Crisis - evacuation - can you locate your family, friends, landlord, tenant, neighbours?

Your passport usually has a phone number for others to call if you are dead, injured, comatose or missing in an emergency. I have had two experiences of urgently trying to find somebody. I shall tell you two stories, about a fire alarm in a building, and an emergency during an online Zoom meeting.  You can draw your own conclusions about the necessity of keeping records of who is attending a meeting, and of your members' phone numbers and addresses.

Fire Alarm
The first memorable event was after a physical meeting. We were having a Toastmasters speakers' training meeting in London at the Bridge, a building near Harrow & Wealdstone station. The fire alarm went off in our meeting building.

I After hesitated, then, despite seeing no signs of fire or smoke, grabbed my bag, and we all filed out. Some of us were with our laptops and phones. Others just ran, leaving behind valuables and vital phones and laptops we later needed to contact missing members.

Lesson learned number one. Always keep your phone with you, not on a nearby desk nor in the bag behind you or under your seat, nor in a jacket pocket. If you have to jump out to avoid fire, flood, earthquake, avalanche, gun-toting madman, terrorists, whatever, you need the phone either to call for help, or trace others, or to be found by others seeking you using find my phone or find my friend.

We assembled on the front lawn in three separate groups. Somebody called us all together. We did a tally of who was there. The attendance list was behind in the building. Somebody had taken the precaution of photographing it. But their mobile phone was back inside the building.

Then the owner of the left behind mobile realized the photos were in the 'cloud'. On somebody else's laptop. They logged in and found the list. We were missing one member and one guest.

The fire brigade arrived. They told us nobody was to go inside the building.
They could only spray water, not necessary if no visible fire. Could be an electrical fault. But they had to wait for another engine with breathing apparatus to go into what could be or become a burning building with smoke to check on anybody missing. If no trouble, they had to disable the deafening alarm, and give us the all clear to return.

We located the missing member's number. We phoned. He said he had exited through another door into the back garden. Now we knew there was no sign of fire, nor smoke, and the fire brigade was present, and he knew where we were, he walked around the building to join us.

Lastly, the missing guest. We had to phone the home of an absent committee member to find the contact details of the guest. We phoned him. He lived nearby and had gone home. We were able to tell him, "The alarm is over and we are continuing the meeting. Please come back."

Some useful lessons learned about communication.

Speech Contest - Winners and  'losers'
Now I shall move on to  the second story. A contestant in a speaking contest comes first in three contests at club level. She is winner of two contests, out of three, at Area level. At the final level of the year, while waiting for the results contestants are interviewed. She declares that she does not deserve to live (a quote from the first part of her speech, in which she was bullied as a child but later recovered confidence). She is second in the contest.

The person who comes first in the contest, and two other listeners who of the 250? Listeners who know her from their club are anxious to contact her to be sure she is okay.

They have her phone which is engaged or not answering. They have her address. They do not know anybody who lives nearby. They are not allowed out since they are all on Home Stay. However, checking on a potential suicide might be allowed as an emergency.

They do not know which church she attends nor anybody to contact there.
Crisis over, but I realise that if you are worried about finding somebody, often if they don't answer the phone, you don't know what to do to find them. Police and ambulance will only do what the Americans can a wellness check if they have evidence such as a copy of emails or texts.

So what are the lessons to be learned?

1 Rehearse all contestants with how they should contact the other contestants, to congratulate the winners, well done. And tell the runners up, I thought it was touch and go. I hope it will be you at a later date.

At a club, in the usual evening's vote for best speaker, I expected to be awarded the best speech ribbons. At the last moment an extra speech was put in. A woebegone man who had lost his wife in the last week gave a sad little speech about treasuring your loved ones. He won the vote. I voted for him. Nothing I could do could console him for losing his wife. But, at the very least I could give him the momentary smile of winning a ribbon.

At the basic club level, I once came second of two in the club I had just joined, losing to a very senior person. I was disappointed. In the event, he was away on business at the next contest so I went on to compete at Area level

Thinking back, I recall a contest where the person who won against me told a story about himself in hospital. I reckoned I had more drama and props and a more cheerful message. I reckoned he got the sympathy vote. I had to shrug and move on. Now, nearly 20 years later, I have more than 50 ribbons on my walls. That's just the UK. I have more in Singapore.

I thought I had helped my member to compete when she was doubtful that she could win. Looking back, I should have rehearsed with her, and every contestant every time, what she should say in advance of the results.

