Supporting the school photography and yearbook industry with David Crandall, SPOA

Gary Pageau of the Dead Pixels Society talked with David Crandall, executive director of the School Photographers of America (SPOA). Crandall talks about the association’s upcoming conference, developing the school photography boot camp, and ways members can be more involved.

School Photographers of America is a non-profit association formed in 2020 on behalf of school portrait studios to advocate for and protect their copyrights, as well as establish and govern healthy standards and best practices for the school photography industry. This will ensure school photography remains a rich tradition in schools across North America.

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Transcript

Erin Manning  0:02  
Welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing, and School Photographers of America.

Gary Pageau  0:18  
Hello again and welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau. And today we're joined by David Crandall, the executive director of the School Photographers of America. Hi, David, how are you today?

David Crandall  0:31  
I'm doing fantastic, Gary, how are you?

Gary Pageau  0:33  
I'm doing great. So you're a returning guest. But a lot has changed. Since you and Tim were on last year about SPOA. Can you for those who don't know, can you talk a little bit about what SPOA is as an industry association? The mission that it has?

David Crandall  0:54  
Sure. So SPOA was really when you sit back and you go into history and you think of organizations, similar but not much different, but similar to a PSPA You know, professional school photography of America. So a trade association dedicated to the the industry of school photography, volume, photography, sports, photography, and yearbooks. And so our mission at SPOA is to educate, advocate, promote, protect, preserve the great traditions of school photography and yearbooks. And so, you know, when you think about those words, educate, advocate, promote, protect, preserve, that's really, you know, it sounds pretty easy, but those are some broad-based, you know, adjectives to really describe what it is that we're doing for the industry. And, and when we say the word educate, we're talking about not where your light goes, we're talking, but that's a part of it is helping, but really to educate the proper ways of doing school and sports photography and yearbooks, the appropriate way standards and guidelines to, you know, what insurance you should have to be able to get into the school business and like how you, you know, giving guidance on what's the difference in legal, you know, having our partner attorneys and law firms give advice on, you know, you should consider whether you should be an LLC, or an S corp or C Corp, and what type of taxation that comes with so much deeper than just, hey, put your light here. And this is where your shutter speed and F stop should be. It's more encompass on how do you build your business appropriately? How do you scale it successfully, because in, in this industry, we've seen it year over year for generations, you know, if someone comes in and starts a company that doesn't have that knowledge, or was given bad information, and they, they pick up a school because of whatever reason, and all of a sudden, it goes really bad. Like it goes really, really bad. They they got the wrong lab, they got the wrong software, it takes 12 weeks to get the pictures back to the school, they end up losing that school. The downside is, is the the company that picks it back up, all participation drops, because parents lose faith in the industry. And that's what we don't want, we want to make sure that we equip everybody with resources and tools to be successful. And so that's really what's Bo stands for.

Gary Pageau  3:28  
And at this time. There's a lot of interest in the category. I mean, I think with some of the macro things happening with some of the larger players, there's a lot of buzz in the industry about people wanting to get into the business, who may be in another segment of photography, like wedding or portrait. And or they're maybe they're a sports photographer, and they want to add schools or vice versa. You've recently launched a bootcamp for people who want to get into the business. Can you talk about that sort of hybrid model, because it's on Earth, but it's also in person?

