They won't get inside for the nominee's acceptance speech or work elbow-to-elbow with the team from Fox News, but organizers say having a force of 7,500 local volunteers will be vital to hosting the Republican National Convention.

So on Monday, the Tampa Bay Host Committee began signing up volunteers en masse.

The mission: to greet conventioneers at the airport, give directions, assemble gift bags, hand out convention literature, pitch in on office chores, meet guests at hotels, help set up for events — essentially, to make Tampa Bay seem like a friendly, welcoming and efficient place that out-of-towners will remember fondly.

"These volunteers are the faces to the thousands of guests that will come to this area," said Amanda Whitelaw, the host committee's director of events and volunteers.

Full story here.

Listen to Richard Danielson from the Times Tampa bureau as he talks about the volunteer effort on WFLA Tuesday morning: