PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE by Gray N. Thornton President & CEO
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WHAT’S NEW WITH WSF?
n December of last year leading up to our 2022 convention, I was asked by a radio personality in Reno “what’s new for the 2022 Sheep Show®?” I paused, hesitated a bit more to collect my thoughts, took a breath, and then attempted to wax on about our plans for the live streaming Basecamp Studio seminar and event stage. It was a weak reply and a far cry from our usual list of innovations and new offerings. That hurt. I expressed my personal angst in a staff meeting afterward and reluctantly had to admit to the fact that what was “new” for 2022 was actually conducting an in-person show despite the lingering pandemic, the news on the “Omicron variant” on the horizon, and the uncertainty of what this latest scourge would bring to restrictions and even WSF and our industry partners executing in-person conventions. To be frank, like most of us, I’m sick and tired of the pandemic, the words “virtual”, “online”, “remote” and all things Covid. WSF is an innovator, the pandemic tested us and our innovation and we shined through, but I am looking forward to bringing new innovations to our foundation and industry. WSF has a great history of introducing programs and initiatives that are new to us and our community. We started the Chapter Summits in 2008, then with our host WSF Alberta, we launched the Chapter and Affiliate Summits in 2010 in Edmonton. These were moved under a “new banner” conceived in May of 2008 titled “One Tent – One Campfire” to describe the WSF C&A Family. We conceived and created the Marco Polo and Chadwick Ram Societies to broaden and diversify
10 WILD S HEEP® ~ SUMMER 2022
WSF funding sources. We created and launched the <1 Club® in 2012 to attract aspiring sheep hunters to the family and send them on sheep hunts to be “kicked out” of the club. We launched Floor Credit Drawings at the Sheep Show® to be a win, win, win, win for attendees, our exhibitors, our sponsors, and WSF. In 2013, we launched the Take One Put One Back program as a donordirect funding program whereby 100% of the donations are directed to put wild sheep on the mountain and keep them there. To date, we have directed $1.4 Million to enhancing wild sheep and their habitat through that program alone. We offered a tattoo parlor at our 2018 convention so our members and guests could “ride for the brand.” In the summer of 2020 we pivoted, sourced, and then executed a fully immersive and truly “virtual” convention in 2021 including an interactive expo—the only organization in our space to do so. We are innovators. Yet, in December 2021, I had to think hard about what was “new” for WSF and our 2022 convention. We collectively held our breaths and all of us conducted our 2022 shows thank God. We’re grateful but it is time to kick in the afterburners. So what is new with WSF? What’s new for the 2023 Sheep Show® and Sheep Week®? Plenty! Digital Version of Wild Sheep® – We’ve been discussing the merits of producing a digital version of Wild Sheep® magazine for years. While we are still a group that like to be hands on and touch and feel printed product, last summer we decided to launch the first digital version our of publication with our spring 2022 issue and
ensured all content included clickable links. Turning a printed version of a magazine into digital is simple. But we wanted to do it right to benefit our advertisers, sponsors, and partners. We’re anxious for feedback from our members. WSF’s Sheep Fever Podcast – Admittedly we wanted to launch this in July of 2021, but the pandemic put this project on hold. We’ve been gathering content this spring and look to launch SHEEP FEVER – The Official Podcast of the Wild Sheep Foundation about July 15th. Watch for it on all podcast mediums. We’ll cover all things wild sheep, wild sheep conservation, and wild sheep hunting! Legacy Projects & Chapter & Affiliate Focused Grant in Aid – WSF directs more than $6 million annually to Mission Programs including wild sheep enhancement, restoration, habitat improvement, disease research & mitigation, advocacy & education, and industry support. We’ve directed more than $50 Million in the past 10 years alone. Our conservation Grant In Aid “bucket” of funds we solicit projects from, represents typically $1.2 Million of the $6+ million, but often we do not receive requests for the total funds we budget for, nor do we get large landscape style “legacy” proposals. To be more impactful to the resource and more relevant to our purpose, I proposed to the board a revised GIA process for the next two years where we seek out $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, and even $250,000 projects to fund, and for the majority of them, we’ll solicit through our Chapters and Affiliates who are our eyes and ears and boots on the ground. The board approved this new process during their
