Volunteers

2024 SIOP Annual Conference

Volunteers

Volunteers Needed for the SIOP Annual Conference

 

Welcome:   

Thank you for your interest in being a volunteer for the upcoming SIOP Annual Conference! Volunteers play a vital role in assisting fellow attendees to navigate their way around the conference. Also, this is a unique opportunity to network with attendees in addition to being nominally compensated for your time.

Volunteers will be needed in Chicago beginning Wednesday, April 17th, through Saturday morning, April 20th. Each volunteer will be assigned a total of four (4) hours, spread over one (1) or two (2) time slots. Following the conference, you will receive a $60 gift card as a token of our appreciation in exchange for your volunteer service.

Volunteer positions are described below. Students who have indicated their interest in volunteering for the conference will be contacted via email when the volunteer slots are available for sign-up. Volunteers will be able to sign up for 1-2 shifts that fit with their conference schedule to cover 4 hours of volunteer time.

Conference Career Center (CCC)

The Conference Career Center (CCC) is offered at the SIOP Annual Conference to provide registered job seekers and employers the opportunity to meet for in-person interviews. Also, computers will be available for individuals to upload resumes, check job postings, etc.

Volunteers assist the Career Services Committee by checking in CCC users, facilitating scheduled meetings between interviewers/interviewees, and monitoring the use of the computers to report any technical issues when they arise.

This volunteer role involves standing, sitting, and talking. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

 

Friday Seminars

Friday Seminars are 3-hour educational sessions requiring additional preregistration and fee.

These volunteers will sit or stand at a table outside the session room to greet participants and have them sign the attendance form to ensure only paid attendees enter the room (some conference attendees don’t realize that an additional fee is required to attend the session). It is recommended that the volunteer email the coordinator(s) pre-event of the seminars at which they will be volunteering to introduce themselves.

This volunteer role involves standing, sitting, and talking. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

Hospitality Desk / Whova Help

The Hospitality Desk is where attendees are welcome to ask for assistance with anything they may need to know about the Conference. At the Desk, particular groups of attendees may request to house additional registrant materials, like badge ribbon selection or signup sheets. Volunteers may also be called upon to assist attendees with the Whova Conference app on their devices, so some familiarity with that would be helpful.

Please review the description below for Registration volunteers, as many of the same duties and details apply. Dress is business casual.

Information Signs

SIOP Conference volunteers are a source of information. The volunteers do not need to know the ins and outs of the conference but will keep a conference map and schedule with them to assist with questions.

The SIOP Administrative Office will prepare a “cheat sheet” for this volunteer role to give further guidance (PDF entitled “Registration and Hospitality Desk Volunteer Cheat Sheet”). Information Signs volunteers should familiarize themselves with the layout of the event venue and the conference materials such as the, On Site Guide, and the Whova app to be prepared for their role.

This volunteer role involves standing, sitting, and talking. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

Opening Plenary

The Opening Plenary on Wednesday evening is the first session of the SIOP Annual Conference and needs to go off without a hitch to ensure a positive start to the event. Volunteers for the Opening Plenary session will assist by demarcating reserved seating for SIOP VIPs, escorting Fellows, and counting attendees. They will also greet attendees as they arrive and provide general assistance to attendees and SIOP staff as needed.

This volunteer role involves standing, walking, talking, and some lifting. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

Receptions

The SIOP Annual Conference offers multiple networking/socializing opportunities for attendees. There are receptions that may require volunteers such as the Fellows Reception. Typically, a single volunteer will be assigned specific duties upon arrival. This may include helping to set-up the reception, greeting attendees, handing out information, and providing general assistance to attendees and SIOP staff as needed.

The Receptions volunteer role involves standing, walking, talking, and some lifting. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

Registration

SIOP Registration volunteers often provide the first onsite impression of the SIOP Annual Conference for a conference registrant and, as such, professionalism, friendliness, and helpfulness are of utmost importance. A Registration volunteer welcomes attendees and assists with distribution of registration lanyards, and the On Site Guide. Volunteers may be asked to restock registrant materials or assist with other related duties.

Registration volunteers also frequently field questions from attendees pertaining to dates, times, and locations of conference events and other meeting logistics. There are conference information notebooks at the volunteers’ disposal to provide answers, and there will always be a SIOP Administrative Office staff member on hand at Registration or nearby in the event that a volunteer cannot find the answer to a question they have been asked.

The SIOP Administrative Office will prepare a “cheat sheet” for this volunteer role to give further guidance. Volunteers should familiarize themselves with the layout of the event venue and the conference materials such as the online searchable program, On Site Guide, and Whova app to be prepared for their role.

This volunteer role involves standing, sitting, talking, and some lifting. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

Partner Showcase and Tech Exploration Demo Room

The Partner Showcase Room will feature 60-minute, partner-paid presentations on Thursday and Friday.  Partners will have a table in the back of the room to place marketing materials and business cards. They are allowed to collect business cards or scan the badges of individuals in the room. Student volunteers will count the number of attendees and assist with technical issues and clear off the back table after a speaker has left to prepare the table for the next speaker. A schedule of speakers and presentations will be provided. This volunteer role involves standing, sitting, talking, and some light lifting. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

Photo Booth

Volunteer needed for on-site coordination of professional headshot photobooth. Volunteer will be required to give participants instructions and answer questions, organize the line, and communicate with those in the line when the photographer takes necessary breaks and when the booth closes for the day. They may also need to assist the photographer in non-photography ways, such as finding a SIOP staff member if an emergency arises, or working with SIOP staff to make copies if instruction sheets run out. The Photo Booth volunteer role involves standing, walking, and talking. Accommodations can be made. Dress is business casual.

SIOP Commons

The SIOP Commons is an area located in the exhibit hall that is set aside specifically for SIOP Committees to showcase their work and talk to potential volunteers. Volunteers will be required to provide general information about the space, assist with the raffle entry process (there will be multiple raffles run over two days), pass out “Committee Volunteer” badge ribbons to those who identify as a volunteer, encourage volunteers to “celebrate their service” by dancing in the hula hoop and finally by helping volunteers find their name on the banner and leaving encouraging messages for future volunteers!

This volunteer role involves standing, sitting, and talking. Dress is business casual.

 

Keaton Fletcher headshot

 

 

Please contact Keaton Fletcher (keaton.fletcher@colostate.edu), Volunteer Coordinator, with any questions you may have regarding volunteering at the conference.