What are the best sentences I have heard which keep echoing through my mind?
1 I haven't done this job before, but I can do it. I shall go online and find out how to do it.
2 Of course I will help if I am free, let me check my diary.
3 You have to be in it to win it. (Ad for lottery. UK.)
4 You don't plan to fail, you fail to plan.
5 If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing well.
6 It's the journey, not the destination.
7 No such thing as failure. It's a learning experience.
8 I didn't win, but I learned new skills and have found somebody to admire, copy and ask for advice.
9 We can't all win every time. I hope you have enjoyed it and learned and will go on to do even better next time. Thank you for being so gracious to me and helping me celebrate my win.

About Author Angela
Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
Author of twenty books, including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.
See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.

If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,
Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time, which is seven hours ahead of London, England.
I am also a member of
Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. I am also a member of
Tampines Changkat Advanced. This Tuesday evening Singapore time
Harrovians, London.

Useful Websites
Toastmasters International Find a Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations
lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product-21713991
learncool.sg
See other posts on authors, singers and songwriters, statues, languages and destinations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Take And Edit Group Photos At An Event Such As A Club Meeting Or Wedding

Problem
Your three main problems, er, nine main problems, make that eleven, are:
1 Timing
2 Getting near enough to take photos
3 Getting good poses - interesting pictures
4 Lighting and Angles
5 Permission to photograph places, events and people
6 People who don't want to be on Facebook or the internet
7 Remembering names for captions
8 Getting credit for your photos

9 People online who don't switch on their camera
10 Privacy of identity

11 Revealing that few of you attended

1 Arrive Early
You want a nearby parking place so you are not taking heavy bags a long distance.

You want the venue looking pristine before people arrive and obscure features or stand with their back to you or making funny faces, running about creating blur.

You need time to establish goodwill.  Get a seat near the front or side, or a place in the aisle (without obstructing fire exits and doors).

Take photos of VIPs because they will be surrounded by well-wishers later

Getting Near
If you have a zoom lens and tripod, arrive early, ask where the chairperson or president will be standing or sitting on stage so you can choose where to position yourself. You can move freestanding chairs to get in a better position.

2 Early Photos
Take an early photo, ideally of somebody standing on stage and sitting in the audience, preferably a VIP, failing that any willing bystander. This will show you if the area is visible.

You will notice any annoying obstructions such as trailing wires, or stacked chairs.  Advertisements for other events (which can be removed during your event and replaced), religious messages in a hall attached to a religious building, distracting children's drawings, or fire hydrants. You might wish to move so as to focus on the centre of the stage.

Also notice chairs vacated by the president and left empty with papers, bags in the aisle or on chairs.

If the front row is empty, I ask members of the audience to move forward.

Lights
If you have not enough light, you could turn on some lights.

If you have too much light, and you get glare from a window behind the stage, or people turned into black silhouettes against a white background, move to one side, or get separate photos of people standing with certificates at the other side of the hall.

Smiling Before And After
Take contestants before the event in case they leave at the half-way interval. They may also be smiling, confident, standing upright at the start. This will be the flattering photo to show, rather than one of them looking glum or slumped after they learn they did not win first place.

Conversely, you might find that your winner looked anxious before the contest, but jubilant afterwards.

You might think to ask the losers to congratulate the winners. Also tell the winners to tell the losers that they gave great speeches (or painted great paintings or made tasty and amusing cakes - whatever the event). You might also add your own praises to the 'losers'. You can then photograph all the participants together looking happy.

Photo Editing
To save time, spin through all your photos and delete blanks and accidents on both the original mobile phone or camera and any editing device with a larger screen.

You might immediately select one, two, three of the best photos to send immediately to your website or the local newspaper. This will help you catch deadlines.

If the event is a family and friends affair, such as a wedding, anniversary or reunion, you can share with family members before they go home.

Save any programme or agenda of the event and tick or star the people you have photographed.

Some photographers, on an event shoot, list every photo taken in a notebook. They have columns with the photo number, the event number, the names of the people in the photo, the place, time of day, correct title.

Numbering storing and indexing prints
I visited the home of the head of a New Zealand photographic society. He had all his photos stacked on shelves in shoe boxes going back several decades. Every photo was stored numerically by date order. He had books of indexes by subject, so he could find a waterfall, or local shop owner, or boat race, in different years.

Disasters
Many people get cross about photos of disasters. However, you may be doing the victims a favour if your photo can identify who is at fault and help a victim claim compensation, or if they were accused of wrongdoing, prove they were not guilty.

Happy Events
Even if there's an official photographer, your extra photos may be welcome. The official photographer might take mainly the VIP family. You might take the aunt in the corner, the boss who arrived late, the dog, or the dessert. If there's a dispute with a photographer, or a disaster with the photographer's equipment, your photos could be a handy backup. Even if the bride is happy to pay for the large photos, you might have some small ones for yourself and guests with a lower budget.

In the event that the official photos are lost during house moves, it can be handy to have duplicates of the official and unofficial photos.

Historic Family Photos
Duplicate wedding photos kept by others are useful at the time - and years later.

