Wyoming Business Council hears from state citizens

Listening sessions continue

The Wyoming Business Council hosted a statewide virtual meeting last Thursday as part of their ongoing efforts to better understand the state of the local economy. 

According to WBC emails and its website, the gathering was “a statewide virtual gathering with a goal of 1,000+ Wyoming voices in one room.” The effort reached 700 people registered with roughly 500 in attendance. The most-answered poll question registered 338 responses. 

Demographically, most attendees (42%) were from Albany and Laramie counties. Poll results showed that 1 percent of attendees were from Big Horn County, with no representation from a handful of counties including Crook, Hot Springs, Johnson, Niobrara, Teton, Washakie and Weston. The residency question was asked at the start of the virtual meeting, making it unclear if residents from those counties joined later.

The WBC also toured select cities across Wyoming over the summer months, including stops in Greybull and in Lovell. In the virtual meeting the WBC shared what they heard from select cities and after a short presentation they opened the floor to live polling.

Some of the biggest challenges participants identified were rising costs, a lack of job and career opportunities and limited access to essential needs like healthcare and affordable housing.

Perhaps more insightful than the challenges are the consequences of not solving them.

“One insight from the digital huddle stood out: 30% of participants said if the issues they identified are not addressed, they will ‘strongly consider’ leaving the state, and 19% said they won’t be able to see a bright future for their kids here,” said Shannon Sollitt, communications and media specialist for the WBC, in an email to the Greybull Standard.

One of the poll questions asked, “What are one to three words you hope describes the Wyoming economy in 10 years?” Answers from 297 participants included: diverse, thriving, growing, sustainable, inclusive, affordable, resilient, vibrant and stable. 

In a press release the WBC said, “Participants in Thursday’s Team Wyoming Huddle tuned in from across the state and included business owners, private employees, government and nonprofit employees, educators and retirees. They brought diverse opinions on Wyoming’s economy but largely agreed on one thing: Wyoming has room to grow and work to do.”

It went on to say, “The biggest takeaway in these listening sessions so far is that a healthy economy goes hand-in-hand with a healthy quality of life, with 30% of participants saying that making Wyoming a competitive place to work and live should be the state’s top priority. That priority was followed closely by building the infrastructure for future growth, helping communities lead their own growth and building new industries.”

The WBC counted people attending their in-person listening sessions over the summer, along with the virtual meeting, to state their efforts have pushed “statewide economic conversation past 1,000 participants.”

In the press release, WBC CEO Josh Dorrell said, “More than 1,000 people have raised their hands and said, ‘I care about what happens to Wyoming, and I want to be part of it.’ That gives me a lot of hope. We don’t need everyone to agree on every answer. We need enough of us to decide that the future of this state is worth showing up for. And Wyoming is showing up.”

Another poll question asked, “Thinking about your own experience, which of these statements about Wyoming’s economy feels most true to you?” The top answer from 319 participants stated, “We have good people and resources, but we don’t always work together.”

For the question, “Which of these most affects your ability to build the life you want in Wyoming?” The statement “Rising costs without enough growth in income” was selected by 27% of the 321 people responding. 

A handful of listening sessions are left on the WBC agenda including gatherings in Laramie, Rock Springs and in Jackson. According to the WBC, the insights gathered will directly inform policy conversations later this summer with the Joint Minerals and Joint Appropriations committees.

The WBC published a recording of the virtual meeting on YouTube on its page titled, “What Does Wyoming’s Economic Future Look Like? Team Wyoming Huddle.”

More survey results and summaries can be found on the WBC website: www.wyomingbusiness.org.

LOCAL LISTENING SESSIONS

On Thursday, Aug. 6, the WBC held a morning listening session at Wyld Sage Coffeehouse in Greybull and a luncheon at the Mustang Cafe in Lovell. 

Turnout numbers for the events, including WBC staff, saw 20 in attendance in Lovell and 40 attending in Greybull. 

At both gatherings Josh Dorrell, CEO for the WBC, introduced the event and his team. Participants were asked to describe the state of the economy in Wyoming with one word. 

Using notecards on a corkboard, residents of Greybull and Lovell wrote words including mirage, potential, bipolar, desperate, creative, stagnant, aging, insular, good, poverty, fossilized, lagging, missed opportunities and hopefully optimistic. Another person wrote: good for some, tough for some. 

In Greybull, the discussion was social focused with no major presentations. A large paper on an easel was used to gather additional feedback. People wrote statements such as: “open for business” is not working, communicate business success around the state, and employers need to be more future-focused. 

Concerns about affordable housing were listed including comments: someone needs to regulate rent, enforce current ordinances, Airbnbs (vacation homes) in Shell are pushing out local families. Someone asked, “How do we inspire builders to build attainable housing?”

In response to a question from Lovell Chronicle editor David Peck at the Lovell luncheon, Dorrell explained how the WBC was cut out of the budget by the Freedom Caucus, then restored for just one year of the biennium. Dorrell noted that the WBC is traveling the state to reinvent the business council. He added the enabling legislation is really antiquated and needs to be revamped, adding that the statute needs to be shrunk to “focus on what matters.” According to Dorrell, the WBC statute is 98 pages.

Present at the Greybull, Lovell, Powell and Cody events was Devan Costa-Cargill, the regional director for the Wyoming Small Business Development Center Network. She said, “It was fantastic to see such great engagement across the region.” 

Powell’s session for the ‘one word to describe Wyoming’s economy’ produced the following: boom or bust, stable, uncertain, flat, underdeveloped, stagnant, visionless, siloed, untapped and emergent. 

Cody’s session for the ‘one word’ prompt produced: diverse, aging, cyclical, untapped, balanced, sluggish, volatile, abused, diverse, fragmented, agriculture, bold and asleep. 

Amy Quick, who works in strategic communications at the WBC, shared additional feedback. In an email to the Big Horn County newspapers, Quick expanded on what she saw during the recent WBC tour, saying, “Thank you for spending time with us last week. Whether we saw you in Cody, Powell, Greybull, Lovell, Worland, Riverton or Lander, you gave us something valuable – an honest look at Wyoming’s economy from where you actually stand.”

She shared a few themes that came through loud and clear across both regions:

“Housing is foundational. Again and again – from Worland to Greybull to Lander – you connected it directly to workforce: If people can’t find a place to live, businesses can’t find people to hire. Several of you named short-term rentals pushing starter homes out of reach for working families.

“Small communities need real support, not one-size-fits-all. We heard a strong call to regionalize economic development, invest in communities of 10,000 or fewer and be mindful that criteria favoring the biggest projects can leave smaller towns behind.

“Visibility matters. Many of you told us plainly that there’s a gap between what WBC does and what people think we do. As one of you put it: ‘If you want people to back you, they have to know what you do.’ Message received – and we’re grateful for the honesty.

“Everyone deserves a seat. In Fremont County especially, we heard a powerful call to make sure the Wind River Reservation and every community in the region are part of – not left out of – the conversation about Wyoming’s future.

“These are exactly the kinds of insights that make our work sharper and more honest. And they’re heading somewhere: into the priorities we carry into policy conversations with state lawmakers later this month.”