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The week before the big day, make some plans with the people supporting it:

• DO NOT TRY TO DO THE WHOLE THING YOURSELF. It looks simple, but it requires a small group of people working together to make things happen in time.
• Identify concurrent tasks and plan to ensure they don’t fall on the same person - like setting up sound and tables and ensure no one person helping you has to support more than one item at a time. For us that was sound setup and table setup.
• Provide copies of your timeline (template below) to your team and volunteers.
• Consider how to communicate with your team - in a large park or outdoor venue situation with a few hundred people, it gets very difficult to communicate. Don’t rely on cell phones alone - consider renting radios and a megaphone if you’re expecting 300 people or more. You will need them to communicate with your team for help with moving the crowd and calling on your team for help.
• If you have any dignitaries attending, have one team member tasked with meeting them somewhere obvious and walking them in.
• Have a basic outline of how to handle protestors or anti-social people, especially those who are disruptive. We had very little of this to deal with but what did happen caught us a bit unprepared. Be prepared to take action to keep the The ‘Family Photo’ event safe, happy and positive for everyone.
  • Have phone numbers for local police or RCMP at your fingertips. Consider discussing what types of incidents you would reach for help with and which phone number you should use with a community safety officer in advance.
• Have a strategy for the photo in advance - where the visitors should stand, what way they should look, and have a person with a megaphone easily visible giving directions to the group. Make sure your team knows what to do and how to help organize the crowd so you’re all saying the same thing.

The day starts earlier than you think.

A typical Saturday schedule for a noon family photo:

• 10:00 a.m.: Core team arrives at the venue. Walk the space. Identify any overnight changes (puddles, garbage, parking issues). Note that visitors may have already arrived — some get there early!
• 10:15 a.m.: The Info Tables arrive. Volunteers help set up tables and chairs in park. Set up a plan for where to drop them off if parking is a problem.
• 11:00 a.m.: Info tables open. Volume picks up rapidly.
• 11:45 a.m.: Begin gathering people for the family photo. Have someone with a megaphone or a portable speaker.
• 12:00 p.m.: Some brief words with a sound system. This part takes 15 minutes maximum. Remember, people will be standing on grass or pavement. Don’t make this long.
• 12:15 p.m.: Family photo taken.
• 2:00 p.m.: Info tables wrap. Most visitors will then drift off into the community. Site clean-up.