WEST 2014 Wrap Up - Message from the Captain

Hi Westies and Lovers of all things Winnipeg Etsy!

This is WEST captain Ruth checking in after another amazing year working with the most talented bunch of makers and keen-eyed curators a captain could ever want. WEST is an amazing group that continues to work and flourish in our wonderful city and province. As the lead volunteer, I have the honour and privilege of serving this dynamic group. From all walks of life, genres and points of view, we come together to work as a team towards our common goals.

2014 saw many new and exciting opportunities for WEST. We started off the year slowly and cautiously with a move to a new location for our WEST sale in April when we moved from Wolseley to St Boniface. We loved the space and really exploded the sale so that our customers joined us en mass for an awesome event in November! In June we hosted a Craft Party at Makers Market, August a Meet Your Maker event at Exchange Uporium and on September 27 we joined forces with another local Etsy team, Compendium (and thanks to the support of Etsy Canada), hosted an amazingly well attended Etsy Made in Canada Day.

What a year! Along with team meetings and lots of sharing on our private Etsy discussion board, we learned and grew with each other--a few bumps along the way, but all in all 2014 was a very positive year for WEST.

To help our team continue to grow and remain focused on our core reason for existing, which is to promote and support our Manitoba Etsy selling members, our leadership team has set goals for 2015. We have determined our focus to be in 3 areas: Marketing, Local Promotion and Developing the local Etsy community. WEST will continue to make our community and social media presence known as we continue to support our members through local sales and promotions and directly through the Etsy discussion board, team meetings and workshops.

As captain I would like to thank all current and former WEST members and leaders for their support, dedication and encouragement in making this team the phenomenal local presence it has become! I am looking forward to sharing our exciting plans for 2015 with you all soon.