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Introducing Brother Jones ArtWorks™
His work is regularly published in training materials for the more than 34,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. He recently finished illustrating a full text bible for Zondervan which is due out early 2002, and ten frame puzzles for a toy company in Wisconsin. Brother Dennis, who lives in Huntington, Indiana, is the artist for our first offering of MIGHTY FINE greeting cards. Actually, he likes to refer to himself as an illustrator rather than an artist, explaining that illustrators make money. His idea of a good greeting card is one that, when you look at the outside you can't imagine what it would be used for and when you open it, you're surprised enough to laugh. We're releasing four sets of all-occasion cards and one package of Christmas Cards. Critters includes the "Yipes" bug, the "Z'Up?" Yo Yo guy, and the "Excuse Me" worm. When you see them you'll understand the difficult discription. Heroes cards feature some heroes of all time with Daniel in the Lions Den, Noah and the Animals, and Jonah about to be swallowed by the big fish, asking "Ever had one of those days?" We think the Kids cards will be a hit with teachers and parents. The Patriotic cards will tap on your American spirit while putting a smile on your face. And the Nativity card is wonderfully unique. Be sure to stop by our booth for a sample.
After a couple of years cranking out caricatures, Don took a position with
the "World's Largest Fishing & Boating" company cranking out
catalogs. It was there he discovered the ins and outs of designing and producing
massive amounts of work. From there the career path led him to join up
with the "World's Largest Pentecostal" denomination as an art director
where he continues to design and produce projects through the miracle of the
Macintosh. Doug Jones, the senior member of the three brothers, claims to be an only child. We look forward to adding his art to our arsenal in the future. Visit our new site, developed by QDP web designer Sara Phares (let her do one for you). Be sure to click on the art to enlarge and see the detail. We're excited about our new venture and hope you'll agree. Over the years, our software programs have always tried to accommodate everyone's needs and add new features to help you - the fundraiser. Unfortunately, we cannot always add every single feature - usually due to the way the program is written. Well, we have been working on the next generation of WinUltra software - and we have crammed so many new features into it, we are convinced you will love it. What's New?First, WinUltra 2.0 has many new timesaving features. We have reduced keystrokes in Inventory and Brochure Entry. We have eliminated screens when running printouts. We have also included backup routines for the group and data files. At the same time, we have kept the functionality the same for those who are familiar with our programs. WinUltra 2.0 is also more user-friendly. On-screen prompts guide the user to the next step. Nothing is hidden, everything is a button and those familiar with other Windows© programs will easily pick up on the program. Meeting Today's StandardsAs the fundraising industry grows, so do the brochures and designators. WinUltra 2.0 can now accommodate 6-digit designators (we can already hear you cheering). We have also increased the number of prizes you can tally. Say good-bye to 30 spaces - you now have 190 spaces! And if you use prize programs that have only one prize per level, Automatic Prize Entry will automatically fill in the prizes for you. Time is important to you and we have made Inventory and Brochure entry a breeze with pop-up screens. After you enter an item and accept it, a blank screen appears ready for the next item. No more clicking Add then Accept, Add then Accept. Data and Catalog entry have a new look, but the same functionality. We have added what we call the "Team Screen". This new screen allows you to see all of your teams on the left side of the screen and the corresponding sellers on the right. Click on a team to see a list of the sellers you have entered and their totals. Adding sellers and modifying orders is as easy as clicking a button. We have also updated the printouts. Bold headings and a cleaner layout make it easier to read and find the information you are looking for. We have also added and modified printouts to help meet your needs. Class/Team reports no longer print the student's items on the right side of the page. But don't worry, for those of you who want that option it is available on a separate report. These are just a few of the new features. We haven't even told you about Group Reservations. Check out our website at www.qdpcorp.com/products/winultra20 for a complete list and a preview of the software. When Can You Buy It?We will be beta-testing next spring and if you are interested in being a beta tester stop by our booth at the AFRDS show or give us a call afterwards. We are currently looking at a release date of June 1, 2002. We have not set any prices for the new software and will probably not make them available until the AFRDS show or after. Is anybody going to Tampa for the AFRDS show? I hope so. The airlines need your business - and so do I. Recently, I've had several people call to ask about the show. A vendor thinks the show is too late. A distributor thinks the show is becoming less important. Someone thinks a major vendor