David Crandall  4:03  
Yeah, we're really excited about this. Or it was conceptually brought up by three of our existing members that have grown their business and done very well. But they're just missing some of those elements and have maybe they set up the business as a sole proprietor and didn't realize man I there's some taxes, there's some legal pieces from a marketing they did a free website, they didn't understand the different options and building a website and programs that are out there. And then they only they saw one software and or production flow partner, and they didn't see everybody else and so the goal of this boot camp is number one to be free. It's free. It remembers for members so there's obviously a cost, the cost is becoming a member, and the cost is coming to the conference. And so if you If you're a member, and you're coming to the conference you're gonna get, there's some virtual. So it's a hybrid model. And so it starts this month, actually, the end of this month is going to be the first training, and it goes each month leading up to the conference. And then in person, there's going to be a lot of, we're actually having four different large volume companies that are not, they're not afraid to share, this is their lighting. And this is how they run their picture days. It's kind of like we so often in this industry, we're like, we got to be close, guarded, and not tell everybody. And it's like, it's nothing more than you know when you think of sports, right? A football team comes to a game, the University of Alabama comes to play Clemson and national championship, there's nothing really to hide, at the end of the day, you're gonna run your offense, you got to run your defense, it's how you execute, right. And so most companies that have significant size, they're not afraid to show everybody, this is how we do things. It's like good luck, if you can emulate it, right? And so, but it's going to give people a different perspective, on how to do things, instead of just having one company shared their way, by having four or five, I mean, one of the in April, we actually are giving every software company, that's a that's either a business member or a partner, well, you got to be a member to be a partner. But all of our business partners and or business members that want to give eight minutes of a presentation, all of our lab partners are going to get the same opportunity. So here's all these brand new companies that are looking for a lab partner and a software. And instead of getting a one-hour tutorial, or a two-hour presentation, yeah, we're only giving them eight minutes. But in that eight minutes, it's forcing those companies given an impactful presentation. And so you've got someone sitting back there goes, Okay, am I going to make my decision after that? Probably not. But I might narrow it to two and then go do my, you know, deep dive into this lab and deep dive into this software? To the extent the same for marketing partners, you know, where do you buy your flyers? Where do you? Where do you buy retouching? And how do you outsource that? What about virtual assistants? What about and so we're going through every aspect of where to be including insurance, like what insurances you should have in place. What state documents and filings should you have to be able to make sure if you're wanting to do business with a district, they're going to require those type of documents for you to be a preferred vendor or business partner. So that's really the nuts and bolts of it. And the beautiful thing is we're going to have for all of those attendees, myself, and I think we have about seven other board members that have agreed to be on calls in September and October and November. Because when you get into this business, I had somebody wants to tell me, at my days at lifetime, a guy named Joe Nelson, he said, David, there's a million things that are gonna go wrong in this business. And if you're in this business long enough, I'll you'll see all million of them. And anybody that's been in this business knows when you're dealing with schools, parents, and kids and districts and, and just people, there's something new that happens every year. And so the idea is that we're going to be a sounding board and be able to give advice, and consultation and help when they're, it's a first time for them dealing with, say a large high school the first time dealing with a private school that requires these student data privacy things or whatever the case might be. And so there's volunteer follow up so that they can always have a sounding board. And there's a lot of great resources out there. But I definitely feel it feel we built this to be robust and not just give one sided opinion on a software lab. But to give a robust, how do you build your business be successful and make sure that you are abiding by the standards or doing well if our be of the standards of the industry? So it's beneficial for all concerned. So

Gary Pageau  9:10  
and then at the conference, there'll be some in person person education. How will that work with the regular conference schedule? 

