Episode 50: Inside PBSA: Melissa Sorenson on Leading the Global Background Screening Movement

In this milestone 50th episode of Behind the Screens, I sit down with Melissa Sorenson, Executive Director of the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA), for a candid conversation about the past, present, and future of our industry.

Melissa opens up about her journey from law school to leading PBSA through some of its biggest transformations—like going from a U.S.-focused group (NAPBS) to a truly global organization. We talk about what it takes to grow an international association, how volunteers shape the community, and why people—not just technology—remain the heartbeat of background screening.

She also shares what it’s like running a global operation from her home office in Minnesota, her most influential mentors, and the proudest risk she’s ever taken.

Key Takeaways:

• Melissa’s path from in-house compliance to Executive Director of PBSA.
• Why PBSA’s shift to a global focus was a defining moment—and how it happened.
• The importance of mentorship, leadership, and taking calculated risks.
• What it’s really like to plan international conferences and support a global community.
• How anyone in the industry—at any level—can get involved and grow their career through PBSA.

Connect with US:

• Les Rosen- https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesterrosen/
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/@BehindtheSCreens200

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We also knew that we had to make it truly a global association, not a US association that also had a couple of chapters or, you know, some firms or people outside of the US. And we needed to figure out the path to make that happen. Originally it was on a list, but it wasn't part of our strategic plan that we had developed. And we were about a year into this three to five year strategic plan. We came back together and said, you know what? If we don't make this one of our core initiatives, it's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Welcome to Behind the Screens Conversations with Background Screening Pros. I'm Les Rosen, your host, and I'm excited to have you here. On this podcast, we chat with the people who know the background screening world inside and out. Executives, industry experts, legal pros, and more. We dive into their personal stories and insights to give you a real look at what's happening behind the scenes. Whether you work in the screening industry or are just curious, behind the screens bring you the real unfiltered conversations from the people who make it all happen. Stick around for stories you won't hear anywhere else. Welcome to another episode of Behind the Screens, a podcast featuring folks from the background screening industry, the folks that make it happen, who do all the important work that the screening industry does. Brought to you, of course, by Barry Nixon, the pre-employment directory, the background buzz. And today we are delighted to have a special guest, the director of the PBSA, the Professional Background Screening Association, someone that I have known and admired for a long time, who has just done such an exceptional job guiding the association from where it was to something much, much bigger. And of course, I'm talking uh none other than Melissa Sorensen. Melissa, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Hello, welcome. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

No, it's an absolute pleasure, and thank you for being here and just delighted and looking forward to the conversation. So the first thing I like to ask people is where are you today? Where in the world is Melissa Sorensen? Where are you talking to us from?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

I'm in the U.S. I'm actually out of a home office in Minnesota, so northern U.S., a small-ish town about 35 miles northwest of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. So this is where I spend most of my days. PBSA, all of our staff works remote, including me. So we all work out of home offices. And I happen to be in Minnesota, but my team is spread around the U.S., including a team member in Canada.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Oh, that's fantastic. So, Emmy, if you ever wanted to go to a twins game, I suppose you you could.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

