Today’s tip: If you use an ink jet printer, make sure to use a fast draft option for items that are for reference only. Also, turn off the color when appropriate.

A little bit less ink on the page will result in your cartridges lasting longer. Longer lasting cartridges remind me of those Stride gum commercials. They say, “If it lasts so long, won’t we sell less gum.” Much the same, if we make the cartridges last longer, HP sells less of them and we keep the forty-bucks-a-pop in our budget rather than in corporate America.

Viva Savings!

(This is copied from an internal staff e-mail and is part of a series of posts)

Don’t print out e-mails unless absolutely necessary. A folder in Outlook is as effective as a binder on your bookshelf.

You may have seen e-mails from people with a signature that says something like, “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.” Many even have graphic blocks like the one below. It’s a big new trend sweeping across many corporate e-mails.

They’re right, printing less does help the environment, both in reducing the waste stream and in limiting the amount of forests that need to be reforested. However, for me, reducing the amount of e-mails we print reduces our operational expenditures. See, anything we spend on administration cannot be spent on ministry.

(This is copied from an internal staff e-mail and is part of a series of posts)

So, this morning was a normal Sunday morning except for one thing. There was a stranger in town, one bad dude, known well in south-east Texas, but here in Central Texas is somewhat unfamiliar. The name’s humidity, and misery is the game.

Well, for our children’s check-in, we are using Shelby and a team of 6 Dymo LabelWriter 400’s. They usually do their jobs quite well, and we rarely have trouble from them other than kids unplugging cables.

Today, the humidity did them in. All 6 printers siezed up and produced odd, and I mean ODD, results. If they printed at all, the names would either be spread across two labels, have three blank labels in between each correct one, or get jammed in the machine. Have any of you had a similar issue? Do the Zebra printers have the same problem or are they better shielded?