David Crandall  9:19  
So in a nutshell, we have a lot going on. And so we're going to have some other follow ups. But this is a great opportunity to share that we have a lot going on. We have a we have a lot of business partners that bring a ton of value to the industry. And so our conference is built to remember educate, advocate, promote, protect, preserve. And so our tracks and everything are many built on this. And so the conference truly starts on Tuesday, but we have a lot of pre conference and we have a lot of early bird type opportunities. And we got one I'm most excited about. So on Monday, that's July the 10th. People would have to flying on that Sunday. But we are doing it's called Operation school smiles. And so if you're a servant, if you are if you have a servant's heart, we are bringing companies all across the country personnel, we found a school in Greenville County. It's one of the top 50 school districts in the country. And it's one of their challenged schools, financially, just the community. And we're going in, and we've already met with the principal, it was awesome. And we're doing some projects, both inside and outside, to help bring color to the school to help bring just some pride school pride. We're doing a charity closet. We're calling it a wishing closet. A lot of these kids, you know, struggle to have shoes and underwear and shorts and jeans and jackets. And so we've got labs and companies that are going to volunteer each month, and hey, everybody bring in, you know, whoever would like to donate to the school. And we're going to do that every year. And no matter what, whether where we are 2024 2025. And we're just going to adopt a school. And if we have enough volunteers, we'll adopt to schools or three schools, what I'm most excited about is the superintendent choose the school for the district. And so they've already communicated with two TV stations. And they're going to be doing live broadcasting out there. And so it's going to bring just incredible, you know, just about our industry giving back. And that benefits everybody whether you're there or not. You're part of the industry that benefits who are school photographers and yearbook companies and the value that it brings. And I promise you when I stand in front of a camera, that's what I'm going to talk about is, you know, school photography in yearbooks right now are being cherished and valued, probably more than it's been in years. And so when you saw Russia invading Ukraine, you know, what you saw were people jumping on the train trains and leaving the country and they were leaving with pictures, even albums. The memories we create, especially when people become grandparents. It's just incredible. And so we want to make sure we bring back that nostalgia. And so anyways, Operation school smiles and that's going to be Monday morning through Monday afternoon. Then we got our great business partners with image graphics and federal likes. The MVP conference that always happens every year has hundreds in attendance. There's a partner program where you get a huge discount with SPOA. If you go to the MVP conference and SPOA together. And so there starts Monday morning, runs all day, Wednesday, Monday, and finishes up Tuesday morning. And then we obviously we have bootcamp boot camps going to start Monday afternoon and go pretty much all day Tuesday. And then we have our business partners at Sandler Sandler's professional training organization. He's got an incredible and when I say this, Sandler changed my life when I was 24 years old. And I was very, I spent almost five grand on a credit card that I couldn't afford to go to a Sandler Training. And I was blessed that, you know, two years later, I was the number one sales rep at the largest organization in the country for school pictures. And, you know, Sandler has some incredible training. And so they have two tracks, they got what now these are paid these, these actually cost you money. But they are so deeply discounted. It's unbelievable. So they have a sec, they have a sales training that typically is four to $6,000. That's I think 999 If I'm not mistaken, right. And it's even though it's just one day, there's gonna be some pre visits, and some post visits virtually with all the attendees. And then there are with follow up material resources. And then they're also doing an executive leadership. So if you are a company and you've got a supervisor, you're you're trying to bring into, you know, the round table, so to speak, and you really want them to have just a different perspective and be able to bring stuff to the table instead of just always learning from just you and your company. This is an incredible training to be a part of as well. And then last, Dale Carnegie is hosting a customer service training, which love Dale Carnegie and Tim does a fantastic job. So that's Monday and right. The conference doesn't really start until Tuesday. That's on Monday. And so Tuesday, again, the MVP group is there. But we also have tracks for HR, people that are really wanting those early bird. They don't cost you EVERYTHING Tuesday, except for MVP does not cost any money. They're a part of the ticket. And so the HR training is going to be held by an outside entity that's going to certify people in just understanding legal questions that you should and shouldn't ask, interview, HR, employment practices, liability, all those things that if you're you're sitting back going, Man, I don't want to played manual, not only are they going to help, they'll give you a boilerplate employee manual. So you just fill in the gaps. And so we really want to help companies do this. And you know what you should be looking for background checks, those types of things. We're going to have a bunch of panel sessions going on. And then what I'm really, really excited about is Sony is bringing in an artesian, to one be one of our keynotes. And so we're really excited to announce who that is here shortly. But they're also going to be doing some Sony photo walks and photo safaris around downtown Greenville, South Carolina, where you're going to Yes, most people probably have not heard of Greenville, South Carolina especially. But when you see this city, like our board, we had a meeting there in November, and it was like really Greenville. And then they got there and i Whoa, man, it is one of the most breathtaking cities in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And it is just breathtaking, gorgeous. The streets are just beautiful. There's restaurants and bars and everything throughout, right outside, right, you walk outside the hotel, and there's, you're really on Main Street, and it's gonna be awesome. But they're going to be doing a photo Safari, and the best part is you can bring your own equipment, but they're gonna bring all of their equipment, and you can just show your driver's license, and you're gonna be able to get, you know, if you want to play with the new Sony, our man, it's awesome. It's incredible camera. And so they're gonna let you check it out. And then that way you're getting to experience what that's going to be like, Sony is also bringing in their r&d department, I want to give away too much. But if you're really interested in where cameras are going in the future, and the technology that Sony is bringing into this industry, specifically, you'll want to be a part of that afternoon session before the exhibit hall opens. And then it's our exhibit hall trade show that opens up. Originally, we're going to open up I think at three that afternoon. I do believe we're opening up much earlier now. We haven't finalized that. But we've got a lot of exhibitors and business partners and super excited about that trade show. The opportunities to listen to presentations and sessions, then it kicks off that evening, I believe either at 630 or seven o'clock. With our SPOA first time welcome party. We are going all out with our good friends at photo merchant are helping us sponsor this and you are not gonna want to miss this then