I went to the 80th birthday party of an elderly great-aunt. Her nephew, who I hardly knew showed me a lot of photos of people I didn't know. Then he produced a wartime (WWII) wedding photo and said, "I don't know who these people are. Do you know them?"

I gasped, "That's my parents - their wedding photo! In World War Two. Before I was born. I don't have that photo."

My distant relative didn't know the people, or even that it was a wedding photo.

I knew. "It's their wedding. I can tell by my father's clothes and the flower."

"But she's not wearing white."

Wartime Wedding Story From A Photo
"They are both wearing hats, and my father is wearing a top hat, and they both have a flower. It's not her first wedding, but her second wedding, so white would not have been considered suitable. Her first husband died in a plane shot down at El Alamein. She married my father towards the end of the war, when there was clothes rationing. Some brides had white dresses made out of parachute silk from used parachutes. She wouldn't have wanted that, even if she could have afforded it, because any reminder of planes would have been too upsetting. So she's wearing a sensible suit in dark material which she could use again."

"Would you like the photo?" He handed it to me. I was so happy. Thank you to the photographer who printed so many duplicates, to the family who kept them, to the descendant who was able to give it to me.

Making Friends With Official Photographers
Make friends with the photographer. The photographer is often ignored and avoided. They might be glad of a chance to talk, or have a request. You can give each other names of the VIPs, work out timing, position yourselves to not get in each other's way,

At a presentation of awards find out if the event organisers have asked you not to use flash, and how to get around restrictions.

Make Friends With Event Organisers
There may be a sign saying no photography. That might mean you cannot photograph the statues and ornaments in a religious or historic building because the venue sells their own photos. They might be or afraid of photographers acting on behalf of burglars. However, the organisers might be happy for you to take photos of people at the event.

Maybe the historic statue is OK to photograph but not the company logo which is a trademark. On the other hand, you might be forbidden to photograph the valuable painting on the wall behind you, but the organisers might be delighted to have publicity for their logo, their event, or flyers for their future events.

Conversely, the organisers may have an exclusive arrangement with a photographic society to take and sell photos of VIPs at the event, but you may be free to photograph the outside and inside of the building and your own family in the building, or on their own with certificates in a corner.

You might also be allowed to take photos before the event, of the building and the audience, or during the interval, or upstairs at the reception, or of a bride and ring after the wedding ceremony.

Organising Posing and Photos
You can brief the chairperson to ask recipients of certificates to turn to face the audience, not stand talking with their back to the audience.

The chairperson can also announce in advance: "I'm going to ask everybody to come up, one by one, and stay on stage for a group photo."

I ask people to keep their hands still. I also ask, everybody face the front. I also say: One, two, three.

Another useful message is:
Please don't take photos during the singing. The choir will pose for photos in a big group at the end, and individually during the interval.

Editing
You can either go through each photo and correct every aspect of that photo. Then mark which photo is best.

Or select the best photos and edit only the best ones.

Or edit all photos for brightness, or automatic enhancement, or vertical alignment, or cut out empty foreground, crop to enlarge the people.

Selfies
Remember to take yourself at an event. You can take a selfie, or ask another person to photograph you. This is useful for your cv, your business, your blog, your family and friends, or as a record of everybody at the event.

Captions
I like to caption all photos the evening of the day I took them with the aid of my event agenda, on the back of which I write the spelling of names and nicknames. Sometimes a long name is on the agenda but Stephen Michael Horphin prefers to be captioned with the name everybody knows, Steve or a jokey nickname or caption, 'Speedy' Steve.

It's lovely afterwards to be told:
'You take great photographs.' (Thanks for telling me that, Gill.)
'You make me look good.' (Thanks for saying that, Shan.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Quotations from losers and winners about travel and life

QUOTATIONS For travel and life

A correspondent travelling in my direction sent me a quotation which he asked me to identify, a rhyme about roaming. It included the words 'never found a home'.

You don't have to find a home. You can make a home.

You only have to put the words into Google to instantly locate the source, a song written by Johnny Cash.

It is a pity that life's losers write lyrics about losing, even when they become famous. Like one of my favourite singer-songwriters, Amy Winehouse. Her most famous song, won't go to Rehab, no, no, no, struck me as having a negative message when I first saw her singing it. I loved her voice, though not her message. Her message was doing her no good. Then she died.

I prefer to remember and run my life by quotations from Benjamin Franklin:
'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.'

Benjamin contributed more to society than sayings. He was a politician. He gave a good message and lived a useful life which gave benefits to generations, including me and you. He invented the lighting conductor and bifocals. I use bifocals to read and write.

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations For Authors and Speakers. I have several more posts about Benjamin Franklin, quotations and statues. Please share links to your favourite posts.