After months of scorching heat, Phoenix area printers celebrated the cooling temperatures last Wednesday by attending the second Happy Hour event at Minder Binders.

20 WSPA members participated in the casual networking event and a great time was had by all.

Stay tuned for future Happy Hour events and join colleagues from your local industry to celebrate print!

On October 6, 2015, a special Open House was held in Tucson for potential members for WSPA.  Special thanks go out to Kristy Scharf (pictured left- top) for hosting the event at her facilities at West Press.

While in Tucson, WSPA CEO Michael Makin also visited with long-time member Sundance Press, which was recognized with two awards at this year's Print Excellence Competition.  Mr. Makin is pictured with Sundance owner Steven Rhynard.

Last week in Phoenix, WSPA CEO Michael Makin visited six member plants to reiterate the numerous benefits of membership and to see how the association could help its members.

Companies visited included Alpha Graphics (top left - Larry Furlong), Lithotec (top right - Lisa and Buzz Platt), Pure Pack Technologies (middle left - Rick Timone), Accuzona Steel Rule Die (middle right - Shell Burger), Panoramic Press (bottom left - Rich Erickson) and D & L Press (bottom right - Brad Smith).

Printing companies today need to grow in order to remain healthy.  As adding volume organically continues to be a challenge, growing by acquisition is a very realistic growth strategy.

Merging with or acquiring another company is a viable method of strengthening your company's financial position and provides the added volume necessary to stabilize pricing to attract and retain customers.

On November 19th in Denver, WSPA will feature a special session on M & A.  The 90 minute program will cover:

• The methods, advantages and pitfalls of employing acquisitions as a business growth strategy
• What to look for in a potential merger or acquisition and
• How to best position your company should you wish to sell.

If you have ever thought about growing your business by buying another company or someday selling your own company, this is a must-attend session.

The session leader is Paul Reilly, former Chairman and CEO of Cenveo, Inc., one of North America's leading graphic communications firms.  During his tenure with the company, Cenveo grew from $17 million to over $2 billion in sales, while completing some 60 acquisitions.

Mr. Reilly's firm, New Direction Partners, will compile a desktop valuation for printing and packaging firms attending. This valuation is worth in excess of $3,000 and is included in your registration fee of just $39!

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2015
Time: 10:30 a.m. - Noon (followed by a light networking lunch)
Location: Veritiv (3900 Lima Street Denver, CO 80239)
Price: $39 for members

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

You asked for it and now you can have it: the new Sheetfed Offset Lithographic Press class is available on the Integrated Learning Center. This course, taught by Printing Industries Help Desk Manager and press expert, Dillon Mooney, provides students with a complete foundation in sheeted press operation and the basic operation of the press and process. The course takes about a little under four hours to complete and features plenty of up-to-date videos of many press operation processes. The course is included in the $295 subscription fee for members, or can be purchased a la carte at $195 for members and $295 for non-members.

Visit   www.printing.org/ilearning for more information or to register for this course or dozens of others.

Maybe you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can learn a lot from the cover letters job candidates send along with their applications and resumes.

Don't automatically set cover letters aside - you may miss a gold mine of information about your next employee.  Look for clues to the following:

Professionalism.  Is the letter error-free?  Did the candidate spell your name correctly?  Serious candidates will double and triple-check everything before sending a cover letter out.

Originality.  Does the cover letter address your organization and your needs?  Or is it a generic letter that could have been written to any of a dozen organizations  - even a dozen industries?  An applicant who tailors a letter specifically to you is demonstrating a willingness to commit to the position and the organization.

Personality.  Cover letters should give you a sense of the writer's values.  Try to get a general impression of the person behind the letter.  Does it communicate passion, ambition, or a sense of humor?  Read between the lines for a glimpse of the candidate's true self.

It is important that your employees check safety devices each day before they drive a forklift.  Your forklift horn, lights, brakes and back-up alarm help you avoid potential accidents and should be working properly before you start the engine.  Look around for any hazards you may encounter on your route (co-workers, unstable loads or obstacles) and figure out how to correct them. 

Some hazards may be hard to spot once you are operating your vehicle.  Be sure to:

• Avoid sharp turns and fast speeds
• Whenever possible, keep loads low
• Drive backward when you must move a high load, and face the direction of travel
• Drive backward down slopes with more than a 10 percent decline
• If you have to park on a slope, always block wheels, lower forks and set the parking brake
• Never carry hitchhikers unless the forklift has approved people-lifting devices
• Keep loads within your vehicle's rated capacity
• Never raise or lower loads while moving
• Start and stop gradually to avoid load shifting
• Don't speed - use your horn at corners, crossings or before reversing.  Back out slowly after unloading, checking over your shoulder to make sure the coast is clear
• Watch out for pedestrians.

Curses!  Another email with a poor open rate?  What are you doing wrong?  To give you some perspective, Alchemy Worx used the Touchstone platform to analyze data from 21 billion marketing emails from 2,500 brands.  The research included an examination of thousands of subject lines, word by word, to determine their influence on open rates.  Here are the most (and least) effective words you can use (with their open rates).

Best - Upgrade (65.7%), Just (64.7%), Content (59.5 %), Go (55.8 %), and Wonderful       (55.1 %).

Worst - Miss (-4.6 %), Deals (-4.4 %), Groovy (-4.3 %), Conditions (-4.2 %) and Friday (-4 %).

Each week, E-Connects shares incredible photos on just how lax individuals can be when it comes to safety. 

The goal - to keep a safe work environment front and center on the minds of all of your employees.

Pictured: The line between ingenuity and stupidity is often fine.

If you come across a funny safety pic you think should be featured, email Michael Makin at mmakin@wsprint.org.

As a member of WSPA, you are automatically a member of Printing Industries of America, the largest graphics arts trade association in the world.  PIA's website has literally hundreds of free resources for you and your employees.  Have you checked out www.printing.org/free?

If you need any assistance logging in to access the free member content, simply call PIA's Member Central at 1-800-910-4283, ext. 770.

"I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time."

Herbert Bayard Swope