is getting set up to dump the association. With those recent calls, plus a few of my own editorial comments, I thought I'd ask some questions. We'd love to hear your answers. Is the show too late?Increasingly, distributors are designing their brochures sooner. They've already made their decisions and perceive that they don't need the show. Warehousing distributors and those designing their own brochures get invitations to start looking at product from August through October for the next Fall. For those people, the show is to mingle and mix – or perhaps to pick up some auxiliary or secondary programs. This is not good news for vendors spending dozens of thousands of dollars to be there. One major vendor has a new approach. Did you get your invitation to the recent Atlanta party? I didn’t, but based on my volume of purchases, I couldn’t have expected otherwise. With printed brochures and order forms in hand, they invited a large contingent of customers to acquire pre-show brochure commitments. Smart, eh? One distributor told me he was asked about attending the AFRDS show and his affirmative answer generated the vendor response, "Why?". With what it costs my little company to go to the show, I can only imagine what it costs the big guys….(I’ve heard six-digit numbers)….just imagine what they could do if they spent that money to offer their customers some extra pampering or higher markup. You know what happens when somebody achieves a competitive advantage, don’t you? Remember when vendors had black and white brochures at the first show and then you went to the second show to see the finished color printed versions? One company came to the first show with printed brochures and almost immediately created the existing standard. Now we have this new strategy unleashed. Will the other vendors follow? And, if they do, how interested will they be in spending $100,000+ for elaborate displays at the AFRDS show when they’ve already got their customer base on board? If January is too late, therefore, when should it be? The most appropriate, but also most inconvenient, time would probably be October. Okay, so we know that is out because we distributors are up to our eyeballs in back-orders and substitutions. What about July? Too early for the vendors – tough! Think about it and speak up in Tampa. Or, write me and I’ll speak up in this, the most feared newsletter in the industry. Is the show worth the price?Consider these conservative estimates of a distributor who wants to come to the show: - $275 membership That’s over $1000 if you come alone. For large companies that may not mean so much, but for the little guy – yeah, it’s a considerable investment. For my little company, I have 9 people coming. With two cars and a few airline tickets, two booths . . . Here’s a low estimate of what it costs me to be there.
. . . I'm going to stop there because I'm getting depressed. Consider the supplier with 20 booths and 30 people. Wow. A recent email indicates that 200+ companies pre-registered and bragging that is ahead of where we were this time last year. Does that sound like a big number to you? Sorry, to me it does not. How important is it that you go to the show?We keep good records on AFRDS members and show attendance and have observed a couple trends. Also, as a member of the AFRDS Membership Committee assigned to make a couple dozen recruiting calls, I’ve heard interesting comments. Just this week, a distributor customer who utilizes our tally and pack services asked if he could get into the show under my company name. Of course, I said no. To him and other potential new members, I have made the comment that, especially for someone new to the business, that $275 membership fee is one of the best investments you can make. For one thing, just joining the show gets you on the mailing list of every vendor there. And you can learn a lot by attending the show for the first time. For the new distributor, the extra training can be invaluable. A large group of distributors will join AFRDS one year only to let their membership lapse. They will join again a few years later. People in that group have explained to me that they don’t see much change from one year to the next – and that if they show up every few years, they stay on active mail lists and get to see a few new vendors. The big question comes from the sizable, experienced distributor. Vendor reps call on these people personally and give them special invitations (and often pay for transportation) to come to see the product line long before the show. They have established relationships with all the people they need or desire to work with. They feel like they already know the business and don’t see the same value to the "round tables" and training offerings. Their question is, Do we need the show? As far as they’re concerned, the show is for the "trunk slammers", who they would just as soon see out of the business. AFRDS exists because vendors and distributors pay to be members. Their challenge is to maintain a high enough perceived value that we are willing to continue to spend money. Hopefully, this year's show will demonstrate real value to all who attend and that our association will continue to address legitimate questions. Note: I did have another question and article that my office staff convinced me was too, ummmm, well, they just wanted me to pull it. Perhaps it will show up in a PRIORITY Newsletter or in a more mellow format in a future issue of RUNTIME.
