Forms Talk

It’s a sign of the times…

By: Marketing Council
Justiss Boyer, Raymond Garner, Brian Hadfield, Lisa Lee, Sarah Richart

Hey, what’s this? An email, a newsletter, and a blog – oh my!

Yes folks, that’s right: BFMA has jumped on the blog bandwagon and we’re excited to bring you along for the ride. A top priority for BFMA is to open up communication and build a solid community with its members and sponsors. We are very thrilled to introduce this newsletter and blog! Our hope is to collaborate and share beyond symposium and formspace. If you ask what the content is going to be all about, you’ve asked the right question. The content and direction of the newsletter will be driven directly by your interests. We ask you to help shape what it will become. You can do this by commenting, sending emails to your board members, sharing information, even by helping us name the Newsletter and the Blog!

BFMA’s 50^th year anniversary is also an awakening. Half a century of forms and processes and we’ve gone from purely paper forms to paper, electronic and web applications! Knowledge is power and the only way to that knowledge is through sharing, education, and collaboration.

We need to know what you need to know. What do you want the newsletter/blog to address? Articles can be very specific to your interests. Topics could range beyond forms themselves. They could include professional journeys, developments in the industry, features and more. By leveraging today’s technologies we can interact even though we are geographically distant. Just click on the comments link and add your perspective. Other members will be able to see your comments and add their own.

We know you are in complete AWE of this awesome tool and what the future holds in terms of communication. Help us keep the awe alive! There are 3 ways you can do this! Help name this thing, tell us what should be in it, and share your comments!

September and October were busy months for BFMA

By: Ray Killam, CFSP, CFC
President

Your Board continues to work to implement our Plan for 2007- 2008. Already, this activity has some results that directly impact you and your opportunities to participate with BFMA.

It is really a great time to be involved with BFMA and with the forms management industry. I just returned from a Central Ohio chapter meeting, where we toured the Standard Register Print-on-Demand Center in Dayton. The folks at Standard Register were great hosts and provided us with several presentations on digital color, document management capabilities, and their SMARTworks system. I had an opportunity to network with several members of the chapter before and after the presentations. Many thanks to Alice Ladd, Mike Steinburg and all the folks at Standard Register!

Just last month, I visited the Madison Chapter for their 30^th anniversary celebration. It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends from Madison and to discuss trends in the industry. Alice Ladd, Director, also presented at the meeting. Many thanks to Joyce Endres, Jim Bennett, Lori Linde and all the members of the Madison chapter for their hospitality and participation!

In September, I was a guest speaker at the Mid Michigan chapter seminar in Ada, MI. They had great attendance at this day-long meeting, which also featured Dr. Ben Graham, Jr. I just received an announcement that their next meeting, Nov. 7, will feature a technology presentation. Congratulations to Theresa Verburg and the Mid-Michigan chapter for the excellent educational opportunities they offer.

I also met with the Los Angeles, Ottawa and Portland chapters using online meeting technology. It was great to see these chapters meeting again, which was made possible by BFMA’s acquisition of this technology and ability to allow any chapter to use it on demand. Now, any chapter, board, committee or special interest group can meet online whenever they want. This technology makes it easy to secure speakers on any topic because travel time and expenses are eliminated.

Also in October, BFMA, working with Shirley Green, Paul Showalter and the Nation’s Capital chapter held the 2007 Fall Forms Institute in Washington, DC. This two-day event featured speakers on a variety of topics, sponsor presentations, networking opportunities, and an Association Board of Directors meeting. It received excellent reviews from all participants. Altogether, more than 25 people were in attendance.

Your Board approved two new categories of membership – Alumni and Student. Alumni members include both those members not currently active in the forms management profession and retired members. Student members are those persons that are currently enrolled in at least 8 hours at a accredited college or university. For both categories, the annual membership dues are $50. This provides such persons with an opportunity to stay involved with BFMA and keep their knowledge current at a more affordable rate. We want, and need, our present and future knowledge base to stay with us!

Thanks to Lisa Lee, Justiss Boyer, Ray Garner and all the members of the Communications and Marketing committees for their fine work in bringing our web-based newsletter to reality. They have established a blog as the basis for the newsletter, which holds exciting opportunities for the future on communications within BFMA.

It is truly an exciting time to be in the forms management profession. At lot of change is occurring, with new technology, mergers and acquisitions, new products, and new challenges. Your association is working to position itself as the primary force in the profession. We have a lot of plans for the near future. We need you to volunteer your expertise and join our team.

Thank you for your continued support. I hope to see all of you next May 4-8 at Symposium in Las Vegas!

Countdown to Symposium 2008 - Las Vegas!

