West Denver TU Vision Statement

By Kenneth Worley

The board of directors held a 2023 planning workshop on March 11th. Members of the board along with leaders from various committees attended. This year was focused on listening to each other’s observations about WDTU. Strong efforts were made to understand the challenges a lot of membership-based social organizations are facing. Final goals and their execution are still being developed. We believe now is a good time to summarize the event for you.

Examining existing conditions was the first step in our workshop. This allowed for all the participants to be grounded with what is known about the chapter. We refreshed our familiarity with the bylaws, board, and committee structures. The national TU mission and purpose statement were examined. Current data indicates we have over 1,000 members of which 119 are new in the past year. We also reviewed our volunteer activity commitments to realize there is close to 700 hours needed to meet our participation in various 2023 activities.

Our second portion of the workshop was termed “Discovery.” This is when participants were encouraged to share their observations of the chapter. Two major themes evolved from focused discussion.

Identity Crisis.

National TU mission is mainly aligned with water conservation values. WDTU recognizes the sport of fly fishing as a personal catalyst for appreciating nature which can lead to conservation action. The WDTU brand needs to be built with components for conservation, advocacy, outreach, education, and fly fishing. Enrollment in TU does not burden the chapter to make members better anglers. We need to overcome the impression that TU is an elitist organization only for advanced anglers and wealthy contributors.

Membership Focus

The capability for mobilizing volunteer resources and leading their efforts is strained. Opportunities for membership participation are not well focused even with a robust enrollment. Dedicated conservation projects are difficult to navigate as a unilateral chapter activity and other agencies are dubious to use volunteer hours for their initiatives.

Introduction efforts to the chapter and guidance for participation need to be developed. Diversity in enrollment demographics will continue to be a challenge.

The workshop then moved on to brainstorming goals armed with insights from our discovery phase. Goals ranged from fly fishing skills instruction to creating fun, simple events. The board will continue to develop the purpose and execution of the goals during the course of the year. Membership will be updated on our progress.

My joy was seeing a variety of observations about WDTU being shared openly and safely. Everyone made an effort to set aside their own preconceived notions regarding WDTU and TU to appreciate other points of view. It is all too easy to break down chapter operations as a balance between conservation and fly fishing. Indeed, even the word “balance” indicates equal amounts of both.

I believe WDTU is a mosaic created from conservation, advocacy, education, fly fishing, socialization, and multiple other tiles. Each tile is a different color and size which change constantly.

It would be a fool’s errand to try and create a WDTU mosaic out of constant tiles each year. Instead we must be flexible enough to allow our tiles to frequently morph to match our priorities at any moment. Yet all tiles must be considered in order for the design to be realized.

Now it’s your turn.

We invite you to submit editorials to Angler’s Edge and share your observations about WDTU. No judgment, no criticism, no rebuttal. We want to hear your stories in lieu of creating a new member survey. Submittals don’t even need to be published if you’d just like to tell a story to the Executive Board of Directors.

We will receive your insights with gratitude and appreciation. Looking forward to an eventful 2023 growing towards new horizons while rooted in reality.

Get A Drift!

Kenneth Worley is Secretary of the West Denver Trout Unlimited board of directors.