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
UI recycled paper use less than required by law
Teams work on consolidation
Register now for General Stores, Printing classes
Student jobs at Mail and Stores

Central Mail System
Clean up your act--Better yet, your mailing list

Laundry Service
It'll all come out in the (tunnel) wash
Lost items: what to do to find them
The teamwork cycle: your part

Materials Management
Credit, exchanges possible with General Stores' return policy
Order Kleenex by the box
Phone book orders being taken
Staff development class a success
Surplus Stores hours, address
Tips for smooth ordering, billing

Printing Department
Printing Department increases service to customers with new color copier, coil binding
Allow time for bidding process for orders not printed in house
Send sample, old job number with new order
Character Counts: meet Janet Wieland

We are . . .

Business Services directory

Vendors have been instructed to contact departments to set up a mechanism for obtaining the meter readings for their billing purposes. Please review all invoices prior to payment to ensure accuracy. Contact Margie Yoder or Janet Wieland at the Printing Department for more information.

Of all the copy paper used at The University of Iowa, about 30 to 35 percent is recycled. This is well below the 75 percent level of recycled paper use the law requires. The University's overall use of recycled paper is higher--in the mid-60 percent range--says UI purchasing agent John Klopp. This percentage includes all paper the University purchases, such as paper towels, envelopes, the large rolls used for web presses, and so forth, but it is still below the 75 percent requirement. In two years, that requirement jumps to 90 percent.

The bottom line: the University must increase its use of recycled paper. The logical way to begin: increase the use of recycled copy paper.

A contract for purchasing recycled copy paper recently was put into effect; it was developed in part to increase the use of recycled copy paper at the Regent institutions. (See the last issue of Into Print.)

Klopp says he would like to see the University's recycled copy paper use at 100 percent. He says that level of useage is attainable at the UI "with the assistance of everyone on campus." However, a small percentage of paper, archival paper in particular, will necessarily remain virgin stock, he says.

There has been some reluctance to use recycled copy paper, stemming largely from the preconceived notions that people hold about it. Notions that recycled paper doesn't work, causes copier jams, and creates too much dust are based on experience with early generations of recycled paper. Such claims were justified at the time. When recycled paper was first developed, says Klopp, "It didn't work well."

Production has improved over the years, and these early preconceptions were disproven in a study conducted by the team that developed the recycled copy paper contract. Departments that were high-volume users of copy paper tested various brands of recycled paper in a series of blind tests. The paper purchased under the contract is the one that rated highest in these tests. "The results of the study were customer driven," says Klopp. "They were the ones who told us which brands worked well for them."

A lack of brightness of recycled paper was also a factor that has since been corrected. "In most cases, it's as bright as, if not brighter than, virgin stock," says Klopp.

There are plenty of other reasons for using recycled copy paper, if law alone is not enough. From a global perspective, it's about saving: trees, landfill space, chemicals, energy, and water. Using recycled paper reduces the number of trees that are cut and reduces landfill by removing the paper from the waste stream, says Klopp. "It's incumbent on us to be good stewards, to put in place initiatives that may be beneficial for us, but certainly will be beneficial for generations that come after us," he says.

Other savings are found in the processing, says Carol Casey, UI waste management coordinator. Producing recycled paper uses fewer chemicals and requires less energy than producing virgin paper, and recycling plants often recirculate water, she says. Increasing the University's overall use of recycled paper also addresses another legislative requirement--by 2000, municipalities and agencies must reduce landfill waste by 50 percent of that measured in 1988. In fact, the mandate to increase recycled paper use came about as a way to help meet this goal.

Yet another reason to use recycled paper, says Casey, is because "it doesn't help to recycle things if we don't use them. Buying recycled paper is closing the loop."

"It only makes good sense to do it," says Klopp. "It doesn't make good sense not to do it."

A committee that includes Klopp and management staff from Business Services is working on promoting the increased use of recycled copy paper at the UI. It is developing communications material and working on setting a target date after which the University will purchase recycled copy paper exclusively.

The administrative team is looking at how to combine administrative duties of the departments within the Consolidated Business Services Building, and the delivery team is working on reducing the number of campus deliveries by Business Services. "Instead of a printing truck, a stores truck, and a mail truck going to Jessup Hall, we can put everything on one truck to deliver it," says Lee Vasquez, of Business Services.

