WIP's Fifteen Year Anniversary!

As we celebrate, let's rejuvenate the sense of mission and community that gave birth to this newspaper

"Our aim is to confront injustice and encourage a participatory democracy based on economic, social, and environmental justice. Works In Progress is dedicated to providing a voice for those most affected by the exclusionary and unfair practices that seek to silence the oppressed." - WIP Mission Statement

Early one morning, fifteen years ago this month, two or three carloads of budding media activists - eagerly anticipating the delivery of their brand new baby - headed north. They traveled from Olympia to the print shop in Shelton in order to be there together as the first issue of Works In Progress rolled off the press.

These founders of Works In Progress came together in 1990, under the umbrella of the Rainbow Coalition, to establish a free community newspaper that would counter the influence and short-comings of the local Gannett-owned paper, the Olympian.

In an early pamphlet, they wrote, "It is a philosophy of WIP that no one can do a better job writing about an issue than those who are directly affected" - and that there is no such thing as "unbiased" journalism

Listening now to these WIPsters of yore as they reminisce about those heady Golden Days, inspires a desire to rekindle the burning sense of purpose and adventure that first spawned this little newspaper, and evokes a deep appreciation for its longevity and enduring mission.

Fifteen years and counting

Throughout its fifteen years, Works In Progress has provided a forum for voices and views often ignored or misrepresented by Big Media. WIP has undoubtedly played a role in affecting outcomes with local issues such as anti-homeless ordinances, the Fleetwood low-income housing project, police abuses of power, the recent defeat of measures such as the convention center and the county jail, and numerous local elections.

Fifteen years is an exceptionally long run for a paper of this kind -- and we're still in the game. And although WIP has always been a collaboration between the community and the collective, it is safe, and a little sad, to say that WIP's longevity thus far has been due primarily to the perseverance of one particular individual.

Eventually, the Rainbow Coalition and its financial support to the paper came to an end. Over the years, the collective dwindled. Going to press every month gradually depended on fewer and fewer people doing more and more of the work. Eventually, the burden of responsibility for the bulk of the work came to rest on one set of shoulders, and remained there for far too long. Although it was never his intent or desire, the survival of what began as a collaborative project became completely dependent on the efforts of one person: Pat Tassoni.

A little over two years ago, WIP came to a crossroads. Pat - a key member of the WIPworker collective from the beginning - could no longer serve in the capacity that he had for so many years. A call went out to the community and a few of us pulled together to cover the many bases that would be vacated. Although Pat continues to manage our finances and provide ongoing technical support, his workload at WIP has been significantly diminished, freeing him up to spend more time on other worthwhile community projects. The work of producing and distributing WIP is now a little more evenly divided, but there are still way too few of us doing way too much work.

The fifteen year anniversary of Works In Progress is the perfect time to renew the sense of mission and the collective sense of ownership, responsibility, and community collaboration that gave birth to this newspaper.

A sense of mission

Free and independent, all-volunteer-run community newspapers like WIP come about largely as a response to the colossal failures of the commercial media. But the core motivation for participating in independent media, and what seems to motivate most activism, is a belief in and a desire for democracy: more democracy, better democracy.

It's a belief that we get to participate in decisions that affect our lives. We get to say what kind of communities we want to live in and what kind of vision we have for the future of our country and the world as a whole. We the people -- not the owners and "rulers" -- we get to decide which set of principles will guide our decisions and serve as the foundation of public policy.

Media has an essential role in facilitating that process. The media in fact has an obligation to create public forums, to provide access to the full array of information and ideas we need as individuals, and collectively as citizens, to make good decisions.

But the media has failed us miserably in this regard. Corporations dominate nearly every facet of our lives, including government. The commercial media is very much an entrenched component of this state of affairs and is strongly disinclined to provide the kind of information or analysis that challenges the corporate-dominated status quo in any meaningful way. In this sense, the media is quite complicit in paving the destructive path we now find ourselves on as a people.

This is why grassroots alternatives to the dominant media are absolutely necessary if we are going to be able to affect positive change in our communities and in our world.

Every person is a reporter

Ralph Nader has said that every community should have a newspaper in which the articles are written by the readers. That's essentially what Works In Progress is.

The commercial media fosters passive media consumption. Independent media gives rise to something very different; information is presented in a manner intended to inspire active engagement with issues. We are informed not only about a situation but also about how we can affect change in that situation. And the logical progression from there is when average citizens make the transition from being engaged consumers of media to getting involved in producing media by writing an article or in some other way.

At WIP, most of us do some writing. But for the most part, the collective members devote our energies to the huge amount of footwork that goes into to bringing the paper to press and distributing it each month. It's a community newspaper, so it's up to all of us in the community to provide the content. You've heard it before: "If you don't see your issue being covered in Works In Progress, it's because you aren't writing about it! (Or aren't finding someone else to cover it!)"

