With more than 67,000 members, the UNC General Alumni Association in an integral part of the UNC community – providing a variety of services and activities, vendor discounts and career support to both students and Alumni.
An expanding member base presented the UNC General Alumni Association with a critical challenge. Student Alumni Association members were only issued generic membership cards so the association had no way to track or identify members at events and was unable to determine what events and services its members used. Without official identification, members also faced difficulty proving their eligibility for the vendor discounts and other benefits offered by the association.
The recognised need for a membership ID card led the UNC General Alumni Association to partner with AlphaCard Systems, a Portland, Oregon based identification system dealer with a track record for delivering quality equipment and personalised service. After considering the Alumni Association’s needs for volume, quality and speed of card production, AlphaCard recommended the Magicard Rio Pro card printer from Magicard for making the new Alumni Association member badges.The Rio Pro is a high-speed desktop card printer capable of producing thousands of full colour identification and membership cards on demand. Since the Rio Pro is plug and play certified on both Windows and Apple computers, the Alumni Association found it easy to integrate the new system with their existing software and database.
The Alumni Association now produces two types of membership cards on demand. Student membership cards are issued to current students at the university who belong to the Alumni Association’s student branch and include the student’s name, ID number and an identifying barcode on the backside of the card. Lifetime membership cards for Alumni include the member’s name, lifetime ID number, a personal ID number and an identifying barcode.
The new system is simple and powerful. Cards can be issued on location and in a matter of seconds. For the Alumni Association’s Printing and Mailing Coordinator Tom May, the new printing system was revolutionary
We print on demand with all personalised information as well as background graphics in one pass.In most cases, it takes just a few seconds to print a card.
Mailing Coordinator – Tom May
In only a few months, the UNC General Alumni Association has printed more than 3,000 cards using the Rio Pro including both credit card sized CR80 PVC cards and matching key tags for members. Student and Alumni members of the association now regularly use their cards to attend events and to verify their eligibility for discounts both on and off campus. With the ability to better track membership and attendance, the UNC General Alumni Association can look forward to improving its offerings and growing its membership base.