Gary Pageau  17:27  
you know how the Australians are?

David Crandall  17:29  
It's gonna be a party like no other. I'll tell you that. So we're really excited about that. And so and then very easily, that Wednesday, you know, for everybody that's, that's an attendee. This tradeshow opens up with breakfasts and everything in the trade. The exhibit hall stays up until about one, they are our session. Starting that morning, we left a really big break, so people could still go back into the exhibit hall, and the food all the foods gonna be served there. So we want all everybody in with our business partners. But the tracks are this HR, marketing, sales, leadership, photography and finance. And so can you switch? Absolutely. You can see a session you want to be in and absolutely, but if you're bringing people, a lot of companies are bringing in teams of people, and so they're going into those tracks, right. And so there's going to be four sessions throughout that day. They're hour hour and 15 minutes long. And it's going to be these are outside professionals that are coming in. You have the Dale Carnegie's of the world Sandler's the world, HR companies, but we are having panelist as well. I mean, I one that I know we have is a panel on how to scale your business. Right. And when y'all see the lineup of these panelists, these are companies and you know, Matthew Kim at Mueller, people that have literally people have seen their company just below the last two, three years. And so there's a lot of insight to that. And then that evening, there's really it's on your own. A lot of VIP receptions that evening and again, that downtown area, if you bring in your family, kids, it is just one of the coolest cities you'll you'll ever be in. And so there's tons of walking restaurants and everything. We're really excited. And then Thursday is the big day. Thursday's are our kickoff our keynotes is our and we cap it out that evening with the industry awards. banquet, and we're really excited this year. You know, not only just the National Photographic awards, we have yearbook awards, this year operations awards, those rising star, obviously our President's Award, our Chairman's Award, and then we're capping for the first time. I believe in our industry for a long time. We're capping off the evening with the first ever and annual school photography and yearbook industry Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. And so those Hall of Famers We have a committee, we're going to be launching the actually this Thursday, we're meeting for the first time they're reviewing all the documents that people would fill out nominees for that form. And we're our plan is to announce those Hall of Fame finalists. And so when you sit back hall of fame could be an industry writer, it could be an industry icon that help start the industry. And I always mess this up post posthumously. And it's somebody that is, unfortunately with us, right? And so, but it's also industry partners, people that maybe wrote software that radically changed this industry, people that built equipment, you know, those types of things. So we want to honor everyone, you know, the companies that made the most impact on yearbooks, and the trends that yearbooks are today. So we're really, really, really excited about that. We have nine people on that committee. So thank heavens, we have a tiebreaker. If

Gary Pageau  20:59  
we're not the only one person being inducted, or is this, since you're launching it, are there going to be more than one or the plan at this point?

David Crandall  21:06  
 I think is you don't know what you don't know. Right? And so the plan is, is that ideally, it would be three to maybe six people the first year, right? And then, you know, whatever makes sense, the following year, maybe it's four, maybe it's five, we don't know. And we're very open to people's feedback on that. And so but we're really excited to what this will mean, and to be able to honor the people that made an impact on this industry that, you know, a lot of people may not know their story and a lot, and there's a lot of people that they do know their story. And they this person really should be in the Hall of Fame. So really excited about that. Again, we have a ton going on with that conference. And Gary excited to have you there. So

Gary Pageau  21:50  
well, it's I was there last year for the launch. And it was a great event. One thing I want to bring up is your holding elections. Yes, at the event, talk a little bit about that process. Because as an association, I think it's a little different for people on the outside to look in that. You know, there's an elected board who says policy provides guidance. This isn't just David Crandall, sending what he wants to do this week. So, so talk a little bit about the election process and what will happen as early as Tuesday at the elections.

