The Bryan Rotary Club/Anco Insurance Award for Lifetime Business Achievement is given to a mature company that has a sustained history of success and respect in its industry and that has significantly contributed to the quality of life in the community through the years. Anco Insurance is the underwriter of this award. Insite was one of 15 companies nominated for the 2011 award. The following is an excerpt of information considered during the judging process.
Bryan Rotary President Bunny Pratt, Insite Partners Renea DeWitt, Angelique and Greg Gammon; Anco President Kathy Gregory; and B/CS President Tap Benz
Q. What is The Insite Group?
A. The Insite Group is the parent company of Insite Printing & Graphic Services and Brazos Valley Insite Magazine. Managing partners are Kyle and Renea DeWitt, Class of '87; and Greg and Angelique Gammon, Class of '81.
Q.When was Insite founded?
A.Insite Magazine was launched by the Gammons in April of 1984. In 1997, Insite Publishing merged with Lang Printing, which was owned at that time by the DeWitts, to create The Insite Group L.P.
Q. How many employees does The Insite Group have?
A. 25
Q. What does your company do / business provide:
A. The Insite Group has two divisions: Insite Printing & Graphic Services and Brazos Valley Insite Magazine.
Insite Printing & Graphic Services provides offset commercial printing and direct mail services for clients across the Brazos Valley, in Houston and for many out-of-state direct mail coupon distributors. Insite Printing is the official printer for Texas A&M Sports Properties; is a certified State of Texas Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) and is a certified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) printer. In 2009, Insite Printing was honored with a Benjamin Franklin Award, a national award given by the Printing Industries of America.
Insite Magazine is an exclusively local, general-interest magazine that is targeted to permanent residents of the Brazos Valley including Bryan/College Station, Caldwell, Brenham, Somerville and Navasota.
The Rotary Anco Award for Lifetime Business Achievement goes to a mature company that has demonstrated excellence in its industry and the community.Q. How did the company begin?
A. Insite Magazine was launched at a time when the housing market was overbuilt and home sales were stagnant. The original intent was to publish the area's first, full-size and full-color local magazine to highlight existing homes in the hopes of increasing home sales for local realtors and builders. By the second issue, the magazine developed into a showcase for all the things that contribute to the local quality of life including the arts and non-profit organizations.
Insite Publishing began brokering the same design, layout and other services needed to produce the magazine for other clients. When Insite Publishing moved into its current building in Downtown Bryan in 1993, the Gammons purchased their first 6-color, large-format press and bindery equipment. After the merger with the DeWitts (formerly Lang Printing) a second 6-color press, as well as a digital offset press were purchased to expand the company's capacity.
Q. What is your business philosophy?
A. Deliver what you promise. If you make a mistake, admit it and don't make excuses; make it right for the customer. Make sure every employee of Insite knows he/she is working as a partner with every single customer to make that customer successful. Do the right thing and the rest will take care of itself.
Q. How do you feel about being recognized as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient?
A. Humbled. So many businesses contribute to the dynamic business community and incredible quality of life we enjoy here in the Brazos Valley. The Insite partners feel blessed by all the people we’ve met and worked with over the years. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the clients who have trusted us with their printing and advertising needs over the years.
Q. Relate an anecdote about your business.
A. Once upon a time, Insite donated the printing of the full-color, 16-page program for one of St. Joseph hospital's first Brazos Bash fundraisers. When the programs were delivered the morning of the event, hospital communications staff realized they had given us the pages out of order.
The Insite partners had decided to have the press room painted that weekend and all the press and bindery equipment was wrapped in plastic sheeting as the paint contractor had already begun spraying paint on the 20-foot-tall, original tin ceiling panels in the pressroom.
The partners and a few of our kids sat outside on the sidewalk in the blazing sun in the front of the building and pulled the staples out by hand and rearranged the pages. It took almost six hours. Then Greg put on a respirator to avoid the paint spraying that was still underway and unwrapped just enough of the binder to run the programs through and re-staple them. We re-delivered the program 15 minutes before the start of the event. It was a donated job and the error was not of our making, but it was the right thing to do for the client.
We sincerely hope no one noticed that none of us had showered before we joined everyone at our sponsor table that night!
Q. Describe Insite's involvement in the community.
A. Insite tries to help all the organizations that ask with some form of donation, either advertising for their event or by writing about the worthwhile services they provide in the community. Beyond that, all the partners volunteer in their respective schools and churches and each also has special organizations they volunteer with:
Greg Gammon: Treasurer of Voices for Children, 5 years; St. Michael's Episcopal School Board of Directors, 3 years; current chair of First United Methodist Church Caldwell Administrative Council.
Angelique Gammon: B/CS Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, 3 years; St. Michael's Parent Organization Chair 3 years; First Baptist School Fundraising Chair, 3 years; First United Methodist Church Children's Ministries Chair, 9 years.
Kyle DeWitt: B/CS Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, 4-H Sportsman’s Club Club Manager, Briarcrest Country Club Board of Directors Chairman, Grace Bible Church Deacon Board, Grace Bible Church AWANAS Teacher, IABC Board of Directors, Children’s Museum Board of Directors, Rotary Club of College Station, Crime Stoppers Board of Directors President, Leadership Brazos
Renea DeWitt: Sam Houston Elementary PTO Treasurer, Bryan High Scholl PTP Treasurer, Sam Rayburn PTO Chairman, Briarcrest Country Club Teen Chairman, Grace Bible Church Sunday School Teacher, Junior League
In 2009, Insite Printing, Fries Financial Services and Epicures Catering all joined together to raise funds for the Brazos Valley Food Bank and raise awareness for the Brazos Gluten Intolerant Group as a joint 25th Anniversary celebration for the three companies. More than $2,500 was raised for the Food Bank and BV GIG through the joint efforts of employees from all three companies.
Sponsorships of annual project include: Silver Sponsor, Hospice Brazos Valley, Hospice Happening (5 years); Community Foundation Luncheon (7 years); Cattle Barons Ball, American Cancer Society; Prenatal Clinic Champagne & Diamonds Fundraiser; Voices for Children.
Insite Magazine has written articles highlighting the following non-profit organizations and their fundraisers in the past six months:
MHMR Brazos Valley Kids for Kids
Special Olympics Texas
Aggieland Pregnancy Outreach
The Prenatal Clinic
The Brazos Valley Food Bank
Hospice Brazos Valley
Down Syndrome Association of Brazos Valley
The Boy Scouts of America Centennial
Downtown Bryan Economic Development “Save the Queen” Fund
United Way
The Armadillo Dash benefiting Brazos Valley children
Souper Bowl of Caring
The Boys & Girls Club of Brazos County
Voices for Children
Iola Foodbank
Insite has been recognized by other groups for community service or good works:
2009 Community Impact Award from the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce
2009 Benjamin Franklin Premiere Print Award, from the Printing Industries of America
2009 – present: Recognized by the Forest Stewardship Council as having met the requirements to be awarded FSC Certification for FSC Chain-of-Custody Certification for Green Printing. FSC Certification is awarded by the Forest Stewardship Council to companies who have undertaken a rigorous program of training combined with continual auditing by FSC authorities to ensure paper used in FSC certified products has met all chain-of-custody requirements. FSC Certified paper is produced from responsibly managed forests worldwide. Forest operations, paper mills, and paper merchants must all have FSC Certification and chain-of-custody certificates throughout the entire process. Insite Printing underwent a year-long process of readying for this certification.
Editor’s note: Excerpts of the 2011 Bryan Rotary/Newman 10 winners’ biographies were not available at press time. Those will appear in the August Insite Magazine issue.