There already have been changes: some smaller items ordered from General Stores are now delivered through Campus Mail, and General Stores delivers some of Campus Mail's large parcels to the post office. Other changes will be implemented after General Stores moves to CBSB.

This is in order to cut out duplication, says Vasquez "We are also looking at how things can be done better, more efficiently. It's more of a restructuring of processes. It will be a lot better system, not only for people in the building, but also for our customers."

Introduction to General Stores and On-line Ordering: Information about General Stores and its ordering system. February 10.

Last Things First! Topics affecting output that those who do electronic publishing should consider at the beginning stages of document production. January 27.

Electronic Publishing, Basically: Basic information and helpful tips for Printing Department customers who have begun to use electronic publishing. January 29.

Font Rules: Font problems and how to avoid them. February 10.

Graphic Images: Tips for reducing output costs and problems. March 10.

For more information, contact Gary Anderson about General Stores classes or Jenean Arnold about Printing Department classes. Register electronically via the Staff Development web site.

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Your mail will be delivered to the address on the label. If you neglected your duty to send notification of your new address, the people at the old location will probably correct the label, and Campus Mail will deliver the readdressed material to your new office. You are happy because you got your stuff, the sender is happy that you got your stuff, but everyone else is tired of doing your work for you.

Address changes for US Mail are made on USPS Form 3576, which you must sign. One of these postcards should be sent to each magazine or periodical you receive as well as to professional organizations to which you belong. The cards are available at all United States post offices and through Central Mail. The Postal Service will not process an address change for a University address.

Checking your list
Now for a hard look at the mailing list you maintain in your office computer. Do you update those addresses when you receive an address correction from the USPS? Does your mailing list ever get checked for correctness? Do not rely on your addressee to send you an address correction, especially if he or she did not solicit the mailing. You stand to lose the funds expended to create your mail and the postage you paid to send it, and you forge the opportunity to alienate your addressee.

The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 serves to protect the rights of students and their families with regard to records kept by the University. Are you in compliance with FERPA regulations with regard to student addresses? If not, this could be a serious problem! Before you decide to place the name of any past or present student in your address file, check University policy on such matters. A copy of the policy is available at the Office of the Registrar.

Mailing list etiquette
An up-to-date mailing list saves time and money. Few of us can find the time to properly maintain a mailing list, but we should consider the consequences when an address is out of date. Your mail will not arrive when you wish, if it arrives at all. Your addressee may think you less than intelligent for not knowing his or her correct address. You may be charged additional fees for address corrections. The Postal Service or the organization carrying your mail will incur additional costs and, ultimately, you will pay.

Who knows?
The University has a master list of all staff and student current addresses. This information is housed in the Name and Address Management System (NAMS) data base. Such offices as the registrar's, admissions, payroll, and human resources keep the address file up-to-date through their various data entry systems. One of the most common places to check for address correctness is UDIR, accessible through ITS Data Processing. ITS Data Processing understands the importance of keeping addresses current and may be able to help you keep your list up-to-date if it covers either office addresses of staff or home addresses of students or staff. You win, coming and going, when address changes are handled properly!
Lou Eichler

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It's hard to envision laundering 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of dirty laundry daily. Picture a thirty-foot long, eight-foot high, six-foot wide metal monster that munches 100 pounds of dirty laundry in one bite. Three-and-a-half minutes later, it swallows another hundred pounds. This monster has an enormous appetite and will gulp 100-pound bites as long as you wish. Thirty-five minutes after ingesting the first bite, the metal monster (a.k.a. Contra-flo Tunnel Washer) spits out that first bite as a four-foot wide, six-inch thick "pancake" of hygienically clean linen. Three-and-a-half minutes later, the second bite is done, and so on. Approximately 17 pancakes (1,700 pounds of laundry) emerge from one tunnel washer every hour.

A typical home washing machine can clean 18 pounds of laundry every 35 minutes. That means 94 home washers running simultaneously could clean the same amount of linen as the tunnel washer cleans in one hour.

Think of the space it would take: an entire house would be filled with washing machines. Think of the effort of loading and unloading that many machines! Who would want to? Ninety-four washers would be running at once, just to clean sheets, pillowcases, and towels. Then there's plumbing, electricity, gas, hot water, and detergent to consider. What a nightmare!

