Our History

A group of a dozen or so personnel managers who anticipated the need for a personnel organization in the Harrisburg area founded an association, called the Harrisburg Area Personnel Association (HAPA), in 1963. The goal in founding HAPA was mainly to accomplish a monthly networking opportunity over breakfast. Through the years, the goals of promoting professional development and the desire to advance the interests of an emerging profession were added. The HAPA bylaws based membership at the organizational level (not individual membership) and only allowed for the top HR person in an organization to hold membership. Therefore, in 1992 a second SHRM affiliated chapter formed in the Harrisburg area, the Capital Area Society for Human Resources Management (CASHRM).

In 1998, HAPA became the Harrisburg Area Society for Human Resources Management (HASHRM) and changed its bylaws by broadening membership opportunities to include professionals “primarily engaged in providing specialized or educational services in the Human Resource field” and by allowing for individual memberships.

By the year 2000, it was apparent to members of both chapters that there was no longer a need to have two competing SHRM chapters in the Harrisburg area. Therefore, in the summer of that year merger talks began between the chapters' Boards of Directors. The results of those talks come to a culmination on September 1, 2002, when the two Chapters became one.