In-plant Manager Draws Strength From Early Struggles

FROM A young age, Frank Oliver had a passion for art. The McGraw, N.Y., native satisfied his interest by taking numerous art classes as a high school student.

But Oliver, now print shop supervisor for the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego Board of Cooperative Educational Services (DCMO BOCES) in Norwich, N.Y., strived to be more than just another starving artist—even though that is the life path he originally followed.

The summer after graduating from high school, Oliver tried his hand at painting murals. "Of course, that isn't very lucrative," he says with a laugh.

So he later enrolled at a local community college, and focused on drafting, graphic arts and liberal arts.

"I decided that if I wanted to do anything that had to do with art, and have that as a part of my career, graphic arts was the direction I had to go in," Oliver reflects.

Struggling to find a full-time job, Oliver hooked on as a freelance graphic designer for the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, N.Y. While it again wasn't a great paying gig, it did give Oliver valuable experience that would help get his foot in the door at DCMO BOCES.

Oliver dedicated months of his time to the Kitchen Theatre and designed its spring marketing campaign.

"I designed a theme that tied into every show," Oliver recalls. "I once tallied the time I put in when I was getting paid by the hour, and it was under three bucks an hour."

In 2003, Oliver landed a job as a graphic designer for DCMO BOCES. He also went on to earn a bachelor's degree in visual communications from American Intercontinental University.

DCMO BOCES is a state organization that helps facilitate services for smaller school districts. It oversees 16 districts with a combined enrollment of less than 16,000 students.

"For each district to have its own print shop would be too expensive," Oliver explains. "So they all collaborate and do their printing through us."

Four years after Oliver joined DCMO BOCES, the in-plant supervisor position became available. Oliver threw his hat in the ring with 95 other applicants and took over the lead role at the 11-employee shop at the age of 30.

"They were looking to get a big pool of resumes, but I am not sure if they expected it to be that large," he quips.

Oliver notes that he remained patient for his first few months on the job so the other employees could get used to him being in the new position. Many of the employees had been with DCMO BOCES for a long time, and he didn't want to cause too much tension.

"At the six-month mark, I changed a lot of things, and I continue to do that," Oliver says.

Computerized Job Entry

Oliver can be credited with creating a computerized job entry system for the shop. Previously, jobs were hand-written and the task required time-consuming duplications in multiple logs.

"So I actually just built all the forms in Excel and started logging jobs that way," Oliver says. In-plant employees now have a digital archive of jobs, making it easier to answer customer questions and to make minor changes to commonly produced projects.

Oliver also nearly doubled the shop's output speed by installing new equipment. The in-plant is now home to a Kodak Digimaster EX300 digital production system with a Watkiss bookletmaker; a Canon imageRUNNER 110 with a C.P. Bourg booklemaker; a Canon imageRUNNER 7105; and a Xerox 700 digital color press.

DCMO BOCES has three ABDick offset presses, but Oliver admits demand for offset work at the shop is steadily declining. By law, the shop can only do work for New York school districts and municipalities.

"Our districts are so small they mostly need black-and-white or two-color printing," Oliver contends, noting that he sees the shop moving to all-digital in the near future. "We really try to keep the costs down but at the same time produce a high-quality product."

2010 was a record-setting year for the in-plant; it produced 33.2 million copies and achieved its highest-ever revenue numbers: $1.377 million. The shop uses an EFI Digital StoreFront Web-to-print system to allow customers to place orders online.

"We were really weathering the economic downturn well until New York state aid for school districts took a big hit last year, and some of my districts had a million or two million dollar budget gaps to close, so that impacted the decline in offset even more," Oliver notes. "When things get tight, you see newsletters' quantities drop, or the frequency goes down. That is a major impact we saw this school year. "

In anticipation of this possible downturn in business, the in-plant began to offer new services like shredding, printing student agendas and producing hardcover yearbooks to make up for that loss of revenue.

"We weathered it well because we planned ahead and are in tune with what our districts are requesting," Oliver concludes. "We are nonprofit but to keep that status we are going to have to continue to be forward thinking and keep changing for the future. And I kind of like change."