I did. I went to one last weekend.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Oh, fantastic. Well, that's great. Up there at Target Stadium. So, for those of you that don't know, I think everyone does, but why don't you tell us about your current role? What you currently do, what you like about it, what did you find most interesting about it?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Sure. I'm currently the executive director for the Professional Background Screening Association, PBSA. I'm coming up on 13 years in this role as executive director. Unlike most of my peers that run other trade associations, my background is not in trade associations. My background's in the background industry itself. And that's one of the things that I like the most about this role and my team is we've got a team that's about 50-50. Some of us come from industry themselves, and some have trade association background, which I think helps us service our members better as a trade association. We understand what they're going through, and we also have the expertise to run a trade association, which is a pretty nice mix. Things that I love about this role are all of the things I didn't know when I jumped in and raised my hand and asked the board to consider bringing me on. And it's all of the areas that are outside of my expertise that I get to keep learning in every day. Silly things like menu planning for 800 people and weighing in on that in the food and beverage budget to a lot more direct one-on-one work with our legislators and regulators and our incredible GR communities, government relations around the world. I hit anything and everything on pretty much every given day. It's not something I was trained in, had any background in, or anticipated the full extent that I'd be touching when I took this on.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And it's fantastic because I know from the time you started to where we are now, the PBSA has just blossomed and grown exponentially, and it continues to grow with all the councils and so forth. So, what was your your career path to get from where you started after college and law school to where you are now?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah, that's right. Started college and law school here in Minnesota. And when I started law school, my original thought plan was that I would be the more traditional lawyer way back to I think I was about eight years old when I considered that as my path and didn't really stray from that. Back then, I thought I would be looking more at something traditional family law practice, that sort of thing. As I got a little bit older and knew my own tendencies and passions, I knew that wasn't something I would be successful at while raising a family myself. And from there, I pretty quickly pivoted into the compliance world and legal. And outside of law school or just out of law school, like some of us did a long time ago, I read newspapers and won ads for open career positions and didn't know anything about background screening, had no intention of going into background screening, but found an in-house compliance role at a local background screening company, Verifications Inc., back in the day, located in headquartered in the Minneapolis area. And that's where I got my start. And I spent about seven and a half years there at Verifications Inc. before coming over to PBSA. And that path was what a lot of our leaders have seen, right? You come to a conference, you you get pulled in by somebody to join at a meeting, just listen in and start taking part in a project, and then they find other areas to the word we use is volunteer you volunteer that you didn't know you were volunteering. Somebody voluntold you what project is yours next, and it just keeps going in a cycle, and you keep finding and meeting new people that you get to choose to work with. You don't have to do it, you're doing it because you want to, and that eventually landed me on the board of directors, and then for I don't know, a hot minute or two, I think I was on the executive committee as a secretary before some one of my board peers approached me at the same time Verifications Inc. had been acquired by First Advantage and asked if I had any interest in pursuing leading the association. We were starting to mature at that point as an association. We'd been working with an AMC, an association management company for all of our staffing, and they'd done a fantastic job. But we were at the point where we were ready to have some professional staff brought in. And I went from a peer on the board to preparing a presentation for my peers on the board and asking them to consider something they weren't considering, and that was bring on a dedicated executive director, somebody from industry, and me specifically, and to help run the association, partnering with our association management company for additional staff. And that's the, I don't know, 60-second version of how I got from law school to PBSA today.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Well, I mean, I'll just give an editorial comment that the association is so lucky to have you because it's just so ideal to have someone with your you know 10 years of just solid in the trench background screen work with you know that with that legal education and that legal mind. It was such an ideal thing. And it was at a point where the association really needed professional leadership and couldn't depend upon just the volunteer effort of the chairs and the board. So anyway, but what a great story. Thank you for sharing it. Along the career path, during your that your career at verifications and with PBSA and BBSA director, do you have any any particular mentors or early influencers in your career you want you want to share with us?