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
Surplus: reuse, recycle, resell
Conferences, meetings continue
Regents approve building name change
Great turnout for Product & Service Show
Recycled paper use slips to 64%
Classes, training available

CENTRAL MAIL SYSTEM
Make self mailers fit the mold
Reply Mail--in all its forms--can work for you
USPS Address Guidelines

LAUNDRY SERVICE
Change is good....
Open for business--here's where you can find us

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
New catalog is available
Send the whole thing when selling a computer at Surplus
Character Counts: Meet Merlene Hruby

PRINTING DEPARTMENT
Thesis copying
Updating computer or software? Don't forget printer drivers
Free U-PACs with faculty orders
Color Center: 24-hour turnaround
Specify exact quantities
Printing Department ranks well in national survey

We are . . .

Business Services directory

Remember that any requisition for General Stores supplies requires both a requestor and a departmental approval signature. Make sure your requisition contains the proper approvals before you send it to General Stores.

"Don't store it. The cost of storage is about $20 per square foot. If you haven't used it in a year or two, get rid of it. Sell it before it becomes a liability," he says. At that point, the cost to remove the item exceeds the potential selling price.

Hennager and his 12 part-time student employees try to make equipment removal convenient for departments while giving them the best return possible. "We pick up, clean, advertise, show, and sell the item. We help our customers find how to get the best dollar for their surplus," he says. It is possible for some items to sell for up to ten times what they might at auction.

Equipment from UI Surplus ends up all over the world, in such places as North Korea, South Korea, the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Bolivia, Argentina, and several countries in Africa. "Especially now, with the hurricane [Mitch, which devastated several Caribbean and Central American countries this fall]," says Hennager. "A lot of medical items are needed. We recently sent out 14 exam tables and 20 defibrillators." Surplus does not sell directly to the countries, but to companies which then ship the equipment to where it is needed.

Currently, there is a request for computers to be sent to a boys' home in South Africa through a trust established by opera singer Simon Estes. A federal law designed "to prevent our government from using developing countries as a dumping ground for old technology," has slowed things down, Hennager says. "But we aren't dumping these. They're functional, working computers." Fifty percent of Surplus's tonnage and income comes from computers.

Surplus provides more than just pickup and delivery service. It also

removes items from inventory;
checks for biohazards, including lead, mercury, asbestos, sharps, chemicals, and carcinogens (It sells medical equipment only to licensed medical handlers. "We function as a safety net for the Health Protection Office," Hennager says.);
and clears computer hard drives to ensure that no "delicate" files remain.

Only about 10 percent of Surplus's tonnage goes to the landfill. In addition to equipment sales, "scrappers" regularly pick up plastic, metal, glass, and wood, including pallets, at Surplus. "On average, we divert 20 tons a month from the landfill," says Hennager. "In peak season, we do that much in a week."

"Find out what you have, what you need, and get rid of the rest," he says. "If you're thinking about replacing furniture, computers, or research or technical equipment, call me. We'll check into the current resale value. Don't wait." Some items can lose as much as 50 percent of their value in just a few months, he says. And working with Surplus is simple.

Selling: first, make a list
List what you have and advertise it for reuse within your own department first. Surplus staff can assist with this, for an extra charge.

Plan to get rid of everything you can't use, then fill out a Surplus Removal Form. Call Shirley Dodson in Property Management, 335-0075, to get one. A valid MFK number and your department head's signature are necessary on the form. List every item you want removed, with its UI number and serial number. If it doesn't have either, specify "no number."

Send the form back to Property Management. All items listed will be removed from the University's inventory. The form will be stamped; this and the requesting department head's signature give Surplus the authority to remove the items from the department's premises.

Surplus assigns a job number, schedules the removal, and calls the department to make an appointment for pickup after it receives the completed form from Property Management. When an item is sold, the department receives 50 percent of the selling price if that amount is more than $50; 80 percent if it sells for more than $500; and 90 percent if it sells for more than $1,000.

Buying: go shopping
Staff looking for equipment for UI departments may make appointments to shop at Surplus between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. Thursdays can be hectic because Surplus is open to the public then. "We always have 20 shoppers when we open. We've had as many as 100 people waiting," says Hennager.

Departments pay one-half the marked price for items, except for computers. Prices can be negotiated for the general public, based on the quantity purchased.