There is some truth to the statements about the "graying of the industry"; that there aren't as many new people coming into the business. That presents a significant challenge to QDP and I hope you'll give us a chance to show you what we're doing about it. WinUltra 1.2 has gone through multiple seasons now . . . so if you've been waiting to upgrade, now is the time. Once we release a new version, the price will likely increase. With a couple exceptions, Fall 2001 was one of our smoothest software and support seasons ever. www.qdpcorp.com/products/winultra WinUltra 2.0 has Dennis and Sara as excited as I have seen them in a while (see Sara's article in this letter). We'll be offering special incentives to a small number of "beta" testers during the Spring 2001 season. Don't ask unless you're willing to be serious in testing and documenting. www.qdpcorp.com/products/winultra20 WinScan 1.0 is our updated bar-code scanning program for Order Accuracy Verification on the pre-pack line, with increased color coding, error-preventing measures. One distributor wanted the system to "reach out and choke the operator" who tries to go to the next order when the current one is less than 100% (ignoring the system, in other words). Well, it doesn't go that far . . . but if you want to see how to force your packing crew to account for every item, even backordered product (unless you're working for one of those vendors who guarantee 100% on-time delivery), you'll want to see a demonstration. www.qdpcorp.com/products/winscan TELEform™ and TallyScan. Are your brochures getting bigger while your time to tally them shrinks? We've re-vamped this higher ticket solution to high volume data entry and reduced the start-up investment requirement by $10,000. It still isn't cheap, but if your bottleneck is too tight and you can't or don't want to hire additional talliers, stop by for an overview demonstration of how you can double or even triple your data entry speed with the capability to read the order forms - yes, the handwritten order forms. The time to do this is spring, not the summer. www.qdpcorp.com/products/tallyscan IScan will save you time getting product off the truck and into inventory. www.qdpcorp.com/products/iscan UCollect is an optional add-on to our WinUltra program. Sometimes, in that competitive atmosphere, it is the distributor who can offer that little extra who gets the sale. UCollect helps your group sponsors with money collection, enabling them to see who sold, what they owe (even if they returned items and made partial payments), who still owes . . . and more. www.qdpcorp.com/products/winultra/ucollect.htm Celebrate America Brochure. Come see some of what we do to make our brochure unique and believe this is our best one yet.
Brother Jones ArtWorks™. Are you looking for something different, American-made, light-weight for shipping, easy to sell on-line, with some exclusivity? Let us introduce you to Brother Jones ArtWorks™. We're offering this distinctive artwork on greeting cards. They are included in our "Celebrate America" brochure and also available as a tag program. And when you see the samples of artwork we're not using yet, you can tell us how exclusive you'd like to be. These first cards are designed for general fundraising use. The only card that includes scripture is the Nativity Card, although there is a subtle invitation on one of the patriotic cards. The Heros are actually Old Testament Bible Characters which would be acceptable in Jewish schools. Eventually, we may add a separate line to go more specifically after the Christian school market. We've already got some terrific New Testament artwork and are working on a Founding Fathers series that will be historically, rather than politically, correct. Come see US . . . John & Joan Gardner, Max & Barbara Garwood, Dennis Barnum and Sara Phares.
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Brother
Jones ArtWorks is a collaboration of "fraternal might" consisting of
Doug, Dennis, and Donald Jones. QDP is teaming up with Brother Jones ArtWorks to
introduce the most unique art you'll find in fundraising. These three brothers
each have distinct reputations in their specific fields. They are not
starving artists.
Dennis
Jones (seen right) has been drawing pictures for 23 years. He believes
God has given him an artistic gift and has attempted for many years now to use
it for Him.
Donald
Jones (seen left) make the pictures look good for our cards. Despite earning
a B.S. in Education, Don's passion for making a living in anything other than
teaching led him to pursue a career as a freelance artist. There's been no
looking back.