If you have an important issue or story, especially if it's been shut out or misrepresented in the mainstream media, you not only have a right to speak, you might even conclude that you have a duty to speak -- a civic duty to tell the story. And the rest of us not only have a right to hear your story, but as a community we have a responsibility to make sure you have a forum in which to tell it.

Submitting to WIP

We must always be mindful of WIP's mission to provide a forum which is as inclusive and accessible as possible, especially to those interests which are most often excluded or misrepresented in the mainstream. But WIP has limited resources, and every month we are faced with hard decisions regarding what gets printed and what does not.

Functioning as stewards of this resource, we do our best to facilitate from one month to the next, in collaboration with the readership, the production of the best possible progressive community newspaper that our resources, human and otherwise, will allow.

We have found that what constitutes "best" in terms of editorial decisions depends on an ever-changing array of variables as we review the submissions, measuring and weighing out our various priorities and guidelines. But it always comes down to one objective: taking what we've got to work with each month and assembling from that a paper which best serves the readership - as well as "best" can be defined.

We have not been able to devise specific, concrete guidelines for submissions. Yet, although we strongly encourage people of all writing skills and stations in life to submit work, there are certain rules-of-thumb to keep in mind: 1) Schedule plenty of time for editing and tweaking your work well in advance of the submission deadline, which is always printed on page two; 2) Keep articles as focused and concise as possible. We do print longer articles if there are compelling reasons, but please try to be as thrifty with the page inches as possible; 3) Keep in mind that locally generated articles addressing issues of local interest have a high degree of priority; 4) Strive for "readability" and use a format that "fits" with WIP; these are hard concepts to define, but they come up a lot as we review submissions.

All members of this community are strongly encouraged to submit articles to WIP. We'll do our best to work with you. If you contact us well in advance of the deadline, we might even be able to hook you up with someone who can help craft or edit your piece. Photos and other graphics are always appreciated as well.

Time for renewal: An invitation to participate

Works In Progress is now at another crossroads. As previously stated, there are way too few of us doing way too much work and the situation cannot be sustained for much longer. Once again, we must rally the community to bring more energy into this important grassroots media project.

If you would like to see this newspaper continue to serve our community as it has for the past fifteen years, fear not. There are a myriad of ways in which you can help to assure that WIP not only survives but continues to evolve and thrive like never before.

Contribute financially

One thing you can do right this very minute is turn to page two for information on how to buy a subscription or simply donate money.

The entire process of producing and distributing WIP is all-volunteer. No one makes a dime - with one exception: the people we pay to print it for us. We pay several hundred dollars a month for printing (and other minor expenses such as our P.O. Box, email account, paper supplies, etc.).

These costs are met only in part by advertisements. We depend on the readership to contribute as well, through subscriptions, donations and the occasional fundraiser. (See page X for information about a WIP fundraiser auction item: time in a beautiful cabin on the Skykomish River in Index.)

Join the WIPworker collective

There is an ample variety of ways in which to directly contribute your time and your wonderful human energy to WIP. The following is a list (in order of urgency) of work categories that currently need your help. If you see something that interests you, contact us at wip@zhonka.net or 956-1136:

Ad sales

Fundraising/ event planning

Distribution

Editing/ proofreading

Celebrate!

We consider this to be our Anniversary Year and, with summer around the corner, you will soon see announcements for celebratory and fundraising WIP events.

Very few communities are either fortunate or resourceful enough to have a newspaper like Works In Progress. Like so many of Olympia's amazing and unique institutions, WIP is a reflection of who we are: citizens actively engaged in creating a better world. A fifteen year run is truly cause for celebration.

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Anniversary Love Letters

Dear WIP:

Works In Progress is a rarity. It's presence in the Thurston County community has made a difference in its political discourse. It's hard to imagine how we would have been able to organize without it. The antiwar, labor, women's and GBLT movements have truly benefited from WIP's work and the commitment of its workers (from Pat, Sylvia, David and the original core to today's awesome volunteer staff). I wish that every town and city in the US had such a paper. God ( or goddess) knows they could all use one. Like a sculptor working on a piece of granite, WIP has helped build a community among the South Sound's progressive community by chipping away at the power structure. Here's to another fifteen years!

Ron Jacobs

Works in Progress serves an invaluable role as the only media source in Thurston County dedicated to

getting out information about local, national, and international issues from a "people-scale" perspective. During the 13 years that I have lived in Olympia, I have relied on WIP for important stories that would never be covered in the corporate press. WIP also serves as the historical record for the local peace and justice movement, by documenting events and campaigns like Support the Truth and 100,000 & Counting. I am really grateful to the volunteer team that cooperatively puts the paper together each month so that we have this consistent information source. Thank you, WIP -- and happy

birthday!

Alice Zillah