Printing for TRC Rallyes

When TRC does the printing, it is usually handled by Steve Watt <steve@watt.com> or Darin.

• Steve no longer attends every TRC rallye, so it is likely that you (or someone) will pick it up beforehand from his house in San Jose. If he prints your CMs, you pick them up together.
• Darin may not have a toner cartridge ahead, so be sure to give him plenty of warning.

Printing Reimbursement Rates

The following rates are current, as of January, 2014:

Item	Reimbursement
"simplex" on own paper	$0.06 per sheet
"simplex" on TRC paper or labels	$0.05 per sheet
"duplex" on own paper	$0.10 per sheet
"duplex" on TRC paper	$0.09 per sheet
Envelopes	$0.07 per 5 envelopes (or fraction thereof)
CMs on card stock	$0.11 per sheet ($0.06+$0.05)
2-sided postcards	$0.16 per sheet ($0.06+$0.10)
Own labels	$0.30 per sheet ($0.25+$0.05)

(In case you don't know, "simplex" means printing one one side of the sheet; "duplex" means printing on both sides of the sheet.)

Standard Rallye Printing

Whoever prints should bring 30 copies of the rallye and critique to the start. Almost all of them will be stapled and numbered, and the last will be unstapled, available for a run up to Office Max if more than 29 cars register.

We now normally print 20 extra registration packets (without scoresheets) to sell for back seat passengers.

See below about coursemarkers and other printing.

Reimbursement

Reimbursement rates are now summarized in the table at the top of this page. This is roughly cost for medium-duty laser printers; bulk copiers will be somewhat lower, small printers somewhat higher.

Color

Some RMs have used color in registration packets, CMs, and Critique maps to great effect. If you want to be reimbursed more than the above rates, you need to get board approval beforehand. If this is used for gimmicks, this will "tip your hand."

Dean's place charges (in December, 2011) $0.39 for one-sided color copies in bulk, so maybe less than twice that for two-sided. Most places charge more (about $0.50). Standard ink-jet printing cost depends greatly on how much of the page is colored.

If you are printing in color, one way to keep costs down is to minimize how many pages are color (e.g., only the maps of the Critique and only 30 copies; remaining copies would be gray scale). You're likely to do the collation and stapling yourself, however.

Document Transfer to Steve Watt

The easiest way to handle the bulk printing is to E-mail two PDFs to Steve or Darin: One with the packet participants get at the start, one with the critique. Steve can also handle Word 2007 or earlier documents, but there is risk of formatting disagreement when using Office.

Make certain that your PDF creation software embeds any unusual fonts. If you're using any font that doesn't come with a default Windows installation, ask Steve if he has it.

If you can't create a combined PDF, there are web sites that will combine your PDFs for you. Or Steve can probably do it, but you need to make sure that PDF font subsetting does not occur; again this is dependent on your particular PDF creating software.

Note that if you have special car numbers, colored paper, or other unusual requests, Steve can often handle them, but do ask more than a day or two ahead.

Minimum margins are 1/4" on the sides and bottom, and about 1/2" on top (though people prefer more, due to clipboards).

Coursemarkers

Steve can also print your coursemarkers, if you're willing to pick them up. We have a few ideas about how to create coursemarkers. Word format works fine for these, as the formatting is somewhat less challenging.

We now normally print coursemarkers on standard paper, rather than 110-pound card stock. So TRC reimbursement rates are the same as those stated above. You may also be reimbursed for a duplicate set of CMs on standard paper, in case a CM is lost or destroyed. Most RMs simply depend on a Sharpie or pasting existing letters and numbers in the unlikely case that a replacement is needed.

Checkpoint Slips

When Steve was competing, he normally did not print checkpoint slips. This is because they usually need handling (small slips need to be cut apart), and one cannot perform that handling without seeing/reading them, and no competing rallyist should do so, that just wouldn't be fair.

Schedule

Please have your files ready by the Wednesday late-afternoon before the rallye (assuming a Saturday rallye). That gives Steve time to do the test run, and we can iterate if needed to make sure something printable comes ou

Printing for Mailings

Reimbursement rates are now summarized in the table at the top of this page. We account for mailings separately from rallye printing.