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Bill Orr
V.D.P.
REQUEST:
All you have to do is Ask!
Dear
Fellow Members:
I have a Very
Distinctly Personalized,
request for each one of you.
The IAPHC is pretty much unique among so many
associations in the Graphic Arts – we are almost entirely
INDIVIDUAL members. Ray
Rafalowski, Past International Chairman and my mentor here
in Cincinnati, always says that no one joins our
organization unless someone ASKS them!
So I'm
asking you – for your personal commitment – to consult
your own wonderfully Variable,
Distinct and Personal
network of contacts in the graphic arts, and ask them for
their membership support.
Now maybe
you are thinking that good ole Capt. Bill better put up or
shut up. You are right.
If I think it's so all-fired important to ask folks
to support us with their membership, I darn sure need to
lead by example.
So
let me tell you of a little experience I had in Chicago at
Graph Expo this autumn. Dan Marantz, our newly retired
International Gallery Chairman was casting about looking for
his next opportunity to help grow this association he loves
so much. He
arranged for us to have a booth at Graph Expo and told me
his goal was |
to talk to
at least 100 people about becoming IAPHC members.
Dan asked
me to help. So,
as I walked the various aisles at Graph Expo, I kept
running into people I know from the various career stops I
have had in the graphic arts.
And every time, after exchanging pleasantries, I
would ask them for their support by becoming a member of
our Association.
In a few
hours I had five new members committed to join, just by
asking. They include:
·
Richard
Diver,
National Account Manager for Kodak Polychrome Graphics in
Cincinnati.
·
Greg
Meyerratken,
President of TeamEPS in Florence Kentucky
·
Ray
Prince,
Senior Technical Consultant with the GATF
·
Dr.
William Ray,
President of the Technical Association of Graphic
Arts (TAGA)
·
Charles
Wiener
of Xerox in Cincinnati
Yes, they
joined because of our friendship. More importantly, they
joined because of what we now have to offer in services.
Sharing of our knowledge, and the assistance it will offer
to them in their business pursuits.
Also at the
booth I made contact with a past member and Past Governor
of the 11th District, Jerry Hill, who now resides in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. Jerry
is not only interested in joining the Grand Rapids Club,
but is enthusiastic in helping to build it up.
We are also
in communication on a business level, in the flexo arena
between his company, Label Tape a Division of Corium and
my company Stevenson. |
I am also
personally pursuing a company for two new members in
Cleveland. Through
an introduction by a member that works for HP Indigo, I
asked them to be a part of our incredible association.
Now, if our
members who were helping at the booth were able to make
over 300 contacts in the fishbowl of Graph Expo, think
about your daily network in the graphic arts.
I know my
experience at Expo reminded me, that I have not been doing
enough asking. Every single day you may have occasion to
talk to graphic designers, prepress experts, press
operators, vendors and suppliers, bindery technicians,
repair magicians and more.
In a single day the most isolated ones of us still,
are likely to have close contact with a dozen or more
prospective members who will NEVER become a member unless
someone, like you, asks them for the membership support.
So my
request of you is V.D.P.
-- Very Distinctly Personal. I am
asking you to get up close and personal with everyone you
know in the graphic arts.
We want and need them to help us grow our
incredible network.
We just
have to ask.
Yours
in Craftsman–Ship,
(I hope to see you on the Vancouver Cruise Convention. Say now, there's a
pretty good conversation opener – “Become a member,
see the world.” Vancouver and Alaska are both Visibly
Darn Pretty.)
Bill
Orr
International Chairman |
