Man, oh man. Little did I know a year ago what kind of response I would have. To date, counting both CineMates and WorkPrinters, we have taken orders for over 200 units. To a large part, all of you have been part of this success story. Many of you encouraged me to put these on the internet and, in the early days of last year, many helped fan the flames of interest by keeping the topic of quality home transfers alive on discussion boards like this one.

The best part of this entire experience has been the one on one chats with each WorkPrinter or CineMate customer. Emails always take too much time and I found telephone meetings to be much quicker, more efficient and, frankly, just plain fun. I have talked with people all over the world. I have shipped units to places that I will never see in my lifetime.

With this surprising growth also comes a few anxieties. At this point, I live, eat and sleep WorkPrinters. My wife, Annette, handles the transfers and we each have been putting in 18 hour days almost 7 days a week for the last year. We're tired. I'm finding that I have less and less time to talk to people. But, if I hire someone to handle the finishing of the units, then I fear the "hands on" quality of the units might be jeopardized. As a result, my turn around time has recently been pushed from 30-45 days to 45-60 days to accommodate the ever increasing response. If the orders come in any thicker than that, I guess I'll have to set up larger facilities in a small warehouse space nearby. More than likely I will have to hire some full time employees, as well.

Many people might see that as a huge success but not me. All I see is the danger of becoming a factory laden with workers with salaries that I have to meet and so would begin the spiraling costs of keeping these units in production. So, I'm hoping that we can continue to meet demand by way of a slightly longer delivery schedule and that things will level off. Things certainly could NOT get more insane at this moment.

Now, on a more lively note, this is an open invitation for all CineMate and WorkPrinter owners out there to send me a photo of themselves, posed next to or holding their beloved WorkPrinter. Ideally, I would like there to be some sort of identifiable landmark in the background or nearby. For instance I have a client in Italy and, hopefully, he'll pose next to the leaning tower of Pisa or Pizza... whatever. If you live in farming country, pose next to a cow.

I want to post these photos in a gallery on my website, along with your names and location. If you have anything you want to write (hopefully positive! [img]smile.gif[/img] ) please include that as well.

And, lastly, we have a new, toll free phone number. It's 1-8MM-TEL-CINE. For those of you alpha-challenged, that's 1-866-835-2463. The best time to reach me is after 7:00 PM CST. Unfortunately the toll free thing doesn't work outside the US. Bummer.

Anyway, again Annette and I want to say "thank you" to everyone that provided encouragement or actually coughed up a check for a WorkPrinter or CineMate of their own. May all of you have a safe and happy holiday season. Here's to another year of Super 8.

Our very best,

Roger, Annette and Remi Evans

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 20, 2002 06:42 PM: Message edited by: MovieStuff ]</font>