Wilds Cooperative of PA members gathered for 2024 spring membership meeting at Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center in Wellsboro
Members of the Wilds Cooperative of PA met at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center in Tioga County on Monday, April 22 for the first of two Membership Meetings to be held in 2024.
These meetings are held twice a year, typically with the spring session on the eastern side of the PA Wilds region and the fall session on the western side, giving as many Wilds Cooperative (WCO) members as possible the chance to attend. The meetings offer a place to get more information and updates about PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship’s programs, and members also can consider how they can take advantage of opportunities in the WCO while networking with PA Wilds Center staff and other WCO members.
The Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center in Wellsboro hosted the spring WCO Membership Meeting, allowing WCO members to explore the exhibits of local artisans and use the space as a gathering place.
Staff at PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, the nonprofit organization that manages the Wilds Cooperative of PA network and related programs for the PA Wilds region, gave a high-level overview of the membership program before providing updates on the last year as well as new opportunities on the horizon.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Director LaKeshia Knarr kicked the program off by welcoming members to the space and sharing information about what it means to be a member of the network.
Value Chain Manager Ashley Fosbrink-Horrell, who oversees day-to-day administration of the Wilds Cooperative program, took a moment to celebrate that there are currently more than 610 WCO members! During a recapping of last year’s statistics, she noted that 117 new WCO members joined in 2023. The total membership count was 596 by the end of 2023. The PA Wilds Center staff made 27 presentations, reaching about 715 people. The team made five referrals to the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator program, which provides grants to entrepreneurs in the creative industries. The PA Wilds Center formally launched the Leave No Trace Partner Program in 2023, and 12 WCO members became LNT partners. A new landing page was launched on WildsCoPA.org in 2023, WildsCoPA.org/benefits, which offers an easy-to-read look at WCO member benefits and resources.
Ashley also gave an update on an upcoming new member promotional tool, called the PA Wilds Experience Guide, which is expected to be released by the end of June 2024 to highlight Experience Maker members. The new tool will complement the existing PA Wilds Buyer’s Guide, which highlights Creative Makers as well as Trading Posts and PA Wilds logo licensees, and the PA Wilds Resource Guides, which showcase Resource Partner members and the various grants, loans and technical assistance available to regional businesses and organizations.
Ashley and LaKeshia gave a quick update on some changes to the back-end of the WCO website and the reasoning why new members cannot currently join. The PA Wilds Center and WCO is moving to a new Client Relationship Management (CRM) software, which will provide better functionality for the growth of the organization. The CRM is expected to be fully integrated onto the website by June.
Communications Manager Britt Madera spoke about member promotions on PAWilds.com, the key visitor platform for tourists, and how that platform helps connect prospective visitors to regional businesses and Destination Marketing Organizations for trip planning. Madera noted that PAWilds.com is approved for Google AdWords Grants for Nonprofits, which provides an opportunity to capture up to $10,000/month in in-kind Google advertising based on keyword searches. She said that in 2023, PA Wilds platforms earned $115,953 in in-kind ads, leading to 44,571 clicks onto the website, which already receives about 455,000 pageviews per year. Madera also reminded members that they can take advantage of those free advertising opportunities by sharing blog articles for the PA Wilds Are Calling blog (PAWilds.com/blog) and also by submitting events to the WCO Events Calendar (WildsCoPA.org/events) for promotion on PAWilds.com/events. Britt also mentioned that the PA Wilds Center plans to begin offering WCO members the ability to purchase ads on the PAWilds.com website by the end of 2024.
PA Wilds Licensing Manager Hannah Brock highlighted how members can leverage the PA Wilds brand to reach new audiences and sell more products through licensing. The program has two different licensing options that allow members to become marketing licensees (for using the logo on non-saleable materials) or merchandising licensees (for those who want to put the logo on products). She noted that 4 new merchandising licensees launched in 2023, bringing total merchandising licensees to 12. There were also 12 additional marketing licensees that applied to use the logo on non-saleable products, bringing that total to 71 in 2023. Details on licensing can be found at WildsCoPA.org/use-the-pa-wilds-logo/.
Hannah gave news about two exciting licensing projects that are in the works: a PA Wilds-branded hiking book in partnership with Keystone Trails Association and a study on potential new maps of the PA Wilds region in partnership with Purple Lizard Maps.
