Editorial note: Many churches have no idea how this machine can help their church print more effectively. The intro and then the video and downloadable booklet will help explain it. Please pass this on to whoever makes office equipment decisions for your church.
—Why it’s so important to share this information with you
I’ve been helping churches create effective communications for over 20 years, but the last few years I’ve watched a bothersome trend develop. I saw it first-hand in a church I was helping create some materials to advertise an important ministry when the people doing the ministry were told, “I’m sorry, but it isn’t in the budget for us to create the bulletin inserts and flyers you want.”
Then we worked on an overview brochure that described the upcoming adult education classes in the church (a new program, lots of classes, exciting ministry changes) and were told that a limited number could be printed and only one time because that was all the budget allowed.
This was not a good situation.
No matter how useful the web and social media may be for people to connect with ministries and attend them regularly, many people in the church still need printed schedules, explanatory brochures, and flyers to remind them of basic information: the when, where, why, and how to attend. If a church cuts down on printed support materials for ministries, the ministry attendance will inevitably decline in numbers.
Churches see that happening in every area, but often fail to connect falling attendance with the falling number of communications created and printed to get people to attend events.
Even the coveted by churches younger families with kids appreciate a calendar they can post on the refrigerator to remind them of family activities. For churches with large Baby Boomer members, print is a preferred communication channel and in these churches, the Baby Boomers are often the most faithful in giving to support the church. It helps if they know what is going on in the church and they probably aren’t going to find it out from Snapchat or Twitter.
But churches say they can’t afford to print. What is going on?
As I researched this more carefully, I realized that in many churches today the primary tool for church communication production is a color copier. These are not inexpensive to run. The copies look great, but cost is a factor.
As I was figuring this out, the RISO Corporation who sponsored my seminars all over North America in the past, asked me to come back and help train their current sales force in how to work with churches. I went to a national meeting and saw their newest printing equipment, particularly the ComColor Inkjet printer and in watching the demonstrations I realized both the challenge and the solution.
The challenge is that color copiers are great for some publications in the church, but if a church is going to print ALL they need to print to grow their church in numbers and their people in spiritual maturity, (an overview of all that is needed follows) they simply need to print more. But a color copier is expensive to operate, cost per copies is high (yes, less than many years ago, but still high), they get hot and jam, they aren’t production fast, and the high-energy cost to run them and the pollution emitted from the toner in them are drains on the environment and unhealthy in a church office.
Before I explain anymore, I realized you need to see this machine in action, so I put together a very short video that shows how it works. It's made from some older RISO videos I found (new models look somewhat different) but these really explain how the machines work along with my comments. I think you'll find the process and differences between a copier and this machine fascinating. The overview continues after the video.
It’s only wise to limit copier production in a church.
But the church still needs to print lots and here is where I got excited at the meeting. RISO has a relatively new machine, the ComColor Inkjet Printer. Though it is about the size of a small copier it operates by means of INKJET, not TONER technology. The material that follows explains this in detail, but the conclusion is that a ComColor Inkjet Printer is a far less expensive, much faster, more reliable, and environmentally friendly way to print full color church communications.
The solution to the problem was the realization was that the ComColor Inkjet Printer is the way for the church to afford to print everything it needs to print!
I got very excited when I saw this and excited to work with the RISO people again. Many of the same Office Equipment Dealers are still in the business from when they sponsored my seminars and they are some of the most helpful people I’ve worked with on how they genuinely want to serve churches and make them more effective. As I thought about all this, I wanted to share with my church audience how helpful I think their equipment can be to churches and to encouragement them to check it out.
Two more things
One, the ComColor Inkjet Printer isn’t a digital duplicator, e.g. the old “RISOGRAPH.” This paper primarily focuses on the ComColor Inkjet Printer which is a full-color, much more advanced machine. It doesn’t use drums or toner like the old Digital Duplicator. Having said that, RISO has continued to improve the Digital Duplicator and the new machines are incredibly fast and have beautiful print quality. They are also almost incredibly cheap to run, which is why they are still the preferred print method in schools and incredibly reliable under adverse circumstances which is why the military uses them in oversees conditions and why they are the printer of choice for cruise ships. The benefits of them and uses need to be the subject of another paper, but if you are interested, contact a RISO Dealer (www.riso.com) that sells them.
Two, full disclosure: I am writing and promoting this, totally because I want to, not because anybody at RISO asked me to. I don’t get any money when RISO sells a machine, I have no idea when or how or what they sell the machines for. I help the sales people understand churches and just like they need help in that, I know most churches don’t understand RISO equipment. I know their equipment can help churches more than they can imagine, so that’s why I wrote this paper and am sharing it with you.
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