Celebrating our Employee of the Month for April 2024, Duke Cutaran! His dedication and ability to “whisper” to machines and keep everything in the Mailing Department running smoothly is nothing short of remarkable.

Navigating change is never easy, especially after losing our dear friend and partner, Chang Cho from Zion Press Mailing, from cancer in February 2022.

We transitioned through this rough period, thanks to the invaluable support from Chang’s family, George and Tina, and our mailing journey began with a few crucial assets and permit #83. This foundation enabled us to secure daily mailings for a water company, marking a significant milestone in our operations.

We quickly began to learn the complexities of mailing and cannot thank our printing allies Pacific Printing and Almaden Press enough for their assistance.  They opened their operations to teach us insider knowledge that’s crucial for effective mailings.  Our team also received training directly from the experts when the USPS stepped in to provide much needed information about the portal, its requirements, and how it’s set up so we couldn’t fail. We had our fair share of hiccups, and the amazing team at the Santa Clara Post Office helped navigate the bumps and discover ways to improve.  Xerox even helped us by combining a 2^nd Iridesse press in the mailing area and connecting us with Quadient for the ink jetting.

Family comes first at JP Graphics, and when George had to return to Korea to care for his wife and Tina became the sole caregiver for their mother, our team rallied together. Pauly from prepress dove into mailing software, Claudia got the bindery team involved, and even our pressman Eddie stepped up to learn the mailing machines.

The missing piece in the mailing puzzle was Duke.  Since joining JP Graphics 2^nd shift part-time in November of 2023, he has quickly become an indispensable asset to our team. Duke loves printing and mailing, and most importantly loves to tinker and make the machines work.  He pinpointed some of the underlying issues with the older machines we inherited, and successfully connected the wafer sealer and several other critical items.  When there were transit issues with a small Formax machine we acquired at a print show, it was Duke that got it running. He is a barracuda when it comes to Repair Service – constantly on top of service requests and replacement parts.

Duke is a reliable team player, working with Claudia and myself to ensure the mailings are printed and ready to post every morning. You can see from the comments of the managers how he has been the cornerstone of our department’s growth.

• “Duke is the “Elf” that comes in at night and just makes it happen.” ~ Joe
• “Duke’s help is what makes the mailing a success. We work together, so we can back up each other, and make sure the mailings go out every day as promised.” ~ Claudia
• “Mailings are all ready for us – paperwork and all so we can take them to our Santa Clara Post Office.” ~ Miguel
• “Duke gave Pauly the confidence he needed to run the lists and be able to turn it over to production to ‘Get it done’.” ~ Dave
• “Duke has made the mailing machines work, so my department does not have to break into other jobs for the small folding. I can’t wait for the department to grow more, so everyone is busier.” ~ Norbi
• “Mailing has been a complicated journey and Duke has really shifted my perspective on how much impact a proactive employee can have.  Thanks to him, I can now devote more time to focusing on sales, knowing that our equipment and mailings are in capable hands.  He always says, ‘His Part Time, is Full Time Relief for me!’” ~ Joan

Thank you, Duke, your dedication has been instrumental in growing this department and achieving success beyond expectations.  Keep up the great work.