The European Flexographic Technical Association (EFTA) has made significant changes to support its mission to make flexo the "Medium for the Millennium." Tony Bath, EFTA's secretary, has been appointed general manager after 3 1/2 years with the association as its secretary. EFTA has also moved its headquarters to a larger premises in Bristol's city center, where a 2000-sq.-ft office will give it more operational and conference facilities.

As Steve Wilkenson, EFTA chairman commented, "There is so much going on with the association and flexo in general, we had to look at the future. We are creating a new training facility and arranging the conference and awards dinner at the Metropole Birmingham in March 1998, followed by a full-blown Flexo International Exhibition at the NEC in March 1999."

The association has also announced an expansion of its training program to include the appointment of a new full-time technical and training specialist.

"The association has been inundated with requests for training at all levels, and to date, the program has kept pace with demand. However, as we have been asked to provide more training as offset printers are converting to flexo, we took the decision to recruit a senior flexo person to the task," commented Bath. The successful candidate will be responsible in managing and developing the range of training courses and preparing codes of practice for the industry as well as preparing technical papers and liaison with the other print associations.