David Crandall  22:23  
Yeah, so you have two boards, the governing board and the executive board, there's a certain number of chairs or positions that are open, I believe it's two on the governing board, and it's six or seven or eight on the executive board, I can't remember off top my head, right. The second, we had applications out for almost two months, we've got a lot of people that have applied, let's just say a lot more than what's there. This week, actually, today's this afternoon is my intent is to set meetings with each one of the people. Talk to them, make sure that this is what they want to do they understand everything that is expected of that role, that volunteer role, and all that kind of stuff. And do they want to put their names in the hat for other chairs.  All right. And so once that happens, they're gonna go on a ballot, and we're gonna have two webinars, where each one of them get three minutes just to share about them, and why they want to run for whatever seats or positions, you know, someone could very easily go, hey, I want to be on the governing board. But I'm also open to being on the executive board for this chair. And, and so Anyways, long story short, we're really excited about that. So what happens is, is when people arrive on Monday, and Tuesday, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning, through one o'clock in the afternoon, there will be an election site, I want to say it's in the azalea room, like we already know it, and there will be an opportunity, each company, when you became a member of SPOA, you designated a person to be the main person to vote, you get one vote. So that's the beauty of this, you're not having like, you know, one company that has like 10 votes or 13 vote, every company only gets one vote. And so what we're going to do is scrub against the person's name. And let's say somebody comes up and you know, Gary, you walk in, and you're a member of so and so company, but your name's not on there, we're going to either call that person or we're going to require the person that was on that name to email us saying, here's the person voting, we're going to verify with a driver's license, and that person puts in their votes for governing board, they get votes for executive board, and then we're going to tally that up. It's a computer system. So it's going to be verified by the entire officers of the board. And so the officers are the chairman, the Treasurer, the Treasurer, elect, the Vice President Elect, the vice president and president so that's six plus myself. So that makes it seven and so We'll all open up verified everybody that voted and what the total results are. So that everybody sees it all at the same time, Tuesday, mid day. And then at that point, we'll make the announcements on stage that Thursday who the new elected officials are. And so we're really excited the officers of the organization, we just had board elections, and so we elect who the officers are. And so Eric Schneider, Jr. was voted on unanimously to be the treasurer elect, which means six years from now, he'll be the chairman of the board. And then on the executive board, very good guy that I'm super excited about. Mr. Mark Homer Dang, was unanimously elected to be vice president elect. And so really excited about Mark really excited about Eric and what they bring to the table. That's how the elections are gonna work. And and those people immediately take within a two month transition, right after the conference of rolling into that role. And I know that people, the chairs already have already agreed to be on their committee and to answer any questions that they have. So we're really excited about that.

Gary Pageau  26:14  
I guess where I was going with it. It was it's a very public process. Oh, yeah. I mean, I just think it's even with some of the other photography associations out there. I'm not sure PPA elects their people, for example. But I've always, always thought it was cool that you guys from the beginning, were very upfront this is if you want to be involved, it's very easy to do. And that's the process.

David Crandall  26:34  
It was funny. I was at another conference and someone said, man, yeah, lose a lot of your board members. I'm like, No, we're not. Like, it's an elected process. Like that way, there's always you have brand new blood coming in, that has a passion and wants to serve for a purpose. That's why I love the way our founders and myself helped build the bylaws. So that, you know, there's not, you know, stagnation supposedly or, you know, the same, the same, and that there's new blood coming in and really just always trying to be better trying to help the industry in a different way. And people that want to serve and so I'm really excited when y'all see the candidates, man, I'm, I'm so excited. It's, I'm almost giddy, Gary.