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Sure. I probably have too many that we can't cover, and because of my role at PBSA, I feel like I've had the unique privilege to work with a lot of strong leaders in this industry, and they've helped shape who I am and who I am in my professional life. But going back to the if we just do maybe a condensed list and I'll give them each of short attributes to all the ways they contributed to my life that mean a whole lot to me. Mary Poquette, one of our recent PBSA Mike Sankey Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, Mary Poquette took a gamble on somebody who applied for an open position in on her team at Verifications Inc., who had no experience fresh out of law school and brought me on board. So I can't certainly can't ignore that. And she was not only, you know, instrumental in just bringing me the industry, but 100% supportive of my work at then NAPBS and volunteering. So exposing me to other ferns, not ever concerned that, you know, somebody might poach me or something like that. Or maybe she knew nobody would want to coach me. I don't know. But she let me go to conferences and spend my some of my time at Verification Sync volunteering for PBSA and fully supported that. So she's, you know, probably first and last on that list of people who are influential and mentors to me. In the middle, I, you know, I had some other great peers at Verification Sync that aren't in industry any longer, but really taught me work ethic, the screening industry, and then just as importantly, how to have fun while you're working to make sure it's something, if you're gonna do it all day, every day, and spend as much time working as they do, you should have fun while you're doing it. So I've had a couple of really great people at from back in my day at Verification Sync that helped steer that path. My first conference, Nancy Roberts. I don't know how she found me or what her motive or intention was, but she figured out pretty quickly that I had a background in legal and said, You're coming with me to best practices, and we're gonna get you volunteering on this committee and leading. And it's those type of people that just take your arm and say, You look new, you I don't think you know everybody here, so let me walk you around and let me get you engaged. And then, of course, Judy Goodkind, she was again one of our lifetime achievement award recipients, and it's no coincidence. She and I served on the board together. She was on the leadership team on the executive committee when I was on the board, and she taught me and showed me what leaders look like on that board of directors, and she made the call to me and asked me if I would consider stepping onto the executive committee and extending my board term. I actually told her at the time I'd have to call her back. I wasn't sure about that. I don't like to do things halfway, and I knew that you know, sitting on the board was important and sitting on the executive committee was even more, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna let anybody down, starting with nudie, if I accepted, but she gave me time and a little pep talk, and I I I was thrilled that she and the rest of the board were willing to take another gamble on me and bring me onto the executive committee. So she's always been somebody, not just for me, I think countless PBSA people would say she's a cheerleader for anyone and everyone. She'll find your strengths and she'll showcase them on the mountaintop. And it's incredible to work with people like that. A couple others, you know, there's Scott Maloney, you've recently talked to him as well, our first provider member that also served as chair. And I think our first board member that went all the way through the executive committee and then signed up for another turn on the board. As one of our providers or associate members, he's always open to feedback from all of the members. I mean, never self-motivated. And that can be tough when you're a provider serving with CRAs on the board. So watching him navigate that has also been something I try to watch and learn from and really appreciate. He's one of, if not the smartest people I've ever been around. And he never makes you feel like you're not as smart as him, but you're absolutely not as smart as he is. He's absolutely phenomenal, gives so much of his expertise and thinks things through thoughtfully from all of our members' perspectives, which is something that's hard to come by. You know, somebody who's got vested interests, and he does that time and again and is always willing to give his time, think things through with you, help work through, you know, government relations, legislative, litigation, different considerations for us as an industry of where we should put our time, energy, and resources. And he he does it selflessly and he's got a great sense of humor on top of it, just an absolute joy to work with. And then you look at the team that he's built, and he it all resonates pretty well, and certainly makes sense. So Chris is absolutely on that list, and then I'll just name one more, and I know that there's 30, 40, 50 probably that more than I'm missing, but Julie Hackman, another former PBSA chair, one that I in my role I get to work for a new boss every year. Whoever the chair of PBSA is my boss, and I like to make sure that I learn something from each one of them. Everybody brings a unique management style, priorities, and my goal is to take the best from all of them and start wrapping them into how I run the association. And Julie's just one who, as a boss for the year that I had her, was the most supportive, engaged without micromanaging, had nothing but positive things to say about her team, about her board. She was just really somebody that I learned a lot in terms of how I want to conduct myself as a leader of an organization, whether it's PBSA or any other organization. Her support as my boss was second to none.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

