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West End United Methodist Church is currently in the process of creating a new church directory.

With Michael Williams beginning at West End in early February, a new directory is needed to help him connect names to faces as he gets to know the congregation.

We have chosen Lifetouch over their competitors to do this directory and are excited about the benefits Lifetouch will bring us. For example, Lifetouch provides us with the following:

1. On-line reservations available for scheduling photo sittings appointments beginning this coming Sunday Dec. 13th for families interested in participation in the directory. Please encourage everyone you know to schedule an appointment as soon as possible so our directory can be as complete as possible.
2. No long waits or frustrations. Historically, WE families often have had to wait for long periods of time to have their portraits taken and again to view and purchasing the portrait packages. Lifetouch has learned to balance the workflow through years of experience in churches. They have a more efficient workflow process to keep pace with the appointment schedule and their references seem to support their ability to stay on schedule. Families and churches appreciate the professionalism, creativity, and service from the photographers.
3. We will have at least three photography stations (at a minimum) with more coming on-line based on need. The photographers are trained professionals who stay with the family throughout the entire process and DO NOT subject families to high pressure sales. The appointment schedules include fifteen minutes of downtime at each station to allow for slow families.
4. Lifetouch claims they do not engage in high pressure sales techniques and other large UM Churches, the TN Conference and other denominational reference seem to confirm this claim. In fact, this is the single most important factor as to why they win in over 90% of head-to-head comparisons with Olan Mills – the company that did our last directory six years ago.
5. Clear expectations - Lifetouch provides full pricing schedules to families in advance so there are no surprises.
6. Lifetouch offers additional resources through their call center to help us make reminder phone calls leading up to the scheduled photography appointment. They will also initiate invitational phone calls to individuals and families who have yet to make an appointment to be photographed. We might want to make many of these invitational calls ourselves because it is a wonderful opportunity to invite our inactive members to reconnect to the community. Either way it also increases the chances of having a more complete pictorial directory.
7. Lifetouch also provides $1.00 back to our outreach efforts for every family that is photographed. We expect this contribution from Lifetouch to be around $500. We plan to use these funds toward the new food pantry at 61st Ave United Methodist Church.
8. Consistent with the outreach focus on hunger, Lifetouch also offers a $5.00 discount on any portrait purchase for each family that brings in a food item to help stock the food pantry at 61st Ave.

Beginning Dec. 20th and continuing Sunday mornings until completed, we will have tables in Reed Hall to answer questions and to provide families a chance to schedule photo appointments in person. To facilitate the on-line and in-person reservation process, we plan to stop the on-line process every Saturday night to prepare for in-person reservations on Sundays. On Monday mornings we will enter all the manual appointments into the system and bring the updated calendar back on-line for reservations throughout the week.