Pollinators, our Alliance’s 44th Annual Conference, is in the rear view mirror, but even now, a couple weeks later, we are still feeling a glow from the event!

Nearly a hundred people registered for the event, which took place at Colorado Mesa University’s Meyer Ballroom on August 24. As always, the Conference kicked off with our annual business meeting. This is when our Alliance’s members ratify the coming year’s platform and select new officers for the Board of Directors. This year’s platform discussion saw passionate but collegial debate before the proposed platform was ratified unanimously. (You can read the 2025 platform on our website.)

This year saw the departure of both our chair, Andreya Krieves, and our treasurer, Bill Wellman, due to term limits. We sincerely thank Andreya and Bill for their years of service to the Alliance!

In their places, our members elected Kevin Williams as Chair and Dee Wernette as Treasurer. Kevin has been deeply involved with our Alliance since he was hired as an organizer by the Alliance 40 years ago! He also worked as an organizer for our parent organization, the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), for decades. He lives in Montrose with his spouse, Brenda Bafus-Williams, and his dog, Zorro.

Dee moved to Grand Junction in 2023 after living most of his life in Michigan and Illinois. He worked as a sociology professor until retiring in 2007. He enjoys hiking and biking with his wife in Western Colorado’s beautiful environment. In addition to his work with our Alliance, he also is involved with Restore the Balance. 

After elections, awards were handed out. This year’s Worley Award went to Tom McCloskey, who has stepped forward as a volunteer in a big way this year, especially in our Alliance’s clean energy work. Tom Acker won the Rawlins Award for “showing determination and grit and fearlessness in speaking truth to power.” And Kasey Weingarten won the Rising Star Award as a new member who has quickly made a big difference in her work on local food and agriculture!

Our keynote speech this year was emotional and inspiring. Liliana Flannigan, a former West Slope Youth Voice (WSYV) student now working on her Master’s Degree at New York University and serving as an intern at the White House, returned to Grand Junction to talk about how her early work with WSYV paved the way for her current social justice and political work. 

Finally, we enjoyed a number of powerful and informative workshops, including our plenary workshop which covered some of the topics we expect to see on the ballot in the coming election. 

If you attended this year’s Conference, thank you for being there for our Alliance! And if you couldn’t make it this year, we hope you’ll plan on joining us next year for our 45th Annual Conference. We’re planning some special, exciting surprises for that big anniversary!