Gary Pageau  27:21  
I can sense the giddiness almost as much as when you name-dropped Clemson. And as the name dropped earlier.

David Crandall  27:27  
Exactly. And we have so much stuff going on, I look at, you know, this past year, we launched we're really starting to get into like bringing membership value, right? And so you pay a monthly fee, and what do you get out of that. And so we're bringing a lot of value, much less what you're doing for the industry, you know, a lot of people in their right mind, I joined because it's the right thing to do. We're lobbying for best practices and make sure no state or federal legislation, you know, mitigate or do anything to harm our industry in any way, shape, or form. But we all know what happens. It's kind of like that Illinois law. On student data privacy, they made a law that stated, after three years, you have to purge all your records. And so that's a that's a state law that impedes federal law. But no one at that time, we weren't advocating at that state legislative level, that, hey, as you're working on laws like this, remember that school photographers have a government federal protected copyright law that protects that data with that image, right. And so, you know, that's one of the things that we're focused on doing and getting letters out and making sure that we're lobbying and advocating for stuff like that. But we're looking at other things like National Partnerships, man, we did a national partnership with it's called checker. It's a background check company. And man, we had, we had over a dozen companies save over $10,000 a year on background checks, just by that partnership, let me tell you, they they basically paid money to show up for membership to get money back. Right? Yes. Well, they asked them anything, if anything they'd by joining. So they made money. And what I'm really, really stoked about is the the national shipping contract. And so we've got a boatload of some of the biggest companies in the country and labs that have united and said, Hey, we don't really compete in this arena, who cares if we can all reduce cost? That's, that's good for everybody. Right? And so we're in the process now of negotiating a national partnership, and and discount with either FedEx or UPS. And man, you're talking, you know, some of the biggest companies in the country with the millions that they spend on on shipping here at LAX, if you reduce that by nine, 15%. That's a lot of money, right? That's, that goes straight to your bottom line. That's straight to your bottom line, and that's payroll man. And so, at the end of the day, these are really good things that we're working And I'm we're doing the same thing with we're getting ready to buy a national database of schools. And so some companies buy that their own state level or maybe two states. And by being a member, you're gonna get that stuff. And so we're really pumped about all those things and the value the trainings that we're already doing.

Gary Pageau  30:17  
And as far as advocacy, you've been going out to some educator conferences.

David Crandall  30:23  
Yeah, I was just in San Antonio at the superintendents' conference. So

Gary Pageau  30:27  
some people would say, what is the point of that?

