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Luke Everingham (ProPrint April 2009)
When the recently re-elected president of a graphic arts trade organisation which has been in existence in one form or another since the 1920s admits that, before becoming a member a mere few years ago he was barely aware of its existence or its activities, it predicates a serious profile problem.
Profile is today's primary and timely priority objective on Graphic Arts Services Association of Australia president, Luke Everingham's agenda. Because, as French author, Victor Hugo once remarked, "You can resist an invading army but you cannot resist an idea whose time has come". Today, a more upfront and membership-driven GASAA is such an idea.
Its first step was taken recently when it broadened the industry representation on its Board. Historically the emphasis had been confined primarily to prepress and trade houses. With the quasi-demise of the latter, the need for a broader coverage became an obvious concern. Since the 2009 Board took office the organisation can claim to cover virtually every aspect of the industry, including offset and digital printing areas, prepress, creative/design, wide format and the streetfront digital print shop community.
"To this extent we now have a really diverse mix," Everingham stated. It is one which can functionally claim to provide the kind of trade association services from which particularly the smaller enterprise can benefit, he believes, having compared his organisation's membership services and costs to those of other trade bodies.
This is a man whose objectives, while visionary, are firmly trademarked by feet on the ground. His is not the "grand plan" without the necessary ground work first being completed. As someone who, by his own admission having come to the GASAA forum comparatively recently, he is unburdened from preconceived notions and former controversies. He is firmly convinced that when his first goal is achieved, dramatically to boost current membership ranks, GASAA will be able to present itself to the graphic arts industry as a viable and broad based alternative, not merely in educational and marketing phases for today's business players but in increased areas affecting day-to-day operational aspects.
An in and out look
Paradoxically the first representative of the offset industry on the GASAA board, Luke Everingham's industry career has an in and out look about it. As a raw schoolleaver, he was taken on as an apprentice by a traditional litho shop long since swallowed by the John Sands Group, but decided that surfing had greater attractions than sweeping machine shop floors.
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From there a series of disparate areas of endeavour paid the rent until an erstwhile surfing soulmate, who in the intervening years had morphed into a printing executive, persuaded the errant Everingham to return to his ink-stained origins. From there, a series of print related positions inexorably led to the purchase some eight years ago of the then family-owned Shepson Printing enterprise, which he now successfully operates with a co-director whom he had married more than a quarter century earlier.
Challenged to identify his major aims for GASAA in the next two to three years, Everingham unhesitatingly nominates greater emphasis on the environment. Recalling having raised the issue at the beginning of his first term in the chair, he is now more than ever convinced that this needs to be the foremost priority for every facet of the graphic arts industry.
"You will find that by no later than 2015 the Government will demand that you must have a regulatory body behind you, be it ISO 14001, MSC, 9001 or whatever," he stressed.
That said, he added that his agenda included maintaining all aspects of industry affairs in the forefront of the membership and adding an emphasis on the finishing and the mailing industry segments, which as yet are not represented in the GASAA coverage.
The push for PODi
Undoubtedly one of the major coups achieved by GASAA in the past three years has been the acquisition of representation in Australia of the Print on Demand Initiative (PODi). A worldwide organisation dedicated to best practice in relevant print and cross media marketing and communications, PODi is an industry group that encourages the growth of the digital printing industry through market and standards development activities. Generally credited with the initiative that created the downunder link is long serving executive director, Garry Knespal, but undoubtedly the support of the GASAA board would have been pivotal in the move.
As a result, the push for PODi has linked GASAA to an internationally aligned organisation which hosts various types of events in order to educate those involved in the digital printing industry. These events include Applications, Forums, Industry Briefings, Executive Summits and various speaking engagements. PODi also participates in key industry events in the USA such as the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing, the DMD New York Marketing Conference and the International Publishing Management Association.
The initial PODi conference undertakings in Sydney and Melbourne have been unqualified successes, and are the subject of ongoing future planning.
As a result" of the transmigration of this important organisation to Australia, local members are now able to access its diverse services which include case study databases, tutorials on digital print solutions marketing and a wide range of online presentations.
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How do we make it better?
Fresh from his first Board meeting of the year, Everingham came away impressed by the broad based outlook of its new composition. With such a diverse industry representation, he feared that there may lurk individual agendas.
"They were not focused on their own industry segment; their agenda was GASAA and how do we make it better?" he enthused. The main problem facing the Board, to which it is turning its attention is that, as he put it, "it doesn't have the visibility of a MacDonalds but it can still make a damn good hamburger".
The Big Mac of the GAS(AA)tronomic recipe for a more positive profile begins with a membership drive currently being put in place, although Everingham admits an economic downturn is not exactly the ideal time for such an initiative.
The main course on the menu, however, is the recently introduced GASAA certification programme, which is aimed to assist businesses in setting up an environmental management system in compliance with ISO 14001 international standards.
After completing the six-month course, participants must demonstrate continued improvement with regards to compliance over several months, before an independent GASAA auditor from Standards Australia is called in to conduct the final ISO certification.
Pioneered in Sydney, the concept has now extended to Melbourne and has Brisbane in its sights. With potential participants on a waiting list, Everingham is understandably enthusiastic but admits that progress to date is merely the tip of the iceberg.
"Right now perhaps five to ten per cent of the industry is serious about it -for the rest, their time and focus is centred on the day-to-day running of their business. Once they realise what's involved, they will become more concerned," he believes.
"Of course, the cost is not inconsiderable," he added. "Initially it will cost them money but there is a saving over time. I think the industry as a whole tends to look at short term savings rather than looking at what's down the road."
Looking "down the road" is the firmly fixed focus of GASAA's forward looking executive board, steered to a realistic approach to the needs of the future by its equally forward looking president.
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