Motivate Your In-plant Staff
At the recent National Government Publishing Association conference, in Bellevue, Wash., speaker Wes Friesen, of Portland General Electric’s in-plant, listed 10 ways for in-plant managers to motivate their employees:

1. Personally thank them.

GPO Chief of Staff Honored
Maria S. Lefevre, chief of staff of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), was named executive of the year by the Stevie Awards for Women in Business for her accomplishments at the agency. The Stevie Awards honor women executives, business owners and entrepreneurs for making a positive impact in their profession.

Executives from organizations such as Dow Jones & Co., Blackboard, Travelocity and AARP were among contenders for this year’s awards.

USPS Registers $2.8 Billion Loss for Fiscal Year
With mail volumes continuing to dwindle and added costs mandated by the Postal Act of 2006, the U.S. Postal Service finished its 2008 fiscal year with a net loss of $2.8 billion. The loss came despite cost-cutting measures in excess of $2 billion, including 50 million fewer work hours.

Mail volume plummeted by 9.5 billion pieces to 202.7 billion, a decline of 4.5 percent compared to 2007. The USPS also cited the national economy and the use of electronic mail as reasons for the decline.

Print Procurement Patent Awarded
e-LYNXX Corp. of Chambersburg, PA says it has been granted a patent covering “any electronic system for procuring customized goods or services (including printing) that automatically matches supplier attributes with contract specifications to identify qualified suppliers, disseminates a bid solicitation to at least two identified suppliers and receives and forwards a bid response to the buyer.”

The U.S. business method patent (No. 7,451,106) was actually filed on Nov. 30, 1998. Therefore, e-LYNXX asserts that it could apply to procurement solutions currently in use.

Digital Finishing Showcase Set by Duplo
Duplo USA has issued an open invitation to a product showcase of its latest digital color finishing equipment at the Radisson Hotel in Trevose, PA on Dec. 10-11. The event will run each day from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., with lunch provided from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. There will also be a raffle drawing for a MD-161D copier/MFP.

The company is promoting the product showcase as an opportunity to still capitalize on the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which has a Dec. 31 deadline. Among the equipment to be featured are the:

Finch Gets SFI Certification
Finch Paper has received chain-of-custody (CoC) certification from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Chain-of-custody certification means a company has a tracking system in place that identifies the amount of certified, uncertified and recycled content in the forest products it buys, uses or sells.

“Our customers appreciate knowing that we have managed the same lands on a sustainable basis for almost 100 years,” says Mike Bean, national sales manager.