A Geography and Demography of WSST Presidents

A Geography and Demography of WSST Presidents

By Karyl Rosenberg, WSST Historian

WSST has been an organization since 1958 which means that it is 65 years old this year. This made me wonder how many people have served as president? Where did they come from? And what sort of demographics can we learn about them? Once again, the newsletter archive helped me discover these things.

Since the organization’s founding, 55 people have served as president. There were various ways of electing these people. Early on, a “regional slate” system was used, where a group of people from the same general area would run together. One would vote for a slate of candidates, and not individuals for each office. This system appears to have fallen out of favor within the first decade.

Since the early 1970’s people have run for offices (other than district representatives) as individuals, disregarding geography. Until 2005, all officers were elected annually, before we changed to a biennial election cycle. This means that the first year a person wins in a presidential cycle they are considered president-elect, then the next 2 years they fulfill their duties as president, finishing their final year as past president. This system gives each person a chance to be mentored for the job, serve for 2 years, before finally acting as mentor to a new person.

What else do we know about these people? As it turns out, only 9 out of the 55 have been women. The vast majority have been middle or high school teachers; only 4 out of the entire list were higher education professors or administrators. As far as I can tell, there were no elementary teachers who have been president (however we have to remember all of the years that Wisconsin was fortunate to also have WEST – the Wisconsin Elementary Science Teachers). Where have these folks been living or working at the time of their presidencies? Out of the 55, 12 lived or worked in Madison, 4 were from the Appleton area, 3 from Milwaukee and 2 each from Manitowoc, Mequon, Racine and Sheboygan. Amery, Beaver Dam, Beloit, Dodgeville, East Troy, Elkhorn, Fond du Lac, Glendale, Green Bay, Kohler, La Crosse, Marathon, Menomonie, Monroe, Mosinee, Neenah, Oshkosh, Platteville,

Rice Lake, Shawano, Sheboygan Falls, Stevens Point, Watertown, Waunakee, Wausau, Wauwatosa, and Winneconne all follow with one president each. That’s 27 places around the state! There were only a few cases where two or three presidents came from the same general area in successive years. Our leadership has had a broader geographic base than I originally expected!

As you consider your vote in this year’s WSST election, remember that most areas of our state have been represented in leadership over the years. Keep this in mind as you vote and consider running for a WSST position in the future!