PhotoAid XXI: for Victims of Cyclone Nargis. Operation mode.

[hASHbrown_kopitiam]

How about putting a big psoter / banner ...

"DONATE TO VICTIMS OF CYCLONE NARGIS &
WE WILL THANK YOU WITH A FREE PHOTO"

nice one...

This is just my observations when I was there helping on last Sunday.

(1) Didn't have obvious signboard/banner stating we are doing a donation drive. It make it hard for PR volunteer as we need to explain to the plp and they thought we are commercial photographer trying to rip them of with $10 per shot.

(2) The traffic is very heavy in the early morning but we dun have enough PR plp in the morning.

(3) It's very windy there and it always blow the hair and cover the face of those who wanted to take a picture. (anybody got a good suggestion to resolve this?).

Point 1 agree.
i encountered some got that "wat a rip off" face when they walk away. Any possible that we get Tamil translation? I met a lot of generous india nationals..(those who noe how to read english)

3) mayb get a big board fan gently at the people. portrait shooters... is tis wad u all do?

 

[hASHbrown_kopitiam]

Then when the fan blow donor's cap, scarf, male or female wig into the sea, who voluteer to be in the swim & retrieval party? hahahahah...

ask OCBC...

 

[John Teoh]

nice one...

3) mayb get a big board fan gently at the people. portrait shooters... is tis wad u all do?

Dun think it is going to work if the wind is strong :dunno:

 

[sammy888]

The second location (on Sunday late afternoon) maybe better as it avoid the waterdrops from the Merlion but lose the advantage of making the people walking near the tent to check what the fund raising is about. Maybe can overcome with a banner like okashiilo suggested.

Then not enough materials on the fund raising especially the write out. Most of the write out which were printed the day before were in slightly bad condition and hard to show people due to the strong wind. Can we consider lamination or use something to clip the material for easy reading? Can we also have more photos to show people or put around the tent?

Think we also took more time to do the set up in the morning.

Actually I am working on that since I notice that last week. I brought this up with Eikin and then Ortega who last night passed me the poster artwork. I have a lamination machine in my office and spare lamination sheets so I am laminating some hand held posters for the PR to use and I am making them A3 size. Ortega mirror something I was thinking too and some of the folks here just brough that up and that is how to make it more clear this is a charity thing and to also set people mind at ease this is not a profit seeking thing. So I just finish this piece.

What I intend to do is to have Ortega's poster with all the languages and on the other side to have this...which I feel is more about charity and straight to the point. I try to minimise the words so maybe some feedback about changes. Not to much hor heheh..time is getting short heheh.... I still have to spent a night laminating tomorrow at the office in the evening hehe..

Not sure what time the set up but I am working on Saturday so I was thinking to swing by in the morning to past the laminated posters over so the morning crew can catch the early crowd since someone mentioned the morning is pretty busy.

 

[pixie]

While I am not a morning bird, if you need someone to print/bring it to the morning team, I can pass it on. Let me know

 

[Wai]

keep the suggestions coming...

BTW, anyone in punggol going over merlion park around 11am on saturday? hope can get a lift cos my family need the van this saturday

 

[sammy888]

While I am not a morning bird, if you need someone to print/bring it to the morning team, I can pass it on. Let me know

No print lah hehe..I have to print before I can laminate heh. Since my A3 printer died so I print two A4 halves and match them up to laminate....forming one A3 size poster.

Me not morning person too so to get up and go Shenton Way in the early morning is hard hehe that is why I never voluteer for morning shift!!! heheheh... I just need to know if by about 8.30am will the setup crew be there...if so that would be good...so I can just hand it over and then go to my slave job heh....coming back in the afternoon for my shift.

 

[yanyewkay]

erm...we can have some fun while getting donations but let's not forget our main objective for Photoaid - to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis

Since I was not around for the first weekend, any new ideas how to increase the exposure or improve the workflow further so that we can gather even more donations in shorter time with less people?

increase exposure not my specialty, i'm already going by word of mouth.. and shameless spamming to friends

Are the "Tags" useful or not? Need me to print somemore?

:thumbsup: damned good :thumbsup: no need to print. hardly used half. :thumbsup: if print more please arrow another person to cut.

