, copying not allowed

The Accounts Payable guidelines are clear about this:

"The official printing and copying purchaser for the University of Iowa is the Printing Department. This is mandated by law (Chapter 5 of the Iowa Code, Administrative Rules, Printing Division, Department of General Services, of the State of Iowa); and by the Operations Manual for the University of Iowa. All purchasing of printing, copying or related products must be routed through, and purchased by the University of Iowa's Printing Department."

-March 2000 Dollars and Sense: UI Accounts Payable and Travel online newsletter.

The Printing Department is familiar--and all too experienced--with producing orders on tight schedules. Its responsibility is to meet your printing and copying needs, regardless of their complexities and due dates.

The best way to avoid a rushed order is to plan ahead, but even under less-than-ideal circumstances, the department is always ready to handle your printing and copying orders. Contact one of our customer service representatives for more information.

  Want your disks back?

Thesis copying: 4 cents per page

  Software we support

The Printing Department supports the current versions of the following software programs and generally one version older than the current one. The list is updated as the software is updated.

Current	Previous
Pagemaker 6.52	6.0*
Freehand 8.0	7.0*
Illustrator 8.01	7.x*
Photoshop 5.5	5.0
Word 2000 (PC)*	'97 (PC)*
Word '98 (Mac)*	none
Quark 4.03*	3.32*
Powerpoint 2000 (PC)*	'97 (PC)*
Powerpoint '98 (Mac)*	none

*Call before using these programs to work on Printing Department orders.

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We are . . .