Sign Up Now to Volunteer at 2023 AFS Annual Meeting

This year, AFS is looking for remote volunteers to serve as Zoom moderators for fully virtual sessions (Oct. 11-12) and in-person volunteers to work at the registration desk in Portland (Nov. 1-4).

Volunteers who provide Zoom moderation for three sessions or work 5 hours at the registration desk will receive a full meeting registration refund or waiver.

If you are interested in volunteering in either capacity, email [email protected] as soon as possible, since slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Please include notes about:

• Whether you’d prefer the registration desk or Zoom moderation
  • Please only volunteer for Zoom moderation if you feel comfortable hosting and running Zoom sessions.
  • If you volunteer to be a Zoom moderator, please describe your past experience with Zoom.
• Meeting dates/times during the fully virtual days (Oct. 11-12) or the in-person gathering (Nov. 1-4) that you cannot volunteer.
• The dates/times you would prefer
  • For Zoom moderation, you can also specify panel ID numbers (eg, V1-01) for sessions that you’d like to attend/moderate; we will accommodate requests as possible. Click here to see the program.
  • For working the registration desk, please see the available shifts below.
• A phone number where you can be reached during the annual meeting

Zoom moderators will take responsibility for Zoom hosting duties so that panel participants can concentrate on the presentations and discussion. Duties may include: 

• helping the chair host and manage the Zoom session; 
• ensuring audio and visuals are working for both the in-person and virtual audiences; 
• admitting/removing or muting/unmuting Zoom participants; 
• assisting with screen sharing and media playback; 
• monitoring chat; 
• recording the session; and 
• communicating any tech issues that are beyond your capacity to the tech lead. 

Volunteer Zoom moderators are required to attend a brief orientation and training session through Zoom on Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 2:00pm EST. 

Registration desk volunteers will help welcome attendees and run registration, which involves distributing nametags and programs to those who have preregistered, creating a list of those who register onsite for later invoicing, making a head count of attendees in session rooms, and various other duties as requested. 

Registration desk shifts:

• Wednesday
  • 12:30–5:30 pm
  • 1:30–6:30 pm
• Thursday
  • 7:30 am–12:30 pm
  • 10:30 am–3:30 pm
• Friday
  • 7:30 am–12:30 pm
  • 10:30 am–3:30 pm
• Saturday
  • 7:30 am–12:30 pm
  • 9:00 am–2:00 pm

Once we have adequate volunteers, we will create a schedule and distribute it. Please let us know if you have any questions at [email protected].