Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Okay, there's been much debate over what item we should use as the TPMG identifier for people attending events for the first time. We want your input!

all of the above???

Group Leader should wear a bright Tee Shirt or wave a flag. Personally Im not into branding.

Ryan,, who said anything about branding.. a tattoo maybe, but no hot irons go on this body,, no sirrrreee

How about a press pass-looking thing?

or we could all wear fedoras with little "TPMG" cards stuck in the band.

Oh yeah!!

- Small Pin/Button for jacket/bag (would be distinct colour)
- Cloth bandanna-type thing to tie to bag

Both are good ideas, but we have a lot of people in here and might want to expend on different options for... well... lets not call it branding.

For example, during summer time, it makes sense to wear TPMG t-shirt (for those who choose to do so).

(P.S. too much advertisement and marketing cramped inside my head...)

Printed this up quickly last night...

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanm/279509154/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/68/279509154_012223874e_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Dog tag"></a>

And if I don't need it showing, I just tuck in the tag on my camera shoulder bag.

I like what Mike did with the small luggage tag. It would be the cheapest way. I can attach it to my brand new low pro bag

Anthony

A TPMG tattoo in a questionable location on the body.

i like the small pin because its discreet, can be put anywhere (on bag, etc), convenient (dont want to put a lanyard around my neck every time i go out!) etc.

something small and convenient and discreet would be best methinks.



.....or a rad decoder ring.

Did you know that during World War II the allies forces use the code word "Flash" and "Thunder" to identify each other?

May be we can do something like "Flash" and the response would be "Camera".

I don't know about the small pin it's a bit too discreet. I mean the point is for others to be able identify you. I would have to walk to within a few feet and look for that small pin before I know you are a TPMGer. I am all for a brightly coloured Bandena. You can tie it to your camera bag instead of whereing on your head.

Anthony

I guess It woul be good the tag ...the glasses may interfere with the camera viewfinder...Lmao

good work on that tag mr Tanner

maybe we should just adopt gang colours like the bloods and crips. (or sharks and the jets .... take your pick)

If you guys had come to the Toronto Organizers Meetup event, some if these problems would have been solved.

we got a meetup T shirt/Badge/Sticker to use and promote our groups.

And those Meetup t-shirts were provided and paid by whom? Remember, we steered away from meetup.com because of the lack of flexibility with their forums.

we got them for free fom Meetup HQ.

Actually the reason we had that meeting was to get feedback re: their site functionality/features, but we're digressing here as you're not part of that anymore(my bad).

just throwing this out, but if printing a bunch of T-shirts for Organizers/AOs is not that costly, you might want to look into that, you can sell the rest to members (works both as promotion and identifying members tool).

I would be more than happy to buy and wear a TPMG T shirt.( think the popular Java one T shirts).

Pins/badges/buttions are another option.

Since i've attached the meetup button to my backpack i've had 5-6 people asking me about this "meetup" thingy and got oursleves a few members in our film group.

you might want to consider that.

I and others have communicated to meetup.com that their flat forum format was difficult to track and the lack of a search was another deal breaker for us. Trying to find a previous post on meetup.com from months ago was almost impossible. We passed on this feedback to them several times for almost a year, nothing. We suspected that the flat forum format met probably most of their customer's needs while a small percentage, didn't.

Anyways digressing here....

A few of us have taken a few "to do items" from our last meeting, which include this one. Probably a pin and/or luggage tags, so more to come on this in the near future.

ahaha i can imagine it now.

I go up to a stranger.

me: "Flash"

stranger: "Wtf you want kid?"

me:

lol

More like:

You: "Flash"

Stranger: *knocks you out cold*

The tag idea is good but likely not that practical.
My suggestion is that anyone who confirms attendence should pose the real name instead of #^&*@( and a real pict as well. If that fellow does not show up. we will be yelling at John or Jack or Daniel instead of #^&*@( .
No real pict and no name then attendence is not allowed. See what you guys think.

Daniel

When we moved over to the new site, I was really close to suggesting that handles be totally eliminated. Real names only, but anyways.... moving over from meetup.com to this was already a big enough change for some members back then.

In past events, when you seen a group of people with cameras, we had people come up looking for the TPMG group and ask if we were part of the TPMG group.

I think the best we can do right now is have a good photo of yourself in the icon. It seems that when I talk to people and they don't really know who I am, I just ask them to picture my head sticking out of a TTC streetcar

So does this mean I'll have to walk around touching my tongue to my nose, while wearing a toque all the time??!

I think for the sake of privacy, we should leave it as is...some people don't feel comfortable having their photo online or full name for that matter.

The best way to make sure people find each other is to have a very clear, specific place to meet when doing events in public, and being there by the noted time. It's always best to pick a meeting place that is slightly out of the way of the general public, so people who aren't part of the group don't get mistaken for TPMGers. If you're late, your punishment is to try finding everyone!

How about a helmet that projects a holographic image of our avatar photo/handle above our heads as we walk around? Yes? Yes?

Carrie

Your avatar is perfectly fine. And so is your tongue stick out pict.
My suggestion is not for full name. Just the first name. Real or not real?. Who knows.
Your suggestion for a meeting place is also fine. It is not about finding other TPMG members.

But for us to intereact , would it be better off that we are all in first name basis? And we associate with what we know each other with a first name?
Would it be better that we associate with David having a Nikon 2.8 30mm bozooka? Or it is just #$@%^&xyz having that lens ?

Let me recap. My suggestion is for TPMGers to confirm attendence by attaching a recognisable photo with a first name.

BTW Daniel is not my legal name. Everybody call me that name for 20 yrs though. That tells you privacy is not an issue at all.

BTW I had to pick my user id as danieltpmg as obviously daniel was taken.

Daniel

Okay let me chime in here since this has been an 'opportunity' area mentioned in the past back with meetup.com and a few times already recently.

If we have a location setup as a meeting location at such and such a place at a certain time, it is YOUR responsibility to get there on time. If you're late or can't make it, you need to make other arrangements to find the group. Find somebody else in the group, get somebody else's cell number, etc. I've been late to other events and I just call somebody that I know that is there to figure out where they are, simple as that.

Sorry, I'll be blunt here and not to tick anybody off here, but we're all adults here, well most of us at least from an age perspective so we can only recommend so much but most of the responsibility is on you.

Hi Daniel,

I see what you're saying. It's sort of the same thing with Flickr, etc. I agree that it would be nice to know "real" names upfront, but again, it's a comfort level thing. I'd highly encourage it, but I don't think we could make it mandatory.

Sorry. The photo should only be uploaded to the thread of that particular event with a first name. That is all. I hope it is not too inconvenient to everybody.

Daniel

The confirmation of attendence looks like this. Let us see

Joey



Carrie



Mike

So then how is this "enforced"?

It can't be.

So best is to just make it to the predefined time and location on time and if not, try and contact somebody via their cell. In the past we have had events where we did meet together and then broke up into a few groups while others went off on their own. Every event is different.