Where is the bottleneck? printing station?

print station power. no neck to bottle. bottle neck is PR. cannot get enough ppl in. My system is too efficient liao :bsmilie: the helpers at the print station also very kilat. even got time to print extras and no queue jam.

Any photo got mixed up? Any feedback from the donors?

No photo mixed up. Donors think this is very 'high tech' and the rest of the feedback is emailed to me about not being able to download their photos (cos they are not uploaded yet) but I've solved them in the background. So no problem.

How to attract more pple to have their photo taken by us?

chngpe got the best solution. SHOUTING. think will upgrade to speaker system this weekend.

If we really have enough equipment and manpower, I will suggest setting another shooting station facing esplanade. To encourage donors to take more photos and donate more $.

right now i would say our capacity is not even 60%. So 1 station is still manageable. setting up 2 stations will not gain much benefits IMO. We have 1 cam tethered to laptop, and 1 free roaming cam. hardly need to use the free roaming cam even.

 

[yanyewkay]

Actually I am working on that since I notice that last week. I brought this up with Eikin and then Ortega who last night passed me the poster artwork. I have a lamination machine in my office and spare lamination sheets so I am laminating some hand held posters for the PR to use and I am making them A3 size. Ortega mirror something I was thinking too and some of the folks here just brough that up and that is how to make it more clear this is a charity thing and to also set people mind at ease this is not a profit seeking thing. So I just finish this piece.

What I intend to do is to have Ortega's poster with all the languages and on the other side to have this...which I feel is more about charity and straight to the point. I try to minimise the words so maybe some feedback about changes. Not to much hor heheh..time is getting short heheh.... I still have to spent a night laminating tomorrow at the office in the evening hehe..

Not sure what time the set up but I am working on Saturday so I was thinking to swing by in the morning to past the laminated posters over so the morning crew can catch the early crowd since someone mentioned the morning is pretty busy.

can we print some of this and distribute flyer style to HDB letter boxes or along the streets on our operation days? I got a box of 4R papers to print on. so we wun need to waste our sponsor's 4R paper. I think wai has some too?

 

[Dream Merchant]

There was something else ...

Since a lot of foreigners/tourists are there, one question i was asked was 'What is Salvation Army'?

Locals might be quite familiar, but since the entire (in public eye) credibility falls on this organisation named 'Salvation Army', not many foreigners actually know about Salvation Army. I suspect, some may have made a flash decision not to donate or just walk away since they have not heard or know anything about this umbrella charity.

In light of all the scam and bogus conmen out there, and the public knowledge of which, could we get SA to pass us a simple poster or their official corporate write-up to help the PR personnel canvass/for passers-by to read?

Not sure if this would help, but as the saying goes, every little bit helps.

 

[sammy888]

can we print some of this and distribute flyer style to HDB letter boxes or along the streets on our operation days? I got a box of 4R papers to print on. so we wun need to waste our sponsor's 4R paper. I think wai has some too?

Not a problem if you want the artwork. But if you do that more information would be included to help the flyer make sense especially the further you are away from the site.

 

[pixie]

As a PR, i see tourists avoiding us because they dont know this is a donation drive. Alot feel that we are like touting or trying to get them take photo as a touristy scam , rather than donating. While i try to use words like "volunteer" , "Victims in Cylone", it is always not very useful.

Probably more can be done to show that this is a donation drive? Like more flyers given out. At the Icecream man area, esplanade, etc, or even the tour agencies?

More PR in the same area, might not pull in more people because the volume of people entering is the same. Better to draw new crowds.

I also notice that weekend papers sometimes have "What to do this weekend" or something like that on Straits Times. We can put it up there too?

 

[pixie]

No print lah hehe..I have to print before I can laminate heh. Since my A3 printer died so I print two A4 halves and match them up to laminate....forming one A3 size poster.

Me not morning person too so to get up and go Shenton Way in the early morning is hard hehe that is why I never voluteer for morning shift!!! heheheh... I just need to know if by about 8.30am will the setup crew be there...if so that would be good...so I can just hand it over and then go to my slave job heh....coming back in the afternoon for my shift.

Yeah i think they will be there. shift starts at 7am =)

 

[Koelsch]

can someone find a loud hailer or something? seen PE shouting so much last week till very tiring like that.