The membership represents all 50 states and U.S. territories, Canada, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. Vasquez is on the group's Central Region Board of Directors and its national membership committee.

Council for Higher Education Management Association
Lou Eichler, Central Mail, attended a meeting of this group in San Antonio. As an umbrella organization for a number of college and university organizations, it coordinates activities, gives advice, organizes conferences, and promotes professional development for its member groups.

PeopleSoft Users
Gary Anderson, Materials Management, attended the 1998 PeopleSoft Users Conference in San Francisco. More than 15,000 PeopleSoft users from all over the world attended the conference, including several from the UI.

The new name recognizes Ray Mossman's 62 years of service to the University. He began working as an offset press operator at Printing Service while a UI student, and, after graduating, worked in various capacities for the Business Office.

Thanks to all who attended. The product vendors were impressed with the turnout, and we look forward to an even bigger and better show next year. We hope to see you then!

Central Mail will schedule a presentation customized to your department's mailing needs on request. Contact Lou Eichler for more information.

General Stores has scheduled "Introduction to General Stores and On-line Ordering" in February. The class includes information about how to place and check on orders, deliveries, and whom to call for help. Register on line at www.uiowa.edu/~fusstfdv, or call the Staff Development office, 335-2687, for more information.

The Printing Department offers on-site training for customers who wish to use its DocuTech publishing system. Contact Tim Blake, IMU Document Center, to schedule a training session.

Construction of the mail piece and the printing on it help determine whether you save money on postage and how quickly your mail will arrive at its destination. The fold should be on the leading edge--the bottom or the right. Making the mail piece automation compatible and utilizing a certified address process will cut your postage costs. This combination of construction and address makeup makes your self mailer compatible with other letter-size pieces, and it can be sorted by Postal Service equipment.

Call us when you're planning a mailing and ask about tabs and address processing to reduce your postage costs. Things like paper weight and final size will determine whether the Postal Service will allow the savings. One more thing, staples are not automation compatible. They can do more damage to a machine than a loose flap.

There are a number of ways to facilitate mailed responses. Courtesy Reply, Meter Reply, and Business Reply envelopes are all preprinted and supplied for your clients' use. Courtesy Reply Mail has your address printed, but the respondent pays for postage. Meter Reply Mail has your address printed, and the postage is applied with an undated postage meter impression. Business Reply Mail requires you to pay postage and a small fee, but you only pay for the pieces returned.

When considering how to prepay postage for your correspondents, give thought to how many will respond. First-class postage for 100 envelopes costs $33. Postage and fees for 100 Business Reply envelopes costs $35. You must have 95 of the 100 envelopes returned before your cost exceeds the cost of stamps. There it is. Buying stamps or metering a mail piece is cost effective if you expect a 95 percent or better return rate. Otherwise, you've given a gift to the Postal Service.

There are specific guidelines that must be followed when printing reply mail. Two requirements on each of the aforementioned are a bar code and a Facing Identification Mark (FIM). The bar code makes it easier for a mail piece to get through the Postal Service high-speed sorting machines. A FIM is seen on some mail pieces just to the left of the postage area. These vertical marks identify the type of mail piece and aid in sorting when it goes through the machinery. Some of the newer word-processing softwares have a FIM and delivery-point bar code option for envelopes.

A permit and fee are required for Business Reply Mail. Central Mail maintains such a permit for the University; requests to use it are reviewed and approved prior to printing. This step is necessary to maintain the discounted rate offered by the Postal Service. Call us if you're contemplating the use of Reply Mail.

Some of the greatest change has been in the washer and dryer areas, where eight fully automated open pocket washer-extractors and five gas-fired dryers replace worn, outdated equipment.

Gone is the arduous physical labor. Now, the entire wash-and-dry sequence resembles a mechanical ballet. With a whoosh, overhead slings neatly drop soiled linen into each washer as one employee operates the controls. Minutes later, after a preset wash formula is selected, clean laundry appears. The clean laundry then tumbles onto a shuttle conveyor and is whisked off to an available dryer. With a movement reminiscent of a teeter-totter, the clean laundry is conveyed up and into the dryer. When dry, the laundry tumbles out the opposite side of the dryer onto the hands-off automatic loading conveyor.

