How do you save your panel?

[Maury Merkin <merkin his com>]

How do you save your gnome configuration?

Mostly I'm concerned about the "panel."  Each time I start gnome-session

I get the original "panel."  (Empty except for the clock and the
footprint.)  So I add the applets and apps I want on it and then I
eventually shut down my X session and expect my personalized panel to
show up the next time I start gnome-session but with no such luck.  Back

again to the original "panel."  It's getting old.  What am I doing
wrong?

If it matters, my wm is AfterStep and I'm using gnome 0.30-1.

TIA