About
The primary aim of the Further Education Reprographic Forum is to support managers and staff who work in the sector who have responsibilities for the provision, development and maintenance of reprographics, printing and related college support services.
It is also the aim of the group is to contribute substantially to the development and maintenance of high quality, value for money, printing and related services for the enhancement of teaching, learning, research, marketing, administration and publicity activities in Further Education.
In the furtherance of this aim the group shall:
- Provide a forum for discussion, debate and presentations.
- Encourage and facilitate better training and promotion opportunities for its members.
- Consider matters relevant to the provision, quality and management of printing and related services.
- Seek to inform and influence policy at both national and local level.
- Advise institutions, national bodies, etc as invited or where appropriate, on provision, procedures and standards.
- Liaise with other relevant associations.
- Encourage support and facilitate related agreements for purchasing.
Membership
Membership of the forum is open to all Further Education Colleges. The membership fee is £120.00 per college per year. Each member college can elect up to 3 staff as named contacts. Named contacts will receive a termly newsletter and access via a password to the members pages of this website. The members area also contains a discussion board to allow the sharing of good practice ideas and general issues etc etc.
Members are also invited to attend a programme of meetings held throughout the year in various locations throughout the UK. Non members are also invited to attend these meetings although anyone interested should contact the Administrator to enquire about the programme and the non members delegate fee.
What benefits do you receive as a member of the Forum?
(Up to 3 named staff from any one college will receive the following range of benefits)
Newsletter
A termly newsletter with information about future events, membership news, updates on the latest equipment and consumables, information on Health and Safety issues and copyright etc.
Website
Access to the Members Area of the Forum Website. The website is used as a means of sharing good practise and for seeking advice and support from fellow members. New information is posted onto the discussion board every few days.
Events
Members receive invitations to events held throughout the country. The Forum holds an Annual Conference. This event is an ideal opportunity for members to meet over a two day period. The conference programme is packed with the latest information and ‘Hot Topics’. Meetings regularly have more than 30 delegates at each event. Delegates often travel significant distances to attend meetings. To date event feedback has been very positive and supportive.
Projects
From time to time the Forum will undertake a range of specialist projects. Work on benchmarking and purchasing contracts is also ongoing.
History of the Forum
In 1998 a group of Further Education Reprographic Managers in Southern England began to meet on a regular, informal basis with the main aim of sharing good practice.
The agenda at these meetings covered topics such as photocopier contracts, paper purchasing, copyright issues, digital print provision and cost recovery.
Similarly, for a number of years in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, FE print managers were also meeting together on an ad-hoc basis for very much the same reasons.
Generally meetings were quite well attended and then almost by accident the two groups quite independently looking for input to future meetings approached Xerox as a potential host and sponsor.
As a result of this approach to Xerox two conferences were arranged in November 2000, one at Wokefield Park, Reading (a Xerox Training Centre) and the other at North Lindsey College, Scunthorpe. These events were very successful but more importantly it brought the two groups of managers together for the first time.
Everyone attending these two events were invited to consider the benefits of amalgamating the two groups and forming a national FE Reprographic Forum. The consensus was that such a move would be very welcome and could only positively support the work and activities of anyone with a College print manager responsibility.
As a result of this decision invitations were sent to all FE College Reprographic Managers inviting them to meet at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) on 9 April 2001 to begin the process of formulising the forum. In order to facilitate this process an Acting Management Group of Jon Larsson (Nescot), Lesley Mulley (Barnet College), Dave Pavely (Westminster Kingsway College) and David Simons (North Lindsey College) offered to conduct the business of the Forum and organise events for one year until a first Annual General Meeting could be held (provisionally arranged for April 2002).
After a very successful year the Forum held its Inaugural Annual General Meeting in Northampton on 21/22 March 2002.
In 2003 a termly newsletter was distributed to member colleges. Developments and enhancements to the website allowed for a significant amount of archive materials, papers and presentations being made available for member access. The aim to have at least 100 member colleges accessing the discussion board was achieved in 2004.
Application Form
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