That's fantastic. What a fantastic group of people. Mary Paquette, who was the first one you mentioned, will be a guest shortly. And uh a number of the other folks you mentioned either have been or will be guests. So thank you for sharing. It's uh it's really a great perspective. You've done so much, and in the position of executive director, you have so many stakeholders and so many people that you know that are have different approaches and different things, and you know, it's a sensitive job.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

During your your time both at verification tank and your time on the board as executive director, is there a lesson that you learned early in your career that really came to top of mind that you would want to share with us?

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah, I think there's a good question. It actually goes back to my first mentor, Mary Poquet. When I started working, probably my first year or so, there was a lot of turnover and things happening in the industry. We were going through an economic downturn, there was rifts happening across industry, all of those things. And I was relatively new, and I thought my head might be on the on that chopping block, just as somebody new to the team. And Miri told me one of the things that she learned to do throughout her career was put your head down and work. There are times where while there's a lot of noise and it impacts all of us, it's time to just put your head down and work and stay out of the noise. And that's one thing that I've taken with me, and not just in my professional life, but also you know, in person and relationships. Sometimes just stay out of the noise, be a sounding block if it's appropriate, but just put your head down, keep your focus where it's supposed to be for your job, whatever that might be, and you'll come out okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

That's great advice. Ignore the noise, ignore the daily ups and downs and the this and the that, and put your head down and just do it. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Now you stayed in the screen industry, obviously, you know, have the skill and talent and experience to have gone to lots of other things, do whatever you want. What interests you most about the screen industry? What makes you passionate about working in this particular industry?

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Well, I think I'm gonna be repetitive of some of your past guests on this one. It's gotta be the people, right? You're the number one thing behind this industry, despite everything else that goes on with the technology, all those things, it has to be the people. And whether you're somebody who's, you know, landed at one screening company or one software company or one core retrieval company, and you've managed to find success and find your home and stay there, or you're somebody who's worked within the industry at five or six different companies, there's a reason that people in this industry, unlike any other that I've ever seen, stay in the industry. And it's I mean, I hate to say this in the role that I have, but it's not because background screening is the most interesting industry in the world. That's that's not it, right? I mean, we stay because of the people, and I'm uniquely blessed to be able to work with all of the people.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

In your role as executive director, I mean, you get to work with not only the uh folks in the US, but worldwide too. How's that for been for you?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

I think that's that's kind of like our current, it's not that we haven't always had members from outside of the US, but you're seeing with some of the pack tasks that you're doing, there are so many amazing people outside of the US in this industry that we're just starting to see regularly engaged with some of the people that have been around in the US for decades, right? And seeing some of that untapped talent that is out there. And I'm also watching that transition from that side of, you know, outside of the US, where people are a little bit more skeptical of whether you can be competitors and really work together in an industry association and seeing those sorts of transitions happening, like we saw, you know, in back in the NAPBS days of figuring out that competitors actually work better together when they come together for a number of things. That outside of the US work is now starting to come with the same process. And we're see there's so many great people outside the US. And I don't have to limit my work to only US. I get to go to our Europe conferences and our APAC conferences and work with those councils and their work product and start to see them really grow in the same ways that we did as an association just when we were, you know, primarily US. It's it's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

And of course, for you as executive director, you work basically on a world clock, a 24-hour clock is all right, your afternoon and the middle of the night in in many APAC countries and vice versa.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I mean, best decision we made was going from NAPBS to PBSA, not just because of the name, but because it gave us an opportunity to expand our board and make sure we had a global footprint on our leadership. But from a logistics standpoint, scheduling calls is is not as easy as it once was, but that it's worth it in the end.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Oh, that's fantastic. So, Mil Melissa, looking back on your career in the background screening industry and your tremendous accomplishments at the PBSA, is there a particular accomplishment or proud moment that stands out and brings a smile to your face you want to share with us?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

The day that I made a pitch to the board of directors for them to take a gamble on me, it was not only the pitch that I made to them, it was the pitch before that that I made to myself to take that gamble because I was going from, you know, an employee, a great firm, Verifications Inc. and First Advantage. We're both tremendous firms with some career stability, I think, for the path that I was on. So talking to myself through what that might look like to take on something, a role that was not strictly legal in the Compliance, which is what I had planned for my future when I, you know, signed up for the bills at Keulan with law school. And then going through kind of what that might look like in a totally different same industry but different type of career running a trade association than working in a legal department at a screening company. And also just kind of the gamble with the PBSA didn't have budget for a dedicated executive director. This was an independent contractor position with a one-year contract. So leaving one role to come on to a one-year contract for them to figure out if it was gonna work was a bit of a risk for me at that moment. I'm not a big risk taker, so that one was probably the biggest leap that I took in this role and the best one.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

