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The privacy statement for www.oplove.org
OpLove is seeing increasing numbers of multiple-family portrait events being set up. This is great for the organization, because it means we’re getting the word out to the military families!
If you are contacted about setting up a portrait event, or if you feel like setting one up on your own, your first and best resource is your Regional Coordinator. You can find your RC using the Finder (type your zip code, search 50,000 mile radius and you will see all the Regional Coordinators in pink at the top) or check out your local group on the collaboration board.
Any session where more than one family will be photographed, one after the other or at the same time, constitutes an event. These events sometimes grow rapidly and can very, very easily get out of hand. Your RC provides a readily-accessible reserve of photographic help and resources (including event planning, sponsors and funding help!). Additionally, the RCs are up-to-date with OpLove policies, and applicable DoD regulations, to keep your event from tumbling into gray legal areas.
As you plan your event, ALWAYS remember that you are representing OpLove first and foremost. To maintain a sense of continuity, these events are planned by OpLOve, NOT by your studio in conjunction with OpLove. Remember, session fee waivers and albums must still be offered per OpLove policy, even if the event you’re planning includes 4,000 familes. (Your RC can help with funding ideas and sponsorship!)
As we grow from a group of photographers into a fully fledged organization, it’s important to review the membership policies and make sure you understand what is required of you, your studio, and the families we offer services to, also refer back to your welcome letter! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your regional coordinator – they’ve been chosen to serve because they fully understand every aspect of this organization. In the event that you stump them with a really hard question, they have avenues available to find the answer you need.
When you photograph a session, or attend an event, remember that you are not only representing yourself as an upstanding member of the community, but you are also representing this organization. You are the face of OpLove, and it’s an honor to have so many who represent us so well.
In light of a few things on our collaboration forum, I would like to take a moment and bring the organizations purpose, back to the surface… Why everyone who is involved, is involved. We are currently going through some policy changes, which all organizations have to do at one time or another, or constantly. This makes it really difficult for members to stay on top of. However, since our organization deals directly with Military folks it is IMPERATIVE that our members adhere to our policies. They are there for a reason, and right now, the reason is to stay in compliance with the DoD’s wishes to be able to continue to participate with their beloved military members and families.
While I know that we cannot please everyone, clients, photographers, and members alike, I can tell you that we are honestly doing what we can, addressing issues that are brought to our concern. With light that the world is changing, and as a volunteer program we have to comply to those changes and be willing accept them, but simply put this is a volunteer program.
I know that this organization has had its ups and downs, and I am truly sorry for any disheartening moments, or misinterpretations that I, or others, may have brought on everyone else- to clients and photographers. Many of us are learning as we go… But we must be doing something right, something must be working out just fine, because the emails are still pouring in daily, and for that we should CELEBRATE!
 This is a heartfelt organization who GIVES BACK. Our organization is made possible inevitably because of the demand for the service, and then the service happens because of our amazing, giving photographers. The families we serve are contacting us because they need support, they need a friend, they need a shoulder, they need a boost in moral because they can’t kiss their babies goodnight… they are experiencing things and seeing things that tear my soul out, that make me cry in a single thought… And that is why we are where we are. The demand for a friend, for that shoulder- and many, many of our photographers have really broad shoulders!
Sometimes to participate in great things, you have to relinquish other things. For instance, with OpLove to participate as a photographer you have to be willing to relinquish any assumed monetary supplement, a paycheck. Other times we are giving up certain rights as artists to simply protect our clients.  This is an organization about selflessness, not selfishness. We help people, help put families together who are separated by the 1000’s of miles between them…
Our photographers are AMAZING people. Many of them will support our families well beyond their OpLove requirements with open arms. Many of them are involved with the military directly, and deployments and such directly affect them too. Anyone in the military, spouse or otherwise, will tell you how very hard it is to raise your kids by yourself for months, or how hard it is for a mother and father to say goodbye to their only son or daughter- any child for that matter.  A father will fall apart like a cheap suit at the thought of missing his 1st daughter’s birth, or being on the other line 1000s of miles away with only his voice to calm and attempt to sooth his wife’s agonizing pains through the delivery of their baby.   Recently a photographer shot a maternity OpLove session, then her birth and then the homecoming just so this daddy could have something, anything to experience first time fatherhood, because he was unable to physically meet his daughter the day of her arrival. We do AMAZING things for people, and these emotions and thank you’s are “why” you are in this program as a photographer. It isn’t so you can have the chance at a spot in the limelight, or to catch a great story…
Photographers are there to represent the ORGANIZATION and help families, not for self-promotion.
Photographers of OpLove::
“The 4-1AD Event in April has raised our level of visibility within the Defense community just a bit. One of the side effects of that visibility has been a full legal review of OpLove policies and procedures by the local JAG office and SJA. Per their recommendations on ensuring that OpLove complies with the Joint Ethics Regulation, we’ve made some rather sweeping changes to the OpLove photographer agreement, the client agreement, the privacy statement, and OpLove policies….” These changes include:
-Limited Use of Images
-Obscur Client Identifying Info
To read more please log onto the Collaboration Forum and review the topic. 
 We know that these are very drastic changes, but in order to move forward with full support from EVERYONE, we must also be willing to evolve as an organization.