WYOMING WRITERS, INC. -- YEAR 32: So much territory is covered during each Wyoming Writers, Inc., annual conference. This past weekend in Rock Springs, I scribbled notes from many of the sessions. I translated my distinctive shorthand (unintelligible to the untrained eye) and found some entries worth sharing. At the members’ meeting, outgoing President Barbara Wild shared some thoughts about her tenure – and future of WWI. In the org’s 32nd year, membership remains flat, and registration for the conference was a little less than last year’s event in Cheyenne, which was a bit less than the previous year’s. She diagnosed the problem as lack of outreach by the membership. “The longer we keep internal and don’t give of our talent and money and go out of our way to encourage young people, we can’t continue,” she said. “We will either adapt or perish – it’s a simple biological fact.” She encouraged the membership to consider alternative venues for conferences (i.e., community college campuses) and scholarships and mentoring for young writers. WWI could also provide funds to young writers to attend non-WWI workshops and pay for critiquing of their manuscripts. But her main message: “externalize.” This is a challenge for any organization, especially one with a successful 30-plus-year history (and a Governor’s Arts Award under its belt).

You could look at this as the challenge Wyoming (the state) faces in the 21st century: “adapt or die.” We often have to look outside of ourselves for answers, not an easy task when you’re an independent cuss – or an all-volunteer organization with 100 or more strong-minded individuals. WWI always operates in the black and only recently did it apply for WAC grants and do it successfully each time.

As the meeting continued, members offered their thoughts about keeping the conference in one place every year, or taking it to different communities. Some liked the idea of college campus venues; others didn’t. I stood and asked them to really take a leap of their imaginations to 2015. By then, WWI has tapped into the Wyoming Cultural Trust for funding for a paid staff person and a central HQ, possibly in Casper. The new Casper Arts Center is the site for the annual meeting and hundreds of writers are there, including scores of young people and even some out-of-staters. The room was quiet as I took my seat. Crickets chirped; tumbleweeds blew through the room. Then the conversation resumed about where to hold future annual meetings, in 2008 and 2009. Central location or not. College campuses or not. Nobody seemed to want to make the leap to 2015. I’ll be 64 that year, about the age of many of the members now. That means they’ll be even older. I just hope there are scads of younger people at the 2015 conference, wherever it may be. As Barbara said: “Adapt or die.”

The Wyoming Arts Council has been faced with that reality more than once. And we’ll mark our 40-year anniversary in 2007 with some major changes. I’ll keep you posted on further developments.
- posted by Michael Shay @ 2:10 PM