And obviously it worked out really well. So let's spend a moment and talk a little bit more focused on PBSA and your role as executive director. One of the things that really impressed me the most is when during your leadership term, we went from NAPBS, which was a U.S. centric, to PBSA, which is a worldwide organization, and went to the cancel structure. Tell us a little bit more about that, that growth pattern, how that all came about and worked out.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

That was a couple of years. I mean, I say a couple of years, but that was our our whole trajectory in the making, right? The intent was never for the association to be strictly US. And as we continued to grow and see more members outside of the US, it started to become apparent, even through our name, the National Association. That doesn't feel very global, that we start we needed to make changes. And we were at that phase in our growth journey. We were starting to mature as an association and have these strategic plans where we would really identify what our focus areas for the next three to five years would be. And they were not far off from what we see today. A lot of focus on government relations and growth and those types of things that are incredibly important to us. But we also knew that we had to make it truly a global association, not a US association that also had a couple of chapters or you know, some firms or people outside of the US. And we needed to figure out the path to make that happen. Originally it was just one of it was on a list, but it wasn't part of our strategic plan that we had developed. And we were about a year into this three to five year strategic plan. We came back together and said, you know what, if we don't make this one of our core initiatives, it's not gonna happen. So we need to say one of the things that is going to get done on this strategic plan is to convert NAPBS into a global trade association. And that means a new name, updating our bylaws, all of our strategic plan has to be considered globally. We need to reconstruct our board, reconstruct our chapter council. We need to reconsider how we do finances. We can't, you know, just take in income from 20 members in our APAC region and consider that their budget for the year. We need to actually put what we've built here and at that time a primarily US organization and put that time, energy, and resources to help us do the same thing outside of the US and transition over to PDSA. And it didn't happen overnight, but with that effort and that acknowledgement that this was going to be one of our strategic priorities. And the board gave me the flexibility to put together a small team, four to five people, to say, what does this look like? Make sure we've got representation from Canada, APAC, and Europe on this small team, along with a couple of our US members that have some vested global interest and experience. We've had about six people that came together and really flushed this out of what it would look like. All of the moving pieces to make all of that happen. And everybody contributed, and nobody signed up for that, whether they were a board member or a part of my task force that helped do that, without knowing that this was going to be our the biggest thing that we did for this association in a very long time, and they had to be all in. And fortunately, they all were, and I'm really happy with that transition that the association made.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I mean, it sure seems to me that it's been a rousing success. I know we've had our first Canadian director with chair, Michelle LeBlanc, and now, and I think next year we have Susie Thompson from the UK as the chair. So the various meetings, Canada, AIPAC, and Europe-Africa, apparently they have great speakers and they attract a lot of people. So from my perspective, from what I can see, it's been a uh a rousing success.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Michelle was on that task force when she was on the board and when you know, saw through the chair, and then now has come full circle and joined me back on the staff side.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

And now she's your chief operating officer.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Oh, that's fantastic. And so you know, the next PBSA National Conference is at Anaheim, and this hopefully aired just before that. And I know you're looking forward to it. What's your thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Well, it's gonna be in your backyard, so I expect we'll see you there.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

All right. That's right. I it's in my backyard, so it's hard for me to say no.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Yeah. With all your world travels and you know, it's hard to source locations that I can convince you to travel to. So that's why I'm you know, I know that I'll have you there, so that would be fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

