Cokeville Syndrome - Economic Development

I want to write about the "Cokeville Syndrome" and economic development in Wyoming. I first blogged about it on cokeville.blogspot.com, before we ever had a training by the Wyoming State Library in Cokeville, Wyoming. It's been over a month since our training for part-time contract jobs with the State of Wyoming for the Wyoming State Library project and it seems the Cokeville Syndrome is true and it is really making ripple effects throughout the great State of Wyoming. First the background...

The Cokeville Historical Society packed the house in August 2008 with a presentation by Wyoming State Librarian Lesley Boughton and Digital Information Specialist Erin Kinney about the Wyoming Newspaper Project. This presentation was for the public (you can see the pictures here) and came about from a little piece I had read about in my monthly "Wyoming State Historical Society" newsletter. It invited interested people to contact the Wyoming State Librarian and invite her to a local historical society meeting if there was interest in hearing about the Wyoming Newspaper project and part-time work to go with it. I was very interested, but went on family vacation for several weeks. When I returned, I was afraid I had blown my chance to get in on the project but was pleasantly surprised to hear that I was the first person that had called from Lincoln County and yes, they would be very willing to come to Cokeville to do a presentation and some training.

The project was spread by word of mouth to parents at the library story hour, at the park, on the street. I told everyone to check the cokeville.blogspot.com site. We were just trying to figure it all out, how many people? when? who all could do it? etc. (I was a member of the Cokeville Historical Society and the president, Charlotte Freeman, thought it was a fantastic idea. I am the current board chair for the non-profit Cokeville Miracle Foundation and we figured the two groups could form a partnership to bring this great program to our town. I checked with my executive board and they readily agreed to share costs etc...)

When the final word came that the "people from Cheyenne" were really coming to town, I put some posts on cokeville.blogspot.com. Although it was my personal site, it was up and going and already well used from a recent sad event in our town. Also, the town had no site nor did the historical society or miracle foundation. This worked very well, especially since the potential jobs required use of the internet.

I also hung up 4 signs in town. The response was huge and less than 72 hours after I put up 4 training times, they were filled. Down came the signs. Off went the training schedule sign-up. There was a lot of contact with the state librarian Lesley during this time such as, "How many people can you train?" She was always very pleasant but when she heard I thought we would have a huge response, she capped it at 4 sessions of 12 each. We had first been talking 20 people, then 30 and when I mentioned I thought I could easily get 60..she said we better wait for more funding.

The reasons I wanted to write about our recent massive local employment and the Cokeville Syndrome are:
1st-publicity is like free advertising and I want to advertise on behalf the citizens of Cokeville and others in Wyoming to interested legitimate business offers that we have many people willing and qualified ... to work from home on the computer. Probably many towns in Wyoming can supply this type of worker but perhaps not in this high of percentages as Cokeville, 49 people in a town of 500+ were able to become contract workers on the Wyoming Newspaper project. (FYI: I believe that Cokeville may have a slightly higher percentage than other Wyoming towns of at-home moms and number of children AND also higher years of college by the stay-at-home-moms than the state average.)

Wyoming isn't looking for scams and we're smarter than getting hooked into the want ads scam of: "you pay us now and we'll find you a job". We know that's not how it works. If there is someone at the regional or state level in economic development that looks specifically into this type of employment, or close employment like call-centers with daycare, here we are.

2nd-WE ARE HERE, you just don't know what to call us. We are not "displaced homemakers", the term used for homemakers re-entering the work force.

I recently got a call from a lady at the Wyoming Division of Workforce Services wanting to know how I was involved in the employment of 49 people. I told her about the Wyoming State Historical Society newsletter and she said in all seriousness, "I'll need to check in with them once in a while." Hey, it's not about historical society. We don't follow statistics and we are not "displaced homemakers." Sorry no one got Cokeville's pending employment statistic but the truth is, there is no label for "us" - that takes us back to the Cokeville Syndrome part. (The majority of people employed for the Wyoming Newspaper project were women, and stay at home moms.)

Yes, there were men who took the training for the Wyoming Newspaper Project as well as women that work. However, for the most part the interested people were at-home moms who are at home BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE THERE. However, if a job opportunity presents itself to: work from the home, on our own hours, for a decent wage, it entices many back into employment.

There were several women who said "Work? Who needs more work to do?" or "When would I find hours to fit work in" and "I already have enough irons in the fire". So no, not every homemaker would take another job.

What I really want is for the Cokeville Syndrome to become a reality when we think about "out of box" ways of economic development in Wyoming:

"Cokeville Syndrome" -if a decent wage is offered for a skilled position that can be done at home, many skilled workers will re-enter the workforce after an absence of several years.


We can learn from the "Cokeville Syndrome" that there are willing, skill-ready people who want/would benefit from good paying jobs but they want to (or need to) be at home. For many, the reasons for staying at home are greater than the reasons for leaving the home to enter the workforce (and being labeled "a displaced homemaker"!)

Thank you to the Wyoming State Legislature for making the appropriation to let this great project for the Wyoming State Library to be started and for the positive impact it is bringing to the people of Wyoming financially.