High atop "the perch," an employee intervenes to direct the final stage of the wash-and-dry sequence. The remotely controlled belt conveyor fills slings with clean laundry, then directs them to a holding area. A press of a button ends the wash-and-dry stage as the clean laundry drops into a waiting cart for pressing and folding.

Nowadays we can wash your laundry cleaner; we can wash and dry your laundry quicker. Our employees vie to wash and dry your laundry! So send us your soiled sheets, your dusty mats, your rumpled uniforms, your mountainous mass of laundry yearning to be clean. Yes, change is good.
Jo Anne Worley

Don't strip the computer. Leave the hard drive, floppy drive, CD-rom, memory chips, fans, mother boards, printer cartridges, and video cards. Removing any of these makes the computer a liability as a surplus item, because it can't be sold and it costs money to dispose of it. When you replace a computer, replace the whole thing.

Send anything that came with the computer. This includes the CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse, software, books, and covers. Keep the whole system together.

Don't reformat the hard drive. This damages the operating system, which is needed for the computer to function.

Don't store the computer. If it is too old for your staff now, it will be too old later. Sell it while it has asset value. The shelf life of technical equipment is months, not years.

Merlene has worked at General Stores since 1992, but has been at the UI since 1980. She worked first in the Business Office for Ray Mossman, for whom MBSB was recently named. She spent 12 years at Payroll and still gets together with her coworkers from there. "We formed some pretty strong bonds," she says.

She and her husband, Richard, farm near North Liberty, and their daughter and son live in the area. Merlene likes to read, garden, and work on her home, "a big old farmhouse," she says. "There's always something to do: refinish, paint."

Her garden sounds like a prime produce aisle. "Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, squash, strawberries, raspberries, asparagus, rhubarb," she lists. "I have a weakness for strawberries," she says. "I have everbearing at one end of the garden and June-bearing at the other end. You have to really have a weakness to get out there and bend and stretch." Even then she's not finished; she has to clean and stem them, too.

She says it was hardest, though, to do berries when she was teaching bible school many years ago. She would work on lesson plans and preparations, then go teach, and then afterward, go home and work at picking and cleaning berries late into the night. "All the other ladies there had strawberries, too. Nobody felt sorry for you, because they were all doing the same!" she says.

Merlene enjoys flowers, too. While she especially likes her roses and sweet peas, she says "I love them all. You couldn't give me a flower I wouldn't take."

Summer evenings give her great pleasure. Each day she takes a walk, ending it by resting at the garden on a nearby swing. "I listen to the birds, smell the smells, enjoy God's world. It's a stress beater. I don't stay put very long," she says, "but you carry it with you."

When you upgrade to a new computer, the most common scenario, or move from Windows'95 to Windows'98, for example, you will no longer have the software to electronically send a file with a job ticket to the DocuTech system, says Tim Blake, departmental information specialist. You also will no longer have the correct printer drivers, he says. Without these, it's impossible to predict how your documents will look when printed on the DocuTech--there may be font, pagination, or graphics problems.

If you have questions about or need help with downloading the software, contact Blake at the IMU Document Center, 335-2699.

"So many of our customers order 'a box,' and that can be 125, 250, or 500 business cards. It can slow an order down, calling and asking people what a box means to them," says customer service representative Diane Thomas. This can result in wasted production time and delayed deliveries.

While we can print any number of pieces you wish, the prices on standard items are calculated for specific quantities. For standard UI, UIHC, and CHI business cards, they are as follows: 125 cards for $25; 250 for $34; and 500 for $42. Specifying these quantities on your requisition reduces the chance of delay and ensures the best price for your order.

The Printing Department has an operating budget of $7.5 million and 85 full-time employees. It ranked seventh among college and university in-plants. The largest in-plant listed in the survey is the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C., with a $187.4 million operating budget and 1,264 employees. In-Plant Graphics is a magazine for managers of in-house printing facilities.

We are . . .

The University of Iowa Nondiscrimination Statement
The University of Iowa prohibits discrimination in employment and in its educational programs and activities on the basis of race, national origin, color, creed, religion, sex, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or associational preference. The University also affirms its commitment to providing equal opportunities and equal access to University facilities. For additional information on nondiscrimination policies, contact the Coordinator of Title IX, Section 504, and the ADA in the Office of Affirmative Action; phone 319/335-0705 (voice), or 319/335-0697 (text); The University of Iowa, 202 Jessup Hall, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1316.