As of today, April 26, 2011, here is how OpLove sessions will work:

1) Each photographer in each regional area are to provide the same basic requirements: free session, album or disk (please see #6).

2) After the required free session and album/disk, any additional discounts or prints are at the sole discretion of the photographer.

3) Leaving/Farewell sessions are up to the photographer to decide if they will offer it. In addition, it is up to the family and/or the photographer if either an album or disk is sent and who it is sent to.

4) Homecoming sessions are done at the actual time of the homecoming, not afterward. It is up to the photographer to decide if an album or disk will be sent.

5) At no time will a disk of photos be “required” to send to the client.

6) Clients are allowed 2 sessions per year/deployment. Here are the session options:
a) Pre-deployment session with service person and family (an album is sent directly to the service member overseas by the photographer)
b) Leaving session at the time of the actual departure (see #3 above)
c) Mid-deployment session with the family while service person is deployed (an album is sent directly to the service member overseas by the photographer)
d) R&R session done when service person is home for R&R (an album is sent directly to the service member overseas by the photographer)
e) Homecoming session at the actual time of arrival (at the photographer’s discretion, an album or disk will be sent to the family)

Interested families will continue to locate participating photographers on the OpLove Finder, http://www.oplove.org/oplovefinder/ .  We hope that these policy changes will prove to be beneficial to everyone!  If you have questions or concerns, please use the contact tab above.  Comments on the blog may not reach the administrative volunteers in a timely manner.  Thank you for supporting OpLove and our service members!

If anyone knows of a good database input/search output software please let us know.  I think we might need to start looking that direction.

The first round of albums have been shipped not this last Friday but the Friday before that. I was instructed to hold onto all the MP families albums. Some families were instructed to be sent down to Ft. Bliss, and those whose units were not identified.

So shortly you should be getting emails from your spouses stating they have received their albums.

Thanks for your overwhelming patience in this awesomely large project.

My kids, Amy & Paul, Andrea, Lana, Amy and I managed to stuff albums for a good 4-5 hours until we ran out of them, waiting for another order to arrive.  Thank you guys!

After all the albums were arranged, came the excrutiating task of sorting, which the pictures are below.  My dining room, half walls, and the pool table is covered in boxes and piles of albums going to different units and companies.

The biggest thank you must go to our military men and women.  Without you all, we- AMERICA would not be!  We love you all so much, be safe, come home!  Expect your albums with in the next month or so, consider shipping times.  They are one their way ASAP!  PS- this is a tournament size table from the 1950s.  BIG TABLE… LOTS OF ALBUMS AND BOXES!

For those of you who ordered our albums, I am so sorry for the long wait.  Today I spoke with the lab, it turns out that their printer crashed and it’s taken them longer then they expected to get it fixed.  Unfortunatley, our order was one that was in the cache when this happened.    Our album order is being shipped to a sister lab and will be in Colorado next week, guaranteed- they said.  Thank you for your patience with this issue.  I can assure you we had no control over it, and the albums will be sent to you as soon as possible.

I would like to know if the automated responses are working from our general inbox?  We decided to go to an automated response in an auto reply because of the mass amount of time we’ve been spending answering the general questions that everyone has.  We of course still visit the inbox daily to answer any questions that might be out of the general scope.

As for upcoming events, in June, Gina and I have been invited to speak at the AMVETS of Illinois Convention!  We are SO EXCITED to attend this convention and meet all the wonderful people behind the organization!  If all goes right in April, there will be a huge session at Fort Bliss, if all goes well.  At this event, we will be photographing 4,000 military members and their families! 

Thank you so much for your continued support with Operation: Love ReUnited.  Please keep recruiting more photographers so we can help a thousand more people every chance we get!

In honor of Independence Day, on Thursday, July 3, 2008 a group of photographers will be collaborating to offer Operation: Love Reunited family portrait sessions between 9:00 and 3:00 to families who have their love one deployed. You’ll spend about 30 minutes with a photographer, creating some great casual portraits and candid shots of your family. The photographer will prepare an album of 4×6 prints and send it directly to your deployed loved one, as this is how the OpLove program works.

We’ll be doing this at Liberty Station in the big grassy promenade area behind Vons and the North Chapel (2881 Roosevelt Road, San Diego, CA 92106: enter off of Rosecrans Blvd. and Roosevelt Rd. and park in the parking on the right side before the chapel).

To schedule your appointment, please contact Julie Edwards via EMAIL or by phone: 619-417-7397. Portrait session will have the usual patriotic theme, so wear your red, white, and blue, bring some boots, a hat, a jacket, dog tags or small props like a flag or a photo of your loved one. You will be required to sign a release and show proof of deployment when you check in, other than that there are are no strings attached – it’s completely free to eligible families!

Hope to see you out there!!

http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2008/06/operation-love.html

www.oplove.org

So if you get a chance, drop her a note and tell her Thanks!! 

 Clients of Hawaii, we are not affiliated with a service called “Reuniting Love.”  If you are ever asked to pay a session fee for an OpLove session please contact Administration at oplove1@gmail.com.

www.FieldProblems.com- Solving military family issues For good!
www.armywifetalkradio.com- Our Life. Our Family. Our Soldier.
www.lovingasoldier.com- Loving a soldier. Living the life.
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