WCO members urged to participate in ‘Wildly Cooperative’ engagement sessions this fall
Feedback will help inform future of the Wilds Cooperative network
Do you feel the Wilds Cooperative of PA network could better serve your needs as a business? Participate in Wildly Cooperative: Imagining and Evolving the Network’s Future, an engagement process taking place this fall, to share your feedback and insights.
PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., the nonprofit that leads the regional PA Wilds strategy and manages the Wilds Cooperative of PA (WCO) network, has selected a consultant to conduct outreach to help develop a plan for an evolved governance structure for the Wilds Cooperative of PA. Feedback from members will also inform what opportunities and challenges the WCO program should focus on in the decade ahead.
“The goal of this engagement process is to hear from each of you – the small business owners, innovators, entrepreneurs and business services professionals participating in the Wilds Cooperative and rooted here in the Pennsylvania Wilds,” said Ta Enos, PA Wilds Center CEO. “This will inform recommendations for what an evolved governance structure for the Wilds Cooperative could look like. The process will also help reveal how PA Wilds Center can better serve this growing network, better leverage partner strengths to serve the network and help rural businesses in the WCO program thrive.”
Leading the outreach effort will be Jenny Totten and Spencer Moss of Alchemy Accompanied, a firm based out of West Virginia that specializes in working with nonprofits across rural Appalachia. The team was selected through a formal request for proposals process. PA Wilds Center’s Economic Recovery Corps Fellow Marc Wilken will also be guiding the project as part of his work in the region, funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) through the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).
“I love the Central Appalachian region as a whole and this opportunity with the PA Wilds Center and the Cooperative is a chance to use our community development and engagement skills to help build the rural economy in Pennsylvania,” said Totten. “We can hopefully take lessons learned from this process and apply them to other similar spaces in the future!”
The Wilds Cooperative of Pennsylvania (WCO) is a network that connects and promotes the products, services and experiences only found in the rural Pennsylvania Wilds region. It is free to join for small businesses, organizations and communities. It is the backbone of the PA Wilds Center’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, which supports the rural small businesses involved in the region’s tourism and outdoor recreation sectors through professional development, referrals to other service providers, commerce platforms to reach new markets, marketing and branding, and other tools and networks. The ecosystem is tied to a 20-year collaborative effort to grow the region’s nature tourism industry as a way to diversify rural economies, attract investment, inspire stewardship, improve quality of life and retain population. Local, state and federal partners from the public and private sectors are involved in the regional strategy.
By helping to establish stronger partner input and feedback loops, referral processes, and social impact investment approaches, this engagement and planning process will deepen the partner networks at a critical growth stage and contribute to the evolution of what the governance structure of one of the PA Wilds Center’s largest core stakeholder groups could look like to support transformational work.
The Alchemy Accompanied team will conduct online surveys, virtual interviews, and in-person meetings with Wilds Cooperative of PA members and core stakeholders to gather confidential feedback on how the network supports their needs and how they can be engaged and supported better.
“We’re all about meeting the community where they’re at, being transparent, and having a good time while we do it! That means you can expect regular updates through email blasts and social media, plus we’ll throw in some fun videos along the way,” said Moss. “Our goal is to help everyone learn more about governance and leadership in a group like the Wilds Cooperative, all while making sure we’re listening to what stakeholders actually want.”
Save the Dates: While specific meeting details have not been finalized yet, the following dates have been selected for in-person outreach events, with a goal to hold one event in each county:
- October 17-19 → Warren, McKean, Elk + Forest
- November 14-16 → Tioga, Potter + Cameron
- November 20-21 → Lycoming, Clinton + Centre
- November 22-23 → Clearfield, Jefferson + Clarion
“We’re really excited about the in-person stakeholder meetings happening in each of the PA Wilds counties,” Moss added. “We can promise two things: 1) you’re going to be well-fed, and 2) we’ll tackle the big issues in a way that gets everyone up and moving around the room! It will be anything but boring, I promise!”
Based on the evaluation of outreach, data collection, and research, Alchemy Accompanied will define what an evolved WCO governance structure could look like and make recommendations for how it could function and how to better engage stakeholders. Findings and recommendations will be provided in a final report in early 2025 that will help guide the direction of the WCO over the next decade.
Join the Outreach Team! PA Wilds Center hopes to form an Outreach Team of Wilds Cooperative members who can help get the word out and support in-person outreach efforts related to the Wildly Cooperative engagement process. Apply by September 27 to express interest in serving on the Outreach Team! Six people will be selected, representing a cross section of membership umbrellas and geography. The hope is to have at least one representative from each of the six PA Wilds Landscapes. Submit an interest form here.
Learn more about the Wildly Cooperative engagement effort and the consultants at WildsCoPA.org/governance/. Check back regularly for updates as it gets underway!
ABOUT THE PA WILDS
The Pennsylvania Wilds is a 13-county region that includes the counties of Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Warren, and northern Centre. The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to integrate conservation and economic development in a way that inspires the communities of the Pennsylvania Wilds. The PA Wilds Center promotes the region and its 2+ million acres of public lands as a premier outdoor recreation destination as a way to diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment, retain population and improve quality of life. The PA Wilds Center’s core programs seek to help businesses leverage the PA Wilds brand and connect with new market opportunities, including: the Wilds Cooperative of PA, a network of more than 575 place-based businesses and organizations, and the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, a retail outlet primarily featuring products sourced from the WCO. For more information on the PA Wilds Center, visit www.PAWildsCenter.org. To learn more about the WCO, visit www.WildsCoPA.org. Explore the PA Wilds at www.PAWilds.com. Find regionally made products at www.ShopThePAWilds.com.
Media Contact
Britt Madera | Communications Manager
PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc.
bmadera@pawildscenter.org | 570-948-1051
