By Joiann Galiano, AICP, York County Planning Commission

It’s Tuesday, the final day of the APA PA Chapter conference. There’s one last mobile workshop to launch. I check off names and collect waiver signatures and send them off. I return the paperwork to the conference headquarters. It’s quiet, and I have a minute to reflect on my experiences as a conference volunteer.

It started with an email asking for volunteers from the conference co-chairs. The conference moves around the state and is co-hosted by the Section in which it will be located. The conference committee starts looking for volunteers for subcommittees early in the year. I’ve served on several subcommittees: programs, special events, speakers, and fundraising. I’ve even helped when a national conference was held in Philadelphia.

This year I served on the fundraising subcommittee. We began our monthly Teams meetings in March and started assembling the list of sponsorship contacts from prior years. Each team member added local contacts to the list and began reaching out. The team was responsible for the event sponsors, exhibitors, program advertisers, and donated items. Kim Gusic, Chapter Administrator, managed contracts and fees.

In September, the request for helpers at the conference went out. My duties started Sunday when I joined other volunteers in conference headquarters to stuff bags donated by Dauphin County Visitors Bureau. As the filled bags stacked up, the raffle baskets are dropped off in the room. Student volunteers assemble and their “wrangler” instructs them on session room set up. More volunteers report to the registration desk, helping conference attendees and speakers. There go the filled bags! And before I know it, it’s time to meet the first mobile workshop in the lobby.

Volunteers continue to help throughout the conference, selling raffle and 50/50 tickets and collecting lunch tickets. But we could not do it without Kim Gusic and her sister, Emily, the true ring masters who coordinate this three ring circus.