Last Meeting

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who was able to make it out to our last meeting! I hope everyone's questions were answered and you have a little better idea of what might be going on during the day. It was really great seeing a bunch of new faces, and I hope to get to know some of you more as we pull this all together. If there are any more questions or concerns, please email  - helpportraitabbotsford@gmail.com - and either Patti or I will get back to you.

For those who could not make it out - no worries! We will brief you the morning of. A few key notes to be aware of:

•  The first guests should be appearing around 9am. 
• I would really love to get a large group shot of all the volunteers who can make it, sometime between 8:30 and 9am outside the building, so please take a few minutes away from whatever you may be doing so that you can join us.
• I expect us to have all of our guests through with photos in hand by roughly 5:30pm, so that we can hopefully be packed up and on our way out by 7pm.
• Some people will be at Bakerview on Friday evening to set-up prior to the event, from about 5pm. If you plan on joining us, please let us know so that we can be sure to let you in, and to wait for you before we close up.
• This should be fun for us too, so relax and smile :-)
• Please take a minute to eat something. In the past, volunteers have been so busy that eating has been an afterthought. Since we cannot keep tabs on which volunteers have had a break and which have not, it will be up to you to take a rest and have a snack when needed.
• Anyone with really long extension cords, please bring them. Same applies for power bars.
• LABEL EVERYTHING
• Along with my nice chic volunteer t-shirt, I will be wearing superhero RED stretch pants. So will a few others who are in the know. If you have a question that cannot be answered at the sign in table - find one of us.
• Candid photographers, please remember that guests wearing black lanyards should not be photographed outside of their studio session. 
• Hair and Make-up professionals, please ensure that any guest wearing a black lanyard keeps it visible when they are at your stations.
• You are all amazing! This could not happen without you, and I am in awe, each time I do this, at how much everyone pulls together and gives such a meaningful and valuable gift of their time and talents to this cause.

See you on the 8th!!!

Always a Learning Process

Last year was our first attempt at an Abbotsford Help-Portrait event. We were pleasantly surprised at the success that it was, but most of all, we had a super fast learning curve and came away with many ideas for the way we wanted this year's event to be run. Having said that, we have already encountered areas that could be changed and better managed for next year. This blog is one example. It is constantly being modified in small ways to suit our purposes and enable a more fluid event planning and execution. Today's addition is something that I will definitely include at a much earlier date next year to facilitate guest management for our event. I was going to wait to add the Guest Registration to our next year's TO DO, but then I thought, why not just do it now anyway? So here we are, scrambling to ease the craziness of the next 9 days.... If any of you know of individuals or families who would benefit from being served by us at this event, please send them to our blog to fill out a simple form to let us know who they are. Once they have filled in the form, they only have to wait for one of our great volunteers to contact them to make an appointment on the day. 9 DAYS AND COUNTING PEOPLE!!!