The Providers’ Council is turning 50 in 2025! In celebration of this milestone, the Council will be running a series of Throwback Thursday posts throughout the year commemorating some of the Council’s most important milestones in its first 50 years. This week, the Council wants to highlight the first Annual Convention & Expo in 1976.
Providers’ Council founder Gerry Wright and Doug Baird – the Council’s first executive director – and Council staff orchestrated the first annual event in 1976 for what was known as the Massachusetts Council of Human Services Nonprofits. Wright noted the team had little formal training and limited resources, but he knew the importance of getting the first convention going to highlight the importance of collaboration. That first event was the precursor to what would eventually turn into the Council’s Annual Convention & Expo.
“We didn’t have a formula,” Wright said. “Some people didn’t want to meet for long, others wanted support from us; each person has their own opportunity to create.”
As the Council enters the next chapter in its history, it will continue to honor the original spirit of the convention: the connection and collaboration of hundreds of organizations that employ more than 160,000 people and provide critical services every day to hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents.
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