February is IPMA In-Plant Awareness Month, dedicated to showcasing and recognizing the contributions of in-house design, printing, mailing, and distribution professionals. The In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) created the annual celebration.
For 74 years, the University of Houston’s In-Plant, more commonly known as Copy, Print, and Delivery Services, has provided a multitude of stationery and delivery services.
“It is important to celebrate the work that CPD does during In-Plant Awareness Month because collectively, they have over 150 years of industry experience and are an award-winning print shop that takes extreme care in producing quality work and meeting necessary production deadlines in support of the many programs and services of the University of Houston campus community,” said Esmeralda Valdez, Executive Director of University Services.
Copy and Print currently employs 13 full-time employees and two student workers, while Delivery Services has six full-time employees and eight student workers.
Leading the university’s In-Plant are two UH Alumni. Nalan Giannukos, Director of Copy, Print, and Delivery Services, and Karen Flores, Delivery Services Manager, are graduates from the College of Technology’s Digital Media Program.
The Copy and Print department can provide services for any job where ink can be applied. Some notable items include posters, yard signs, all types of banners, magazines, brochures, letterhead and stationery, business cards, envelopes, reports, newsletters, postcards, invites, note pads, door hangers, folded cards, forms, name tags, labels, window clings and much more.
But Copy and Print’s output wasn’t always as wide-ranging as now.
Sami Snelling, Manager of Printing Operations, has been with Copy and Print for 23 years and said when she first started, the department’s output was mainly for business cards and letterhead.
“But now we’re about business cards, letterheads, signage, magazines, newsletters. You name it, and we can do it. And do it well,” said Snelling.
The Manager of Printing Operations loves working at Copy and Print, adding that she loves the camaraderie at the shop and the job’s challenges.
Housed within Copy and Print is the university’s design team. The team has over 30 years of combined experience and creates digital marketing material such as digital screens, online magazines, flip books, evites, eblasts, online brochures, web banners, and social media posts.
“If you can dream it, we can design it,” said Kathy Fieldcamp, Digital Prepress Tech and one of the four designers on the team.
Delivery Services is the third piece of UH’s In-Plant. Over the years, the number of packages Delivery Services receives, and delivers, has grown exponentially. In 2022, Delivery Services implemented 14 new package and mail lockers to deliver packages more efficiently. In total, 120,946 packages were delivered in 2022 using the new lockers.
Maria N. Garica, Postal Assistant, has been with Delivery Services for 20 years and remembers when the department primarily delivered mail.
“When I would go out and deliver it was to individual buildings with multiple mailrooms stops,” said Garcia. “Today, we have the package lockers, so it makes everything more streamlined, especially with the amount of packages we have to deliver. We have so many more packages than we have mail now.”
Technology has helped Delivery Services be more efficient. For one, there’s less paperwork. That’s something that Martha Noriega, now a Financial Coordinator, remembers from her time as a postal assistant with Delivery Services.
“When I first started, we had a lot of paperwork, so we had to have a lot of people help us,” said Noriega. “The technology we use today makes everything a lot better. The way we collect data has improved so much it makes everything more streamlined.”
Noriega, much like Snelling, loves working at Copy, Print, and Delivery Services, for the camaraderie at the In-Plant.
“Over time, the team has changed, but we are still a community, and we rely on one another to get the job done,” said Noriega.
Learn more about Copy, Print and Delivery Services and all that the department can do by visiting their website, https://uh.edu/af-university-services/copy-print-and-delivery-services.