Point #71: Volunteering for the APP – Julie Taylor

JulieTaylorJulie Taylor
APP Outreach Committee

The Outreach Committee is responsible for connecting with the public about safe piercing. The committee coordinates APP Member volunteers to attend pre-selected national health conferences throughout the year. It also provides advice and materials such as a PowerPoint presentation, brochures, and postcards, to assist piercers in performing outreach in their own areas. If you would like help to do outreach at an event such as a conference or convention where you live, or if you would like information on how to get your foot in the door at a hospital or school, please contact outreach@safepiercing.org.

The Outreach Committee currently consists of Ash Misako (Board Member), Laura Jane (Chair), April Thomas, Lou Quino, and myself.

Outreach is important to me because it is through doing outreach that I built a community of educated consumers and my own business at the same time. No matter where you live, people can learn to choose a safe piercing experience. The APP’s brochures and other resources were instrumental in spreading that message here in my tiny province on Canada’s east coast.

Living in a more remote area, volunteering with the APP has given me the opportunity to work with other piercers from around the world toward a common goal. This common goal is one that requires constant and consistent work. The brochures can’t do the work by themselves! As an organization with a mission of education, I believe our members have a responsibility not just for distribution of information to the public, but for keeping that information upto- date, and sharing it with piercers, health professionals, legislators and others. There’s lots of work to do!

APPConVolunteers2013
APP Conference Volunteers 2013

To that end, the APP has a survey to assess the skill sets and availability of members who wish to volunteer. If you are interested in volunteering, please email me at volunteer@safepiercing.org, for a link to the survey. Our committees are particularly looking for those with graphic design and marketing backgrounds, as well as those who have a good eye for quality content and maintaining presence on social media networks. Please note that the volunteer survey is not for conference volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering for Conference please contact Caitlin at info@safepiercing.org.