Okay, so you are not a photographer, but you are really passionate about the Help-Portrait mission. If this is you, you are like thousands of others who would like to find a way to get involved in a Help-Portrait event in your local area.

The best way to get involved is to FIRST, join the H-P Community, SECOND, Go into the group section and see if you can find a Help-Portrait group for your area. THIRD, begin to interact and comment on the wall of your group so you can connect to the photographers in your area and find out how you can lend a helping hand for your local Help-Portrait event.

What are the typical responsibilities of a Help-Portrait Volunteer?:

1.  Welcome/Greeters

2.  Hair stylists (local beauty college, local stylists)

3.  Make-up artists (same as #2)

4.  Event coordinators – someone to pull all the other things together!

5.  Printers or people to handle printing/CD burning/emailing .jpgs, etc

6.  Music – someone to set-up and keep music going throughout the day

7.  Serving of FOOD!  For volunteers AND participants :)

8.  Teens – plan activities, entertain young children while waiting or while others in their     families are photographed, etc

9.  Florist – someone to spruce up the locale, whether making it holiday-ish or just generally lovely

10.  Runners – for all the things that get forgotten

11.  Marketing – Need flyers?  Recruiting sponsors?    Writing thank you’s after the event? Need signs so people know where to find you?

12.  Admin – need appointments?  Need copies made?  What else?

Some other key elements of volunteering for an event involve pre-event things like getting sponsors for:

  • Printing
  • Signs, Banners, etc
  • Food
  • Manage Social Media campaigns across

-Help-Portrait Community
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Tumblr
-Etc.

  • Pre-event Coordination
  • Pre-Event Set up.

Many cities or locations handle this differently. For one example, in Dallas we have one person who is the Volunteer Leader and one person that is the Photography Leader.

The Volunteer Leader handles everything that is related to volunteers including coordination, planning, and execution and the key point person for communication to all of the Volunteers.

The goal of the local Volunteer Leader is to provide a group of volunteers that support and serve the photographers so they can make their primary focus be fulfilling the mission of Help-Portrait: 1. Find Someone in Need 2.Take Their Portrait 3.Print Their Portrait and 4. Deliver Them.

What have you done in your local Help-Portrait events that have worked for volunteers? Please reply to this blog and share your experience and victories with the rest of the HP community.