campusconnection
The smiling faces of Sales Associate Mary Harper, Manager Maretta Pinson, and Sales Associate Donna Taylor. Not pictured are the permanent part-time associates Shirley Sampson and Veredah Smith.
Name: A-B Tech Bookstore
Manager: Maretta Pinson
Location:Coman Student Activity Center
Mission: To provide a convenient location for staff and students to purchase textbooks, school supplies and school spirit items. The hours are Mon. - Thurs. 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fri. 8: 30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Highlights:
- The bookstore is dedicated to providing as many used textbooks as possible. One way it does this is through a book buy-back. Follett Higher Education Group, a book wholesaler, sets up in the bookstore and buys textbooks back from students. If the book is to be used the following term, the bookstore will make it available to be purchased by the student at a reduced price.
- "We have a great working relationship with the department heads," says Pinson. Each semester, they send their textbook order to the bookstore to let Pinson know what to order. As enrollment increases, so does the number of books ordered and stored in the bookstore. The file holding the purchase orders for fall semester alone is over 6" wide. When Pinson first started as manager in 1986, the orders for the entire year were placed in one file. Now they have to be broken down by semesters.
- It is likely that all curriculum students and the majority of continuing education students have utilized the bookstore, especially during the weeks following registration. The three full-time and two part-time employees are responsible for manually pulling all of the books a student will need each semester. For example, an Associate Degree Nursing student is required to purchase 14 books for one class, and could potentially walk out the door with over 20 books. During registration, up to five temporary employees are added to the staff.
- August 2003 was the biggest sales month in the history of the A-B Tech Bookstore, with record sales of over $1 million. In two days alone, the store generated almost $300 thousand worth of sales.
Former A-B Tech Incubated Business Lands White House Contract
Avl Technologies founder Jim Oliver is enjoying skyrocketing satellite system sales.
Asheville's AVL Technologies, which manufactures motorized positioning systems for mobile satellite antennas used on remote trucks, has been awarded a contract with White House Communications. The system will be used to provide remote communication capabilities for the President and Vice President of the United States.
AVL Technologies started in a "room with a dog," according to president and founder Jim Oliver. Retired and recently relocated to Asheville, Oliver was asked by a former customer to develop an antenna system. Initially working out of the basement of his home, he moved to the Maple Skills Center on the campus of A-B Tech in 1999, where the company existed for the first year of its life. Oliver said this incubation time ensured his company's success. "We are eight to 10 times what we were when we moved in," says Oliver. "A-B Tech's business incubator gives you a fighting chance. It allowed me for a whole year to focus completely on getting the business up and going." In just a few short years, AVL Technologies became the leading manufacturer in the USA of mobile SNG (satellite news gathering) antenna systems used by television stations.
The first AVL mobile VSAT unit was deployed to Ground Zero by the Red Cross on Sept. 11, 2001. Because of the power outages, satellite communication was the only form of communication available.
The antenna systems such as the ones used on Sept. 11 have been modified to become smaller, lighter, portable, and more affordable for utilization in two-way, real time broadcasting directly to the Internet. The mobile connectivity unit purchased by the White House is packaged into a hard-sided case along with a one-button, auto acquisition controller that automatically finds the satellite. Now instead of the unit being mounted to a vehicle, it can be carried, allowing for maximum portability to anywhere in the world. This technology is used for online distance learning, video conferencing, tele-medicine, and emergency communications.
All the World's A Stage
Character actress JoAnne Pankow and English Instructor David Holcombe discuss acting with Holcombe's Introduction to Film class.
She's been a nun, a nurse, a prison inmate, a housewife, and a backwoods woman delivering a baby. No, she's not fickle about career possibilities, she's character actress Joanne Pankow.
Speaking in Ferguson Auditorium to English Instructor David Holcombe's Introduction to Film class, Pankow told anecdotes of working with such famous actors and directors as Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Bates and Tim Burton. On working with MacLaine, Pankow recalls when they met. The well-known actress thought she was so serene and calm. "I actually was too scared to move. I was afraid I was going to fall out of my chair from excitement and nervousness."
After teaching at T.C. Roberson High School for 14 years, Pankow, on a lark, decided to audition for a role in a production of "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Hendersonville Little Theater. To her surprise, she got the lead part, and almost a year later, took early retirement from teaching, hired agents all over the country and has been a working actress ever since.
"I feel so blessed that I'm allowed to do this," says Pankow, with a gleam in her eye. "In 10 years, I've done 51 movies, and worked with the crème-de-la-crème of the industry. No matter how bad I feel, I get on a movie set and that little red light goes off, and I forget all my problems."