Well I am glad I asked. I would love to take advantage of that printer if/when we get another one. Until then, any suggestion on printing on longer paper like contract paper? Im guessing its just an option when you go to print.
To add some flavor to this discussion, I was in the previous couple of meetings about the printers. The original voted proposal was to sell the old printers before a new one could be purchased, since that never happened we tabled the conversation. Additionally, when polled on 3 different printers the camps were split almost to exact thirds on which one to buy, so again, no majority vote was gathered. To make matters more complicated, even if the old printers are sold and a consensus was made for which printer to buy, I think any requests to the BOD for a large purchase like this would be denied until expansion was completed. Sending the BOD request right now may likely just waste everyoneās time, and we should consider revisiting this in 2020. I know no one probably wants to hear that, but Iām being realistic.
Edit- @dgorilla01 Iām sure the Printing SIG would very much value you being on the team once funds are available again!
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This is the first Iām hearing of it. The last update we got several months ago was that we were trying to get a model (no information on which model) donated to DMS that we would pay a service contract for. Was a particular model decided on in a SIG meeting Iām unaware of? Iāve been asking you for months to have a SIG meeting and nothing has been on the calendar.
In addition, the actual purchase of the printer was not the only concern that CA required the Wide Format Printer SIG to figure out. What about the sale of the old printers, which was a requirement before the acquisition of a new printer? What is the maintenance cost and schedule? What is the footprint and where does that fit in with the new space? What trainers have stepped up to teach and how many classes have they committed to? What is the cost of the consumables for this printer?
None of these items have been brought before the committee.
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Hey guys, I canāt make the CA meeting tonight as itās my anniversary. 21 years! where does the time go?
Anyway, here is a little history about those printers so you all are on the same page.
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CA did vote to purchase a new printer, under the condition that the existing printers be sold first. This vote is undocumented I believe. This was before Roger took over as CA Chair. Several attempts to sell the current printers were made and curtailed.
When Kris started the purchase process for the printer, she did have a CA vote, albeit months old, and the blessing of the then CA Chair Roger, as this happened just before Nicole took the CA Chair position because of Rogerās absence due to his illness.
That CA meeting was the first time many of us (CA members) heard that Kris had started the process of purchasing a new printer at a cost of about $15k. We voted to cancel that purchase which Kris did either later that same evening, or the next morning. She provided a screenshot showing the cancellation. No funds had been spent or transferred.
After this the Printing SIG was created and tasked with pricing and recommending a printer to purchase. As @Lordrook mentioned we were split pretty evenly between sizes, and types of printers (photo, vs fusing ā¦)
At one point the board approved selling those printers before purchasing a new one, but they needed to be sold ātogetherā (citation needed) so they went into storage and have been there ever since.
So a few things that may help you all get this jump started.
- Get clarification from the current board as to how/when the current printers can be sold.
- Gather the Printing SIG and invite anyone still interested.
- Select a new printer. Even if CA waits to purchase it for a few months, we can do all the legwork now of selecting the printer. I believe @talkers had the requirements list that went along with it. Like selecting one that required Users to login, so that consumables could be tracked by person. Figuring out what the cost per linear foot, or consumables used was.
good luck!
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Please put it on the CA agenda to figure out whatās going on with the 2 printers in storage. Logistics will be getting rid of as many storage units as possible soon, so they will need to leave.
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It will be discussed as soon as we find out clarification of whether the bod said the printers had to be sold together. This is one of those things that died for almost a year and now pops back up. We are meeting tonight and Iām sure this will be a hot topic. Believe us when we say we would like to be done with it.
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ā¦and, they have been sitting in an un-climate-controlled storage unit since that time. Whenever that was. And DMS has been paying storage fees. The selling ship may have long-since sailed.
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Odds are theyāre worth scrap value right now; reducing our storage costs is likely worth even more than that.
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Probably. I was told they were a donation when they first arrived anyway. If the old board really did require us to sell them as a pair, especially with known performance issues, the efforts to sell them were pretty doomed to begin with. I would be really disappointed if whatever kerfuffle caused that piece to go bad caused us to back out of owning one entirely.
Agreed, that happened last year. Unfortunately due to some minor turmoil at DMS there have been other priorities on the BoD for the next step.
There was complete radio silence from this SIG since March when you said nothing new was happening in the meeting. There needs to be better communication from the sig going forward.
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Is there a budget number for printer(s)? Whole lot of talk about dms monies and spending around expansion that kinda killed not only the purchase of one but then the proposal of one.
If a number can be approved at ca meeting tonight (Iām stuck at infocomm or Iād bring it up then) then I think the sig can provide a propper proposal to hopefully move forward. Consumable cost and logistics follow.
I feel at this point we need to start over. If we cant recoup any money from the stuff thatās sat for a year, we have a different playing field as this was a major stipulation. We have also just made several large purchases recently (flooring, money earmarked for sewing sig). And have frozen monies for expansion.
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Here I go speaking out of turn again. If I were at the CA meeting tonight and asked, I would vote against a printer purchase BECAUSE we are mid expansion. Thatās based on the previous costs of thousands that were brought up earlier this year. I do think there is value in exploring printer types and costs now though.
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You didnt speak out of turn! I thought your input was well thought out and informative and brought us all up to speed!
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Really Cairenn? I have no problem talking to Kris and do almost every time Iām at the space.
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The committee voted to rescind that purchase. Please donāt bully Nicole simply because you disagree with the committeeās decision.
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Dude. Not helpful or kind.
Iām behind bringing back wide format printing 100% and when the SIG gets siggy will be involved as much as I can. I am with @Webdevel. Thereās no place to put it until we move that wouldnāt have a possibility of damaging it a small wait is advisable. I also know itās going to take some time to settle on the physical printer, decide what consumables to stock, and a tentative curriculum. The presentation to the board will be much stronger if we have a cohesive package and can demonstrate itās application to other areas. I have a hard time thinking theyāll make us wait until the entirety of the expansion is over when it seems theyāre greenlighting adding tools elsewhere.
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This is false. If you want to blame someone for the printer purchase getting cancelled you can blame me.
I was the one that questioned Krisā printer order during that meeting. I was the one that called for a vote to cancel said order. I was also the one that clarified that CA had indeed approved the purchase of a printer many months prior, even though there are no minutes on record.
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