Yes, we've done them for years. Sounds easy but there are a LOT of considerations. The benefits (community support, name recognition & financial) outweigh the costs if done right. Write up a process starting from the planning stage thru post-event and amend it each time you experience it.
Scheduling - Do this in September or earlier! Coordinate with other NGOs in the area - do not want to compete. Pick an event date between 1st week Nov to end 1st week of Dec. Noone has time past that & the need (sending as Christmas Cards, etc) passes soon after.
Venue - you'll need one that easily keeps the critters separate with little visibility if any and no pass-by thru the whole process from parking lot in to parking lot out- VERY VERY important
Advertizing - the sooner you get this out after Halloween, the better. Advertise wherever you can that is effective.
Volunteer Support - folks like to do this, which is good, because you'll need more than you need. Like:
- 2 or more to manage parking lot human/pet traffic - keeping all seperate, even if que fills
- 1 or more to check in - design a quick fill form to be used at check-in, offer an online pre-check-in. Form needs human name address, phone & email & pet names. Give completed form to person to carry thru process
- 2 or more Santa helpers - one to get pets on, one to get them off, one to run sim card with check-in form to Viewer/Printer
- 2 or more Viewer/Printer volunteers to display all mages & print one
- 1 or more to manage traffic out to parking lot
- 1 or more to email all images associated with a checkin card to the email address. Great to have this done so the email is there before they get back home- cant tell you how much of a difference this makes
Resilient Santa - critters are tougher than kids
Photographer - one with pet photo experience, otherwise, your spending a lot of time with those in the que
The Que - arrivals will bunch up, have one or more to manage the crowd, both people & pets can get out of control quickly
Move SIM cards to Viewer/Printer quickly & accurately - another potential bottleneck, have more stations then you think you'll need, we had 3. You don't want to mis-identify who's on the card
Owner Image view & print select - photographer takes several photos 6-8, maybe more, placed on a SIM card. SIM is passed to volunteer at station , brings up images and lets person select one they like best, print it off & place in a paper frame, then envelope which might contain organization literature, etc. Retain images on disk usning naming convention to tie to a checkin card. Another source of potential bottleneck
Email all images for a cherckin card to the email address on the card - Very important to get this done ASAP
Sorry this is a bit choppy but pressed for time. Note: if you think this is of value, I'm just channeling the wisdom of our organizations Helen.
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Robert Shendock
Board Member
SPCA Eastern Shore
VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-11-2024 09:03 AM
From: Karen Kirsch
Subject: Christmas Photos with Santa
Anybody do Christmas photos with Santa? Tell me about it -- anything to pay particular attention to? timeline? etc?
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Karen Kirsch
Founder
Spayed and Aid
KY
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