Stay in “Touch” With The Master’s Touch, LLC Printing and Mail Services

Volume Four

FROM THE DESK OF JIM COTÉ

The Master’s Touch, LLC 1405 N Ash StSpokane, WA 99201509-326-7475Sales@themasterstouch.com

The Master’s Touch Print & Mail 270 Kuulei Rd, Ste 204 Kailua, HI 96734 800-301-1347TMTHawaii@themasterstouch.com

Sincerely,

Jim Coté President

Masters@themasterstouch.com

Stay in “Touch” With The Master’s Touch, LLC Printing and Mail Services

May 2011 Issue #1

On May 4th, The Master’s Touch, LLC will celebrate our 17th year in business. Wow – time flies!

It seems like just a short time ago when my wife and I, led by prayer and providential circumstances, decided that I should leave my very comfortable job with good wage and benefits and start out on a new venture called “The Master’s Touch.” From that day until now, we have never looked back, starting in a spare bedroom in our home and a small loan secured through my mother. Since that time, we have been thoroughly blessed with our 36,000 square foot headquarters with a branch office in Kailua, Hawaii, 18 employees and roughly 500 customers in 12 states. Every year has been an increase in business from the year before. Thank you for the role you have played in our growth and continued success!

As you may know, the Postal Rate Commission denied the USPS an increase in retail rates for one ounce First Class postage. What flew under the radar and received little to no media coverage is the fact that all other First Class and discounted mailing rates DID go up. The second ounce of a First Class mail piece went up from 17 cents to 20 cents. ALL automation postage rates went up on average 4 tenths of a cent, as did Standard A and non-profit rates.

You might think this will necessitate an increase in your postage budget. It may, but you can certainly minimize any increase by being vigilant to get your addresses cleaned up. We have discussed a number of address verification tools that we can use to help you with this, through this newsletter and also through the conferences I present at. If you would like to learn more or be refreshed regarding the things that can be done to reduce or eliminate undeliverable mail and qualify more of your mail for discounted postage, please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss further. We would be happy to take the time to have a one on one discussion to explain all your options and let you choose the one(s) that you think will best fit your needs.

The National Postal Forum was held in San Diego May 1-4. It was another excellent forum, providing vital information on the new USPS requirements and exciting opportunities that will help us to help you be more efficient with your postal budget and more effective with your mailing campaigns. I look forward to conveying some of that information in our next newsletter. Until then, have a First Class day!

SAS 70 Type II CompleTedIn our continuing effort to meet the needs and requests of our clients,

The Master’s Touch, LLC has recently concluded a SAS 70 Type II audit.

We are excited to report the audit was successful and no reason was found for the auditors to write a “letter of qualification.” This means that we were able to conclusively prove that the controls we have in place are being followed, by virtue of verifying those controls during the previous 6 month period. You have our commitment that we will continue to observe these controls every day. Even further, we are adding additional controls and procedures that we believe will enhance our security of your data to an even higher level.

If you have any questions regarding our controls or would like a confidential copy of our report, please contact our main office at 1-800-301-1347. Ask for Jim or Christina.

TMT CustomersWelcome Aboard! New TMT Customers

The following organizations have recently chosen The Master’s Touch, LLC for their

printing and/or mailing needs:

Cheyenne County AssessorConejos County AssessorCostilla County Assessor

Gunnison County AssessorJackson County Treasurer

Jelido Inc.Kauai County Solid Waste Division

Lincoln County Treasurer (WA)Northland Credit UnionPitkin County AssessorPueblo County Assessor

Rio Grande County AssessorSaguache County Assessor

San Juan County Assessor (CO)Sears Employees Federal Credit Union

Sedgwick County Assessor

Welcome Aboard!

AT TMT

Our company’s vision statement:“To provide complete print and mail service solutions that minimize costs

and maximize efficiencies in order to produce highly effective mailings with 100% accuracy and unsurpassed turnaround times.

We will be driven by our passion to not just meet customer expectations, but to exceed them whenever possible.”

The Master’s Touch, LLC has worked on quite a number of projects with TUI with great

success. You might consider giving them a call for a demo of their equipment.

