The 2016 Willamette Writers Conference, like many Willamette Writers conferences before it, was packed with fun and learning tailored for our vibrating community of Pacific Northwest writers. We are grateful and proud of what our volunteer conference planning team and our conference volunteres have done.

As we plan the next conference, the 2017 Willamette Writers Conference (August 4-6, 2017 at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel), we’d like to invite you to consider volunteering to join our conference planning leadership team. A separate call for conference volunteers will come at a later time.

Here’s a letter from Erik Wecks, our 2017 Willamette Writers Conference Chair:

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Dear Willamette Writers Members and Supporters:

I have been appointed to chair the Willamette Writers 2017 conference, which takes place on the first weekend in August next year. We have a really great start on what will be an excellent conference. Right now, I’m looking for people who might want to volunteer to make this conference the best ever.

All candidates must be able to either attend monthly meetings electronically or in person in Portland.  For some positions, preference will be given to those who can attend in person.

We have several key positions to fill. They include:

Vice-chairperson:
(Up to 10 volunteer hours per week)

This person would be first in line to lead the conference in the future. This year, their primary responsibility would be to put the conference on a two-year planning schedule, which would allow us to cut costs and get the best faculty and speakers. They would also supervise the marketing of this conference and our corporate sponsorships.

Program Operations Manager:
(Up to 10 volunteer hours per week; more in November, July, and August)

For those who have worked on the conference in the past, this is a new position that will be responsible for working with our travel agent on flights, booking hotel rooms, conference room assignments (based on registration data), along with being the person who tracks the schedule for the program committee. They will manage the VIPs from beginning to end, including supervising the person in charge of the VIP Room.

Director of Marketing:
(5 volunteer hours per week; more in April, May, June, July)

This person will be responsible to either manage or find people to manage social media, online and offline advertising, website, and corporate sponsorships. This would be great for a person with a marketing background, including working with local media.

Event Manager:
(5 hours per week, more in July and August)

This person will be the go-to person at the conference to make sure that everything from registration, to volunteers, and the silent auction are all running smoothly. Before then, they will supervise the registration process, making sure that all faculty and VIPs get entered into the system. They will also work with the chair to coordinate with the staff at the Sheraton Airport hotel.

Other Volunteer Opportunities

Many of the volunteers listed above will have people who report to them. If these positions look too large for you but you might be up for something with less leadership, we have other volunteer opportunities.

Of course, all of these people get to attend the conference for free, and they will get to have a great time helping put on a fantastic conference.

If any of this sounds like it would be up your alley, please click here to shoot me an email. I would love to have coffee and talk more in the next few weeks.

Sincerely,

Erik Wecks

P.S. We’re going to have a blast.