PARAMUS, NJ, October 18, 2001 –The annual Management Plus Awards competition sponsored by the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) is a unique industry-wide event open to commercial printing firms, in-plant companies and graphic arts groups that use NAPL’s self-evaluation techniques to increase overall efficiency and improve their business performance. The Management Plus Awards for 2001 will be presented on March 2nd, at a special dinner held during NAPL’s Top Management Conference at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The formal deadline for mailing entries is Nov. 9th, but the NAPL reminds printers that if they miss this year’s deadline, it’s not too early to start planning for the 2002 competition. "Management Plus is more than just an awards ceremony, it’s an ongoing recognition and self-improvement program designed to help printing companies run their businesses better," explains NAPL President I. Gregg Van Wert. "It also allows managers to examine their business practices in certain areas and rate their performance against accepted industry standards." Management Plus Awards are just one part of NAPL’s Management Plus program, which is designed to help graphic arts-related firms identify their strengths and weaknesses in nine specific areas, including human resources, business planning, sales and marketing, internal control systems, quality control, vendor relations and financial performance. NAPL offers a free workbook that contains a detailed Management Plus questionnaire, which can be used to assess a company’s overall performance and then, if desired, submitted for review by the NAPL judging committee. Management Plus honors are awarded at four levels: the Hall of Fame Award, Gold Awards, Silver Awards, and Merit Awards. All award winners automatically become members of NAPL’s prestigious Management Plus Society, which provides specialized educational sessions at the annual Top Management Conference as well as valuable best practices networking opportunities throughout the year. In addition, up to $8,000 in scholarships to well-established graphic arts schools are donated in the names of selected Hall of Fame and Gold winners, who are also given the opportunity to select the scholarship recipients. Scholarship funding is provided by Management Plus co-sponsors NAPL, American Printer magazine, Compass Capital Partners, Ltd., and MAN Roland. For more information about the NAPL’s Management Plus Awards competition, contact NAPL at 201-634-9600, 1-800-642-6275 or www.napl.org. About NAPL Chartered in 1933, NAPL is a not-for-profit trade association representing the $88 billion commercial printing industry. NAPL’s mission is to "Enable the printing community to profit from change," through a full range of management and educational services to its membership. In addition to on-site training at its Center for Professional Development in Paramus, New Jersey, and Management Institute (MI) courses held at Northwestern University, NAPL offers consulting services as well as an annual Top Management Conference (TMC) recognized as a leading source of strategic ideas. The organization’s Printing Economics Research Center (PERC) produces both the Economic Edge newsletter and the Leading Indicators Service, a source of late-breaking data on trends within the graphic arts industry, and its Publications Department develops and distributes a variety of other publications, guides and special reports, including Printing Manager magazine. NAPL is also one-third owner of the Graphic Arts Show Company, which owns such major industry events as GRAPH EXPO and PRINT.