 

[Koelsch]

and please set up another setup facing esplanade. i guess we missed alot of chances by not having one situated by the esplanade side.

 

[Tupi Guy]

While I am not a morning bird, if you need someone to print/bring it to the morning team, I can pass it on. Let me know

I am super morning bird as i only slp at MORNING, the set up time is my sleeping time :bsmilie:

There was something else ...

Since a lot of foreigners/tourists are there, one question i was asked was 'What is Salvation Army'?

Locals might be quite familiar, but since the entire (in public eye) credibility falls on this organisation named 'Salvation Army', not many foreigners actually know about Salvation Army. I suspect, some may have made a flash decision not to donate or just walk away since they have not heard or know anything about this umbrella charity.

In light of all the scam and bogus conmen out there, and the public knowledge of which, could we get SA to pass us a simple poster or their official corporate write-up to help the PR personnel canvass/for passers-by to read?

Not sure if this would help, but as the saying goes, every little bit helps.

Honestly, even u wrote a perfect write up about this event, the tourist most likely they will take their time to read as time is super limited for them on the sightseeing at Merlion.

So PR people play a very important part as how to convince them at the split second when approaching them. It's kind like a hit and run things as Charity is free will thing so we cant hard sell to them too. Dont spoilt their holiday mood too if not, it leave a "bad" impression with them about singapore too.

What i did was, the moment they show sign of not interested with it, i just say "Thank you" with a welcome to singapore smile and continue for the next hunt.

I not very sure about the popularity of the Salvation Army know by overseas. All i know i am not pushing for this organisation but is for THIS CAUSE for the victims of Cyclone. So i dun think u have the time to explain to them what is Salvation Army, unless they curious and ask you lah, if not, no point. And they dun knw PhotoAid too. All u need just explain the cause, not the organisation.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

As a PR, i see tourists avoiding us because they dont know this is a donation drive. Alot feel that we are like touting or trying to get them take photo as a touristy scam , rather than donating. While i try to use words like "volunteer" , "Victims in Cylone", it is always not very useful.

Probably more can be done to show that this is a donation drive? Like more flyers given out. At the Icecream man area, esplanade, etc, or even the tour agencies?

More PR in the same area, might not pull in more people because the volume of people entering is the same. Better to draw new crowds.

I also notice that weekend papers sometimes have "What to do this weekend" or something like that on Straits Times. We can put it up there too?

imho, i think we should cut down on unnecessary cost like giving flyers where next moment they will throw it in the dustbin next to you.

 

[Dream Merchant]

True, true...

But as you mentioned, they don't know PhotoAid.

Who is Salvation Army? :dunno: No info available.

Come, give money in the name of Cyclone Victims.

Anyway, I was just offering an observation.

CHEERS!

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

and please set up another setup facing esplanade. i guess we missed alot of chances by not having one situated by the esplanade side.

well, its gonna be tough as we have limited shooters and we are trying to maintain a low cost approach, no point making a very extravagant shooting station that cater both sides and have 2x more volunteers when the amount of pictures taken is only 5% more.

Tomorrow and sunday we will have 2 shooters, me & tupi.

Last weekend, i took the spare one walking around. there is one guy who like to take from esplanade, so we took, its on special request if we have enough shooters.

Likewise, this isn't just a "i wan you to donate and i smile" kinda event, before i'm at the shooting station as shooter, i was actually helping the tourist shoot with their cameras, not asking anything in return. if they are happy, they might go over the printing station to dump a few bucks in, even if they don't we also did a good deed overall. No effort ever goes unnoticed.

 

[okashiilo]

Likewise, this isn't just a "i wan you to donate and i smile" kinda event, before i'm at the shooting station as shooter, i was actually helping the tourist shoot with their cameras, not asking anything in return. if they are happy, they might go over the printing station to dump a few bucks in, even if they don't we also did a good deed overall. No effort ever goes unnoticed.

I agreed with that. I approached the tourists and offer to take pictures for them using their camera and when it was done, I just take the opportunity to mention abt what we are doing there...and it help! Most of them ended up making a donation. I guess small little act like this somehow gain their trust/comfort and make them realize that we are not commerical photographer trying to make a profit.