Symposium 2008 is the "Celebration of Education!"
By: Robin Miller
Program Council, Director Program Operations

Ladies and Gentlemen, the countdown to 2008 Symposium has begun!  Deal yourself in with early registration and  save $100!!  2008 will be BFMA’s 50th Anniversary and we are excited to celebrate this milestone with each of you, in Las Vegas!

Register for the 2008 Symposium now and save $100 off the full registration price and guarantee your seat with first choice of educational sessions. That’s $1,089 for BFMA members. You can also save an additional $100 each when two or more people from the same company register. Full information will be posted to the web site as soon as possible. In the meantime, grab your discount by registering by December 31!

We all know the city of Las Vegas commercials that proclaim, “What happens here, stays here!”  But we hope our members will turn a blind eye to that and SHARE SHARE SHARE!!  This year’s symposium is about education, and we’re ready to spread the wealth of knowledge.

So, take a gamble this year and learn about new things, network through the endless buffet of great forms colleagues, and bring your poker face and meet the wonderful vendors who will be presenting!  All in all, have fun!

Make plans to attend the 2008 Symposium in Las Vegas, May 4-8, 2008 at the Imperial Palace Hotel. Bring your colleagues, managers, and significant others!

Fall Forms Institute

By: Bill Hill, CFC, CFSP
VP Program Council

The latest institute, held last month in Washington DC, featured an excellent program with lots of timely information from both the scheduled presentations and the sponsors, some of which included breaking news. Online meeting technology allowed some sponsors to present remotely, which worked out great.

Everyone was able to attend these as well as the program sessions.

It was thought-provoking to hear the presentations and swap questions and observations. Both days were packed with interesting concepts. Here’s what some attendees had to say:

"I am new to the world of forms management. I was so impressed with the depth of knowledge I saw in the other participants. I never knew how much I didn't know about forms and proper management."

Deborah Hersey

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

"The BFMA Fall Forms Institute 2007 represents a true meeting-of-the-minds for serious form professionals. The BFMA educational events have helped me to stay in touch with changing regulations, organizational issues and technologies."

Jim Healy
Founder and CEO, FormRouter

“The fall forms institute 2007 was a tremendous success by all accounts.  It was highly educational and all classes were well attended.  Many of the attendees praised the program content and leader expertise.  There were many interesting and lively discussions revolving around the forms and document industry - especially within the current realm of information chaos.”

Sandra Szyperski
Coloplast Corp. Contract Administrator, Ostomy, Urology/Continence, Corporate Sales

Special thanks go to Shirley Green and Paul Showalter of the Nation’s Capital Chapter for hosting the event. 

Membership Updates and Position Announcements

By Alice Ladd
Membership Council, Director of Chapter Relations

We have been very busy within the Membership Council since our Spring Board Meeting. Our main goal is to provide members with opportunities to participate within their chapter, region and the association. One of the ways we are encouraging participation is to include every member in a chapter. These chapters aren’t limited to a site or city, but include regions as well. 

We’ve also created two new positions: Regional Coordinator and Special Interest Group (SIG) Coordinator (coming soon).  Regional coordinators are key roles to giving every member an opportunity to directly participate in BFMA chapter activities on an ongoing basis. The idea is to set up chapters that can meet online, so that members, no matter where they are located, can enjoy the benefits of interacting with other forms professionals and learning from chapter programs.

The coordinators will organize meetings for members who are not part of an existing chapter, and will learn to use LiveMeeting. They will facilitate the election of chapter officers and help new chapters get going. It's never been easier, and it's altogether doable, now that we have online meeting technology. It can all be done right from your desk.

I’d like to welcome and congratulate the following members who are now Regional Coordinators:

Region I - Teri Watanabe

Region III - Sharron Freeman

Region IV - Anna Romero

Region VIII - Caroline Jarrett

We still have four more positions available. As we move forward, we will be conducting training for these positions as well as providing on-going support. We invite you join our team!

Here's a run down on the position responsibilities:

1. Charter a "Virtual Chapter" in assigned region

2. Locate and appoint Chapter Officers (President, Vice President, and Secretary/Treasurer)

3. Open a chapter bank account with headquarters as a signatory

4. Ensure the new chapter meets monthly and assist chapter officers as necessary to:

a. Locate and confirm a speaker or topic

b. Communication via phone, email or mailings

c. Collect reservations/confirmations

5. Work with headquarters on meeting technology

6. Work with Directors on other tasks as appropriate

7. Report statistics to Director of Chapter Relations one month prior to spring and fall board meetings

Estimated time:

8. An hour a month to coordinate between Chapters and headquarters to arrange meetings via email or phone

9. An hour to monitor each meeting (in the beginning)

Note: Assistance will be provided by the Membership Council and BFMA board members. It is also requested that you attend a meeting during symposium to connect with current members within the covered responsible region.

If you can’t wait: Please contact Alice Ladd or DJ Brown for any questions, concerns or information on how to sign up and become more active.