David Crandall  30:30  
Sir? The here's, here's a great point for that one, two points. One, we're, we're making them aware about our new foundation. And so the foundation that everyone and we launched it this past year, but we're, we we're very excited. IRS says we should have our 501 C three by the end of this month. And so then it'll be a big launch. But the idea is a one industry give back. You know, there's so many displaced and homeless students in America, they, those kids almost never get the opportunity that yearbook or pictures. And so what we're going to be doing is raising money and to be able to purchase those for those kids. And so we were recruiting superintendents, they're very excited that we we've got enough superintendents, I want to be on that board. And then we were really advocating a lot of superintendents stop by and go, You know what, I'm unhappy with who I'm using. And so the Can you guide me? And like, are there other options? And we're like, oh, yeah, absolutely. And well, their first, their first question is, who should I use, and I'm like, Man, I'm Switzerland, like, they're all great. But what I'm going to give you as a resource, and you can go to our website and find a school photographer, and it's going to give you a list by your state of all the options you have. And that way you can put a director of purchasing or someone on it to start to investigate. But there's a lot of photographers, they'll drive two or three hours to come photograph your district. And so maybe didn't realize you had opportunity, but now you do. And so there's a lot of our independent, and I will say regional and national companies that love us being there, because we're giving everybody representation. But their name obviously is coming up, especially if they're regional, national, and almost all the states. And maybe they did not, you know, they weren't a top of mind of that superintendent, but now that they are and so and also there to educate. We I am I'm speaking at the upcoming International Association of School Business Officers about bids and RFPs. And how to make them non subjective, right, there's a lot of language, I mean, there's still language that was written very specifically either by a specific company, or was written because it's brand names, right of ID cards, or whatever the case may be. Or it's written in the face of that it must be on print premium Kodak paper? Well, it's those type of things that we want to just right. kind of bring to there's been an update in the industry technology that you know, they still use. And then really, you know, I I'm speaking at a district next week, one of the top 25 largest school districts in the top 25 School District, about why would you specifically have companies say what packages they must sell. That was like school photographers coming to you telling you what curriculum you should teach, right? Like, let companies come together and present what they believe is the best option. And we'll share with you you know, what I'm really excited about. There's something called the industry report, the national survey, I pray everybody in this industry is sending out in some capacity. Because that gives unbiased feedback, right? It's it's literally it's not about one company and their software. It's literally just a generic national survey that tells industry trends, both regionally and nationally. And so one of the things that I was I was on the phone with James, from photo merchant, and I'm like, man, you know, we really need for next year is a educator one. And so we're going to create this summer a very specific educator report that says, here's what moms want, here's how they want to be marketed to, here's what they want to buy. And all of that is, you know, when they're having packages loaded up with exchanges and wallets when you can't even buy a wallet today that even has those billfold plastic sleeves. Why are you why are you so and so we're really excited about that education, and that kind of that promotion aspect that we're having at these types of education associations, I'll be able to ja and San Francisco in a month. And I'll be out and J NSPA. In Boston, this coming fall. And we're doing roundtable groups with high school yearbook advisors with students. Sony's been a huge advocate and partner in that. And those are things that just help our industry, the brand awareness, enter possible internship programs where your college yearbook staff could turn around and maybe do an internship with your organs. As as soon as they graduate, you got a brand new photographer that can be service and sales and everything else. So a lot of opportunities in that aspect.

Gary Pageau  35:07  
So you've gotten a huge download of information. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Where should someone go for more information to either learn about SPOA and become more involved with the association?

David Crandall  35:22  
Yeah, man, love you for saying that. Thank you. At the end of the day, you want to get a school of tires of america.com or school traditions.org. Both URLs take you to the same but school for tires. america.com has long said a great moment. It's a lot of typing a lot, a lot of inspo is already taken. It's like the San Diego police department associations, the School of divers america.com gives you you can easily see how to join what the conference is about. You can register you can buy tickets, it's got all the hotel information, all that stuff there. You can also see what we're doing from the the only thing that's not loaded, our website has gone through a massive change the last four weeks, we've changed everything up. So it's kind of resources for schools. Area we found out we were getting hit 1800 hits a week. And out of that over 875 If y'all know what a heatmap is, it tells you where people are coming on your website. And it's going to find a school photographer. And so what we realized is man schools are really using that. And so what that does for companies, SEOs is huge, right? And anyways, we now we're starting to build in like a sample RFP or bid or a sample or, you know, hit start a webinar training series for educators, right. We did one last year on bids and RFPs and had a a, I want to say 48. School districts that joint. And so if you saw the names of those, there were some big school districts. And so that's, that's an awesome stuff we're trying to be again, I don't mean to demean that when I say that, but we're trying to be even keel I use the word Switzerland, because they're kind of famous for that. But we want to be the center and not lean one way or the other. We just want to bring truth to them. And then make sure that everyone you know, that is getting into this industry has the tools and resources they need to be successful. And so there's a lot of resources on there as well. On the website, my personal contact, I put my personal cell phone, I don't care. At the end of the day, like Man, my job is to work for the members. And it's 615-924-4780 I'll say right here and David@schoolphotographersofamerica.com. And so we would love to reach out love to help in any way shape or form. And you know, that's that's my job, and I'm sticking to it.

Gary Pageau  37:45  
And once again, the dates of that converts are July 10 to the 13th in Greenville, South Carolina 10th through 14th century 14. Okay. And looking forward to seeing you in Greenville and Yemen. And thank you so much and I'm sure we'll be talking again soon.

David Crandall  38:03  
Awesome. Gary, thank you so much. Have a great day.

Erin Manning  38:07  
Thank you for listening to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at www.thedeadpixelssociety.com

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