This is also for our newer members, this is a repeat location for us. We've been to Anaheim before we actually, it was our first conference out of COVID. So back it being the first conference out of COVID, that was when, you know, there was like green wristbands, I'm comfortable, you know, having conversations, red wristband, make sure you stay six feet away from me. There was masks everywhere, there was hand sanitizer. And the reason we're going back is one, it's a it's the perfect size hotel for us to actually have all of our attendees and the exhibit floor and the sessions all wrecked into a hotel. We're at a little bit of a spot with our size where we don't fit into a lot of hotels, but adding a convention center is not ideal. So if we can find those great hotel setups where we can fit our people and all of our stuff on the into the same hotel, that's a sweet spot for us at a reasonable price point. So Anaheim checked those boxes, but also for those that aren't aware of that being our first conference out of COVID, we didn't have as many attendees as what we were used to. And when we contract with hotels for conferences, we're contracting four or five years out. So right now we're looking at 29, 30, and 31 agreements for those, and we look at our growth patterns and growth history. So you can imagine that back when we contracted for Anaheim the last time, our growth pattern was quite a bit higher than what we expected on our first or what we actually achieved on that conference. So our choice was to cut the the hotel out a pretty large sum of money because we didn't have as many people as what we contracted for. We were in attrition, or they offered to let us come back in four years, and we easily said yes to come back. We liked the hotel, it worked really good. We had good feedback from our attendees. It's a great flow for a conference, and it's a great location.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

So I mean, I'm just amazed at the logistics. So this is 2025. You're already looking at 2030, 31, 32, but that far in advance.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

It is that far in advance. We're not quite to 32 yet, but we're contracted through 2028, and they usually happen, it's not uncommon for them to be booked together. So sometimes you'll get a better rate if you can do two hotels in a family back to back, that sort of a thing. So we're looking right now at 2029, 2030, and 2031 for us to be able to get the best rates. So that's another, you know. Well, we went from a smaller association to professionally growing and developing association, kind of taking some of those what we originally had as committees. We had a conference committee back in the day that helped us with, you know, finding locations in that. And when you start to look at the sourcing process that we have now to get the space we need at the price points, it's also typically 12 to 18 months from RFP to signing those agreements that check all the boxes we need. So it's one of those things that you start to take on as professional staff, and it has us looking far out, you still be nervous because you don't know when the next global pandemic's gonna be, or you know, avoiding the hurricane zone during hurricane season, which is fall. So avoiding that area is a little bit of a a stress point, you know, all the things that you consider.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

And a lot of people I don't think realize everything that goes on under the hood. So just that one little iota we talked about, just all the planning that goes in, just to where and what hotel and what city the the meetings will be taking into account, hurricane season and everything you mentioned. And you multiply that by a hundred little things, and there's just so many moving parts. I think people it's just it it's it boggles the mind. I don't think people appreciate how much how many things that you have to deal with as executive director in an organization. Yeah, it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

One of the you know, top of the list of things that I didn't know that I was signing up for in this path, perhaps, but you learn a lot and you know, it's a fun puzzle and piece to fit together.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

That's absolutely well, let's move away from PBSA and let's talk about Melissa's horizon outside of PBSA. And I'm gonna put you in the spot and say, okay, even though the executive director role could take 24 hours a day since it's a global organization, when you're not doing PBSA, what kind of things do you do for fun and what kind of activities and hobbies and things like that you'd like to share with us?

