TPPA Members are the Heart of Who We Are!
Greetings!
TPPA is a non-profit association serving professional photographers and photographic enthusiasts from across the US and beyond.
Consider this: We are member run and member led! This is exciting because our entire leadership team are also members. They are elected by members to oversee the activities of the association and to serve the entire membership.
Everything we do at TPPA is done to provide our members an outstanding experience and to help them become better photographers, better small businesses and better connected.
The association depends on member volunteers to serve as officers of the association, event volunteers, committee members and so much more. It is our members who are at the heart of TPPA.
TPPA recognizes those who serve and give back of their time and talent in four key ways: The TPPA Star Volunteer PIN, the Texas School Wrangler Scholarship, the Associate Fellowship designation and the Full Fellowship designation.
The Star Volunteer Pin
TPPA recognizes those who serve as greeters, committee members, speaker hosts and any number of other volunteer positions at our events with the Star Volunteer Pin. Generally, these are awarded for three hours of service at a TPPA event.
We always need volunteers and it is a great way to get involved and to meet new people.
The Texas School Wrangler Scholarship
Texas School is a huge undertaking, and it takes a huge team of dedicated volunteers to pull it off. This team is know as the Texas School Wranglers. Wranglers serve the instructors as well as the students and work hard to make sure the classes are properly set up, the evening events go off without a hitch and that everyone has a great time and a safe time.
It is a lot of work, so the Wranglers attend the school on a “working scholarship”. To be a Wrangler, you must have attended Texas School at least once as a paid student. You must also be current on your TPPA Dues and agree to serve at the required times. Applications for Wranglers are usually available on the Texas School Website around October.
The Associate Fellowship
The TPPA Fellowship Program is a means of recognizing those who have served the membership and who have given freely of their time. It also encourages members to remain active and to take advantage of the many benefits of the Texas PPA.
Points are awarded for various activities such as on-time dues renewal, serving as a volunteer or a speaker and many other activities. You track your points on our Fellowship Points form via Google Docs. When you earn 50 points, you are awarded the Associate Fellowship at Texas School or other TPPA Events.
To track your points, request the Fellowship Form Here.
The Full Fellowship
Service can be addictive, and when you stay with it long enough, you can accumulate a lot of points on your Fellowship form. But the key difference is, with Full Fellowship, you need 100 points with at least 10 images scoring 80 or above in the Annual Photographic Competition. This encourages you to get involved in improving your craft by entering your images. We think you will find the process very beneficial and very rewarding.
That’s it for now. Watch for my next email explaining how TPPA is structured with other associations.
Steve