Automation and high-volume laundry processing go hand in hand. Our two metal monsters (Contra-flo Tunnel Washers) are the answer to a laundry manager's prayer.
Jo Anne Worley

To retrieve something you have lost, call the Laundry's main office at 335-5045. Be prepared to give us the following information: your name, campus address, and campus phone number; a brief description of the lost item; the type of linen it was left in; and the approximate date the item was missing.
Jo Anne Worley

* Bag items to be laundered. Mark and securely attach a Laundry checklist, with your department's name and location, to the bag.

* Have the soiled linens at the pickup location before the scheduled pickup time.

* Call if there will be a change in the usual routine.

* Call when you have linens requiring special care.

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To return General Stores products, attach a copy of the General Stores invoice to the item being returned. Make a note on the invoice to "pick up for credit."

To return items purchased from BT Office Products, attach a copy of the BT packing slip. When the next General Stores delivery is made to your office, notify the driver that there is a pick-up, and he or she will return the item to General Stores. If you do not expect a General Stores delivery, fax a note to us at 335-6176 and request a pick-up.

For exchanges or damaged products, please follow the above procedures and write on the invoice whether the item is for exchange or is damaged. Credit will be issued for the same unit in which the item was originally sold to you. Goods must be in saleable condition and have valid expiration dates.

We will continue to pick up used toner cartridges for recycling. Attach a note identifying the cartridge as used and have it available for the driver.

To order the directories, complete a General Stores requisition for phone books only. List the size and number of books needed and the delivery address. An account number is not necessary, as these phone books are distributed at no charge.

Please recycle old phone books by placing them in the boxes provided next to office recycle containers.

This was an ideal opportunity to demonstrate our on-line ordering programs, SIGS and MIGS; to share information with our customers; and to respond to their questions and concerns. We look forward to the next class, scheduled for February 10, and encourage any interested customers to sign up. Information about registration is available from the Office of Staff Development and Training. Refer to the class titled "Introduction to General Stores and On-Line Ordering."
Gary Anderson

If you have any questions about ordering procedures or would like to sign up for SIGS or MIGS and gain access to on-line ordering, contact Gary Anderson or Judy Rockafellow at General Stores.

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New color copier: more features, faster output
A new color laser copier brings full color publications within reach of more of our customers. The copier has all the features that made the previous one so popular: high-quality, full-color digital images, slide scanning capability, network accessibility, and quick turnaround. The improvements include printing on both sides of a page, 11"x17" bleeds, paper with weights of up to 110-pound index, and even quicker turnaround: 31 pages per minute. Contact Eileen Wallace at the Printing Department to make arrangements for color copies or other color imaging.

Copy Centers now offer coil binding
Plastic coil binding is now available at Copy Center 7, at the Iowa Memorial Union. The copy center stocks four colors of coil--black, white, gold, and silver--in 14 different sizes. The sizes range from a 10-page minimum to a 265-page maximum capacity. Prices for the binding are listed on the Printing Department's web site. Call or e-mail Copy Center 7 (IMU), 335-2699, for more information or to place an order.

Janet assists UI staff who are choosing copiers for their departments to lease or purchase. When a customer lets her know what his or her department wants in a copier, Janet researches the information available, matches it with the department's needs, and provides pricing information. The knowledge of copiers that she has gained over the years is helpful in this position. She has worked in all the copy centers, filled in as a driver, and operated copiers, offset presses, and high-speed duplicators in the job she has held since 1981. These days, most of her contact is by telephone, so she especially likes occasions when she can "put a face on a customer."

Janet and her husband, Chuck, a social worker at UIHC, live in Riverside, where they both grew up. They met in high school, but did not date until later. "I'm a year older than him, which is just fine because I'll get to retire a year before him!" Their daughters, Kaitlyn, 6, and Emily, 14 months, keep Janet busy. She's involved with Kaitlyn's Brownie troop and with keeping track of Emily, who has been walking for more than five months.

Camping is one of the Wielands' favorite activities. They try to get out at least twice a month in the summer, usually with extended family or friends. "The best thing about camping is sitting around the bonfire. It's family time. We tell stories, and we build on them," says Janet.

They used to have a fold-down camper. "They call them pop-ups, but it didn't. We struggled for an hour to get it up," Janet says. They now have a 28-foot travel trailer that is "fully loaded," with dishes, beds, a refrigerator, and a microwave. When they decide to take off, all they have to do is "pack extra clothes and the food we want, and away we go," says Janet. "Oh, and the kids!" she adds. (As if she really would forget!)

She works, and she has kids. That's quite a lot.

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We are . . .