Melissa Smallbrook is the APA’s Meeting Coordinator for the three annual divisional meetings.
What do you do at the APA?
As the Meeting Coordinator, I work with all three APA divisions (Eastern, Central, and Pacific) to help plan their annual meetings. In addition, I collaborate with the secretary-treasurers (STs) and the hotels to ensure the events are a success. Some of my responsibilities include assisting the STs with the site selections for our events, the overall registration process for each meeting, on-site session room details, setting up catered events, handling audio-visual requests, organizing the volunteers, and being the point person on-site during the meetings.
How did you come to be a part of the staff/leadership?
As the daughter of Linda Smallbrook (the APA Meeting Coordinator from 1995 to 2015), I have been around the APA since I was 14. My parents would take my sisters and me to the Eastern Division meetings over Christmas break. We loved going to the big cities with my parents, and while we were there, we even got to earn a little spending money working as proxies for the book exhibitors while the reps took breaks. Over the years, I continued to work off and on at the APA, doing odd jobs for the office and traveling to APA meetings to help at the registration desks. Fast-forward to 2014–2015, my mom decided she was ready to retire, and I was lucky enough to have the chance to shadow her for a year so that I could then take over her role as the APA Meeting Coordinator.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I have two favorite parts of my job. First, I really enjoy all aspects of planning meetings and events. There is always a bit of chaos that comes along with it, but there is nothing like the satisfaction of pulling it all together and having a successful meeting. Second, I love to travel, so being able to travel with my co-workers is something I appreciate.
What are you most proud of in your non-professional life?
I am beyond proud of my little family. I have two sons, Eli (19) and Brody (7), an amazing fiancé, Danny (who was also my middle-school sweetheart), two dogs (Ollie and Bailey), and a cat named Buddy.
What is your favorite quote?
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
What advice do you wish someone had given you?
Make plans but write them in pencil.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I enjoy traveling, our bi-weekly family dinners and game nights (with my family, my sister’s family, and our parents), nature walks with our dogs, reading, and going to the beach in the summer and fall months.
Thank you, Melissa Smallbrook! I go to one or two APAs a year. And I notice and am grateful for the organization–everyone knowledgeable and helpful, everything friendly, everything works. I was puzzled when ‘Linda’ changed to ‘Melissa’. Mystery solved!