PA Wilds Sustainable Commerce Director Libby Bloomquist provided information about sales opportunities for artisan members of the network. Libby, who oversees physical shop locations and the online marketplace operations, noted that the physical stores operate on a wholesale basis and that, since opening the first shop in 2016, more than $1 million in products have been purchased from regional artisans in the Wilds Cooperative. She also noted that more than $46,000 has been raised via the PA Wilds commerce platforms through the Charity Checkout for Conservation initiative, which allows shoppers to contribute donations to the PA Parks & Forests Foundation, with approximately $13,000 of that being raised in 2023. Those donations are earmarked for use on public lands projects in the PA Wilds region. With three new WCO vendors selling their products in the physical Conservation Shops in 2023, the Conservation Shops reached a total of 44 shop vendors.
Libby gave a quick update on the exciting news of two new Conservation Shops that will be opening: the former mobile unit at Leonard Harrison State Park will move into the newly renovated Leonard Harrison State Park Visitor Center in Tioga County and a new PA Wilds Conservation Shop will open along the Knox and Kane Rail Trail in a renovated train depot building in Marienville, Forest County. Those shops are expected to open at the end of May 2024.
Libby also shared updates on the online Marketplace, which allows Creative Makers in the Cooperative to sell online directly to customers at retail prices. She said there were 14 new sellers brought on the site last year for a total of 36 sellers on ShopThePAWilds.com at the end of 2023. Already in 2024, four additional new sellers have joined the platform. In addition, Libby noted that orders have been received from nearly every U.S. state, as well as Canada, and that one third of all sales have been shipped outside of Pennsylvania. WCO members are encouraged to think about how they might fit on the online PA Wilds Marketplace! For more information about selling wholesale, visit WildsCoPa.org/gift-shops. To apply to sell on the Marketplace, visit WildsCoPA.org/pa-wilds-marketplace.
Following the updates, members were able to ask questions, share ideas and talk with program managers one-on-one. Two WCO members, author Kevin Coolidge and Rachel Courtney from Sugar Mama’s Appalachian Maple, set up tables to sell a limited selection of their products.
Carrie Heath, director of the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center, was on hand to explain more about the Gmeiner’s history and point out some artist’s exhibits that are currently being featured at the gallery.
The fall 2024 Wilds Cooperative of PA membership meeting is planned for September 25 at Mechanistic Brewing in Clarion, PA on the western side of the PA Wilds region.
Membership Meetings will continue to move around the region each year in an effort to make them more accessible to members who may not be able to travel long distances in the middle of the week to attend.
“The goal of the WCO is to support entrepreneurs and communities in the PA Wilds, which can only truly happen by listening to the businesses and individuals themselves,” said LaKeshia. “Our first Membership Meeting was held in fall 2022, and they have continued to be a vital part of building camaraderie, getting feedback, and giving updates. We appreciate these opportunities to see our members in person, learn from them, and let them know additional ways they can use our resources.”
Prior to the Membership Meeting, PA Wilds Center staff visited the PA Grand Canyon at Leonard Harrison State Park, where a brick-and-mortar PA Wilds Conservation Shop will be opening in late June 2024, before exploring downtown Wellsboro and visiting local businesses
For more information about the Wilds Cooperative of PA, visit www.WildsCoPA.org/about.
RECENT WCO NETWORK NEWS + UPDATES
- Pleasant Valley Farm: Hand-forged metal work and curated vintage items
Pleasant Valley Farm is a historic family owned farm located in the PA Wilds Allegheny National Forest and Surrounds Landscape. Dan and Emily Stevenson are the husband and wife creative makers continuing the farm’s traditions. Dan is an accomplished authentic blacksmith and Emily is a seamstress with a passion for history and agriculture. Together they raise a variety of heritage breed livestock and poultry as well as non-heritage animals. - WCO members connect at 2024 fall membership meeting at Mechanistic Brewing in Clarion
Members of the Wilds Cooperative of PA met at Mechanistic Brewing in Clarion on Wednesday, September 25 for the second of two Membership Meetings in 2024. - WCO members urged to participate in ‘Wildly Cooperative’ engagement sessions this fall
Participate in Wildly Cooperative: Imagining and Evolving the Network’s Future, an engagement process taking place this fall, to share your feedback and insights.