Watch for information soon on new membership categories that will help people stay associated with BFMA!

Bar Codes: First Master Series for 2008

By: Margaret Tassin
Program Council, Director of Education

The first webinar Master Series for 2008 will be on bar codes.  Beginning on Thursday, January 10 and continuing for two additional weeks, Eric Peters of Barcodes West will present a detailed course on bar codes.  The first session will cover bar code basics: the most common bar codes in use today, the nuts and bolts of how bar codes work, specific considerations in selecting one bar code over another and how to evaluate bar code performance.

Session two on January 17 will cover emerging and specialty bar codes, including RFID (radio-frequency identification) and two-dimensional bar codes.  RFID stores and retrieves data, and there are multiple flavors of this for high and low value assets.  Two-dimensional bar codes are used to store up to 5,000 characters.  Both of these technologies are particularly helpful on forms.

Finally, the last session on January 24 will cover bar code hardware, software and specific applications such as inventory and identification.  It isn't enough to just know about the bar codes, you need the information to implement a bar code project.  This session will tell you about the other needed components.

Eric Peters is a partner and senior account executive with Barcodes West, with more than 15 years experience in engineering bar code solutions for many Fortune 500 companies including Toys R Us, ITT, Nordstrom, and Weyerhaeuser, as well as development of new-to-market products and software utilizing bar code technology.

Check the BFMA website soon for full registration details.  All Master Series are scheduled from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.Pacific time.

Want to participate as a panelist at an industry event?

By: Ray Killam, CFSP, CFC
President

The Print Services and Distribution Association (PSDA) (www.psda.org) has asked us to provide panelists for their FOCUS events. Panelists will discuss their requirements and expectations for print procurement and answer questions posed by the audience.

BFMA members frequently are involved in purchasing printed products and can offer distributors (PSDA members) tips and suggestions on what the expect from a print provider, what issues are important to print buyers and related topics. PSDA (formerly DMIA) plans 20 FOCUS events in cities around the United States. They need panelists in each city and will offer a $150.00 honorarium to each participant.

If you would like to lend them your expertise and participate, please contact Ray Killam for more information. We see this offer as an opportunity for our members to gain exposure within the industry and to help improve communications between buyers and print salespeople. Plus, it could be a lot of fun!

PSDA is an association of printed forms manufactures and distrinutors. The distributers sell a variety of products, including forms. This association was originally know as National Business Forms Association (NBFA), which changed to DMIA in the 1990s. BFMA wants to maintain a relationship with PSDA and our participation in their events is encouraged.

For a complete list of FOCUS events, please visit http://www.psda.org/events/FOCUS/home.aspx

Program Updates

By: Bill Hill, CFC, CFSP
VP Program Council

Included in the Program Council activities are the development of Webinars, Institutes, CFSP Study groups and, of course, Symposium. 

Webinars have provided a continuous flow of online information, covering a multitude of topics in the forms industry. We have just completed this year’s numerous offerings with six sessions on Business Process Analysis and Design. Reading the evaluations from attendees shows all are receiving high marks. The next Master Series will start on January 10, 2008 with “Bar code basics”. Learn all about bar coding in this series.

We are also working on finalizing the date of the Canadian Institute, probably will be in March of 2008.    The class schedules have been established and we are ready to finalize all the details. Keep watching for updates at http://bfma.org.

The Fall CFSP study group is over half way through the material, preparing for the certification tests in December. One of the new advantages of taking the CFSP test now is that the test is given electronically with a variety of dates within a time frame.  Sure a lot nicer than when I took the test.

Director of Education, Margaret Tassin, has been doing an exemplary job in obtaining speakers for these events.  Challenges are met and solutions are developed…. Sometimes resulting in the rescheduling of webinars, as we try to address all of the needs of the members of BFMA and those in our industry.  We trust that the non-members who attend these events will join our organization and benefit from lower registration fees and other benefits of BFMA membership.

Call for Candidates

By: Lisa Lee, CEBS, FLMI
VP Administration

BFMA is looking for strong leadership to direct the association into 2008 and 2009. Have you always wanted to help lead an organization? We need people who are knowledgeable and care about the forms and systems profession today and in the future. Serving on the Board of Directors is a very rewarding experience, but it is also hard work and not a commitment to be taken lightly. To find out more about any office contact a member of the board. Watch for a message from headquarters for details. Statements are due to headquarters by December 15.

Fall Board Meeting

By: Lisa Lee, CEBS, FLMI
VP Administration

The board meeting was held in Washington DC together with the Fall Forms Institute. Topics included the membership reorganization, sponsorship, program plans, the newsletter, nominations for 2008-2009, awards, association administration and possible future changes to symposium. Board meetings are open to the membership and members are welcome to attend. The next physical meetings will be in Las Vegas, immediately before and after symposium.