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.
These meetings are held twice a year, typically with the spring meeting on the eastern side of the Pennsylvania Wilds region and the fall meeting on the western side, giving as many Wilds Cooperative (WCO) members as possible the chance to attend. The Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center in Wellsboro hosted the spring WCO Membership Meeting in April 2024.
The meetings offer a place to get more information and updates about programs available to entrepreneurs, nonprofits and communities through the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship (PA Wilds Center), the nonprofit organization that manages the WCO. Members can consider how to best take advantage of opportunities in the WCO while networking with PA Wilds Center staff and peers in the WCO network.
During the program at Mechanistic Brewing, staff at PA Wilds Center 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. Knarr also spoke about how the network is part of a larger entrepreneurial ecosystem being built and managed by the PA Wilds Center with a goal of leveraging the regional brand and tremendous amount of public lands to support entrepreneurs and communities. The ecosystem is intended to help create jobs and diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment and improve quality of life for the region’s residents.
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 640 WCO members. She explained that, while there is no fee to join and no membership dues for the WCO, the one cost that Creative Makers will see is a $20 one-time fee for the jurying process. Jury sessions happen twice a year, and members who reach a score of 301 or greater are titled as “Professional” and become eligible to potentially sell in the PA Wilds Conservation Shops. More information on the jury review process can be found here.
While recapping last year’s statistics, Fosbrink-Horrell 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. In addition, 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.
Changes to software on the back-end of the WCO website were completed in 2024, disabling new member applications for about four months. Despite the application being down during that time, the WCO still gained 71 new members since January 2024.
Ashley also gave an update on an upcoming new member promotional tool, called the PA Wilds Experience Guide, which is expected to be released in 2025 and will be a free downloadable guide on PAWilds.com that highlights Experience Maker members. The new tool will complement the existing PA Wilds Buyer’s Guide, which helps make business-to-business connections between network artists and retailers, and the PA Wilds Resource Guides, which showcase Resource Partner members and help members access information on various grants, loans and technical assistance. The 2024 Resource Guides and Buyer’s Guide were released earlier this year and can be found at WildsCoPA.org/business-tools.
The WCO is also proud to have a new video promoting member benefits, as well as updated rack-cards and flyers to encourage potential members to sign up.
Fosbrink-Horrell spoke about 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/.
Fosbrink-Horrell also spoke about two exciting licensing projects that are in the works, including 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, made possible by the nonprofit’s mission-driven commerce platforms. Bloomquist, who oversees the physical PA Wilds Conservation Shops and online PA Wilds Marketplace, 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 donate to support public lands in the region. Those donations are given to the PA Parks & Forests Foundation. Approximately $13,000 was raised in 2023. 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.
Bloomquist gave a quick update on the exciting news of two new Conservation Shops that opened in summer 2024: the former mobile unit at Leonard Harrison State Park moved into the newly renovated Leonard Harrison State Park Visitor Center in Tioga County and a new PA Wilds Conservation Shop opened along the Knox and Kane Rail Trail in a renovated train depot building in Marienville, Forest County.
So far in 2024, the PA Wilds Conservation Shops have made more than $350,000 in purchases from regional artisans. The shops are expected to exceed half a million dollars in sales. The physical Conservation Shop locations welcomed three new sellers and one new licensed product in 2024 so far.
Bloomquist notes that the online Marketplace 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, 10 additional new sellers have joined the platform, bringing it to 40 sellers total. 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.
Creative Makers in the WCO are encouraged to consider selling on the online PA Wilds Marketplace and with the PA Wilds Conservation Shops! For more information about selling wholesale, visit WildsCoPa.org/gift-shops. To apply to sell on the Marketplace, visit WildsCoPA.org/pa-wilds-marketplace.
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. Britt 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 garners 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. Madera also mentioned that the PA Wilds Center plans to begin offering WCO members the ability to purchase ads on PAWilds.com in the near future.
Following the updates, members were able to ask questions, share ideas and talk with program managers one-on-one. Some current long-time members were in attendance: Julie Mader of Artwork by Julie Mader, Lisa Conklin Conn of Conklin Studio Pottery, Ellen Paquette of Ellen Paquette Art, and Marie Lewis of Pine Springs Pottery. They shared their experiences, stumbling blocks, and successes with others in attendance, noting that the WCO is an excellent way of not only taking advantage of benefits from the PA Wilds Center but also for making connections with other artisans.
Thanks to Mechanistic Brewing in Clarion for hosting the event. Penns Woods Pretzel Company, also based in Clarion, provided a platter of delicious savory and sweet pretzel bites and dips. A meat and cheese platter, vegetable platter, tea and lemonade were offered as well.
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 dates and locations for the spring and fall meetings for 2025 have not yet been determined.
“The goal of the WCO is to connect and promote the products, services and experiences only found in the PA Wilds region, and these membership meetings are vital to ensuring our growing network has opportunities to dig deeper into the opportunities available to them through the program,” said Knarr. “Our whole team is passionate about supporting rural entrepreneurs, and these meetings are always inspiring to us as we get to meet more members in person, learn from them, and develop new collaborations.”
For more information about the Wilds Cooperative of PA, visit www.WildsCoPA.org/about.