SPEAKER_00 32:57

I don't know that I have a lot of hobbies or those kinds of things, or maybe I don't do enough things for fun, but you know, once you work a full-time position, I've got two kids, there's a lot of ways to get involved. I think you know, most newcomers, if your organization has a membership, you by virtue of the organization have access to anything and everything. You don't have to go to a conference. Of course, if you can or if you can make the case, that should be a priority is getting to a conference. But if you can't go to a conference, go into the website and listen to some of the webinars, join the live webinars, listen to the Global Learning Center 20-minute on-demand content that we've got from around the globe. See what committees are out there, see what their time schedules are for their meetings, sign on to one of them. You don't have to raise your voice, you don't have to raise your hand and participate. Try a couple of them and figure out which people seem like the kind of people you want to keep talking to outside of your organization. And as you find your spot in your comfort zone, then start raising your hand, then start being more active. And once I've seen a lot of people follow that path. And often once you raise your hand for a project and you start meeting more people, it's a resource for your organization as well, because now you've got somebody you can reach out to when something pops up for your organization that you hadn't seen before. The number of times after, you know, I signed up for a committee or even attended a conference, the people that I had met from competitive organizations, if I had a question that I could call, I might not post a question, you know, on a forum or something like that, but I could call somebody and ask them. They always made the time to talk to me. I never had anyone say no. And being able to make those connections through calling onto a committee or just reaching out to PDSA staff as a resource to say, do you think there's anybody who would talk to me about this? We're happy to make those connections. We can't offer, you know, recommendations for partners or those types of things that would go into antitrust territory for us, but we can absolutely make connections for you with other people for you to engage with, some pretty awesome, warm, welcoming people. You can sign up to have a mentor. So if there's you want to get to know people, let us know. We'll connect you with some longtime industry and PBSA people, and they can help show you the ropes as well. There's so many people welcome and ready to bring on more team members and bring on more colleagues in other parts of the world or other parts of the country that you happen to be in. It's as easy as raising your hand or asking staff, look at we've got a volunteer web page on the website now that has all the volunteer opportunities that we're actively looking for volunteers for. Maybe there's not one today that fits your skill set, but there probably will be one tomorrow or next month. Finding ways to engage like that is to me your easy first step. You don't have to lead, you don't have to write the whole paper. You you join with a group of colleagues and come together and flesh something out. Often it's a task force, it's a limited project, it's very easy to do, and then you find what works for you and what's beneficial not just for you personally, but for your career path and for your organization. And that work often leads to supervisors saying, You should go to the next conference. You should meet some more people, find ways to keep growing for us and for you. I think there's so many ways to engage within the association, and it doesn't have to be a single path. We can meet you where you're at to help you find your place.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Well, I mean, that's absolutely a fantastic summary of what people can do if they want to advance in the industry and not just you know nine to five, and which is fine if that's what you want.

unknown 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

If you actually want to advance and meet people and have other opportunities, it's a such a great menu of possibilities that that's within anyone's grasp. Well, like I said, time goes quick and having fun. Don't want to take your entire day or evening, but before we sign off, uh Melissa, let me give you the last word. Anything you want to add or say? The the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

I just want to first say thank you for inviting me and having me here with you. And also beyond that, thank you for paving the way in this industry. You were one of the first people to leave this organization and to support this organization coming together. And if it wasn't for your efforts there, I wouldn't be here today, along with all of the people that surround me and lift all of us up. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Well, I appreciate those kind words. And on behalf of everyone, let me thank you for all the great work that you and your team, the your staff and the professional IMI staff has done to advance the profession. It's just so much to do, and so much has been done. And I'm excited to look at what what's coming in the future. I think it's it's it's only going to get better. So, ladies and gentlemen, this has been the another episode of behind the screens. Our guest today, our special guest, who is delighted to have is Melissa Sorensen, the executive director of PBSA, with just marvelous information. And this is one of those must-see, must-hear podcasts. I hope everyone will have a chance to listen to. Be sure to hit like on the episode on LinkedIn or subscribe to our YouTube channel, and we'll be back in the following weeks with additional pros from behind the screen. And once again, thanks, Melissa Warzone, for being with us today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

All right, that was yet another wonderful conversation with a background screening pro. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an update. And hey, if you got a moment, we'd love for you to leave us a review. It really helps get the word out. For more info or to catch up on past episodes, or to make suggestions or to suggest possible future guests, head over to our website. Once again, this is your host, Les Rosen, and it's been a pleasure to bring you another episode. See you on the next episode. Thanks.