The staff at The Master’s Touch, LLC would like to wish the following TMT

employees a Happy Birthday:Drew (prepress/pressroom), Mar. 1st

Ven (data processing), Apr. 3rd

Happy [employment] Anniversary to the following TMT staffers:Penny (accounting), May 1999

John (customer service), May 2009 Drew (prepress/pressroom), Jun. 2007 Jennifer (graphics/prepress), Jun. 2008

March 30 - 31 – American Public Works Association – Vancouver, WA

April 14 - 16 – Hawaii Credit Union League – Waikoloa, HI April 30 - May 3 – National Postal Forum – San Diego, CA* May 3 - 5 – Springbrook Conference – Portland, OR May 19 – Puget Sound Postal Customer Council

– Seattle, WA* May 24 - 27 – South Dakota Treasurer Conference

– Oacoma, SD* June 6 - 7 – Minnesota Counties Computer Cooperative

– Alexandria, MN June 7 - 9 Arizona – Treasurers Conference – Chinle, AZ

* June 13 - 17 – Washington Treasurers Conference – Wenatchee, WA

June 20 - 23 – Washington State Association of County Assessors – Spokane, WA

June 21 - 24 – Association of Washington Cities – Spokane, WA

June 22 – Washington State Association of County Clerks – La Conner, WA

June 20 - 24 – Colorado Treasurers Conference – Black Hawk, CO

* July 13 - 16 – National Association of County Collectors, Treasurers and Finance Officers – Portland, OR

Software Solutions for Local Government

• Financial Management • Payroll/Human Resources • Customer Information Services • Land Management

Springbrook Software 111 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 1850

Portland, OR 97204

phone: Toll-free 1.866.256.7661 email: sales@sprbrk.comWeb: springbrooksoftware.com

Where in the World is Jim Coté?

If you would like to have Jim speak at your next conference or event about the new Intelligent Mail Barcode, and/or reducing your undeliverable mail, please call Christina at 800-301-1347 to get on Jim’s schedule.

*Jim will be speaking at this event

Spotlight on a TMT employeeVolume Four May 2011 Issue #1

Another Satisfied Customer...

SPOTLIGHT ON A TMT

EMPLOyEE:

DREW: PREPRESS/PRESSROOM

Hello, my name is Drew and I work in Prepress and the Pressroom here at TMT. I moved to Spokane and joined the team in 2007 and am excited to be a part of an organization that really does work for you.

My job in Prepress is to bridge the gap between beautiful design and functional form. Throughout the design stage I process your artwork through our plating software to insure when it comes time to print, it will print! That is – it will print as you want it to. For instance, if you supply us with a font we do not have, it may not print. If you supply us with a graphic that has an art link, but forget to provide us that link, it will not print. Sometimes you may forget to provide us with the clear space we need at the edge of the sheet for the press to grip the sheet to pull it through. That means we may have to adjust the art slightly to allow for that clearance. All this is done before you see a proof, so when you sign off on it, you can be absolutely sure, the PDF image you approve is the exact one we will produce.

As a mailing service provider, you can imagine we go through a lot of envelopes. That’s another hat I wear! I run our Halm Jet Envelope Press. This dedicated envelope printing machine is capable of printing speeds exceeding 60,000 (yes, sixty thousand) envelopes per hour! Not only fast, it can print 2 colors on both the front and back of your envelope at the same time. Keep this in mind when designing; there is plenty of “real estate” on the back of an envelope, just waiting for a special message!

My hobbies? When I’m not at work, you will probably find me playing music, building websites (keep an eye out for the new and improved TheMastersTouch.com!) or cooking for friends. I love all things technology. If it’s got a button, I’m going to press it!

Jim’s comment: “As with most of our team members, once they join us, they tend to stay. We are grateful for Drew’s excellent attitude and willingness to help in any way he can. It is not uncommon for Drew to volunteer to work a late swing shift when there is a lot of work scheduled to be completed. Drew is another example of how going the extra mile is just a part of our culture and desire to serve our customers.”

Here is a recent quote fromDELTA COUNTy TREASURER

“I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your staff at The Master’s Touch for the outstanding job that was done on our tax notices this year. After many years with a competing service, I received a lower price quote from you and I chose to switch.

I was not disappointed. You have a staff of skilled professionals and they are great communicators. They responded quickly to any questions or requests that we had. The quality of the printing, accuracy and timeliness were all fantastic. I highly recommend your business to anyone needing printing and mailing services. Your staff takes all the stress out of it.

Thanks again and I look forward to working with you again next year!”

Sincerely,

Jim D. Ventrello, County Treasurer and Public Trustee

Jim D. VentrelloDelta County Treasurer501 Palmer Suite 202Delta, CO 81416-1764

reTurn SerViCe requeSTeD

Tax NoTice eNclosed