“Seeing The Forest For The Trees” – Outwoods Considers Its Role in an Ever-Changing Community

It was first planted in the summer of 1989.  It took root that September, and it sprouted in October.  It first blossomed as a fall colors hike in the Saint Paul-adjacent Afton State Park.  It currently presents as “a vehicle for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community and their friends in Minnesota and adjacent states to publicize quality, enjoyable, non-competitive, outdoor recreational activities.”  Such activities might include hiking or biking, fishing or wishing, canoeing or kayaking, roller skating or ice skating, indoor rock climbing or outdoor rock climbing, studying summer birds or studying autumn leaves…even skiing down hills, across country, or over water.  

It, of course, is Outwoods.  

As it germinated in those long-ago days of a thousand points of light, of a post-Sean-Penn, pre-Guy-Ritchie Madonna and, alas, of the panic-drenched AIDS Crisis, one of several names considered for the nascent group was the Evergreen Club.  While it nears its thirty-fifth year of existence, Outwoods has proven an ever green vehicle, indeed…but, as its trunk had nudged constantly upwards, its branches have been bent by the winds of time.  

The original pith of Outwoods was its newsletter–for younger readers, a “newsletter” is something like a single Reddit page, only with one subreddit, printed on hard copy.  Nurtured by member subscriptions, the newsletter would be delivered to said members via the U.S. Postal Service—for younger readers:  think of e-mail, but, y’know, without the e.  From this quaint pulp-and-ink amalgamation, Outwoods’ main modus operandi sprouted again and again:  individual members would assume the role of event leader, offering up usually-roofless diversions in which other members might partake.  

In the first years of its existence, Outwoods often served as a necessary refuge for more than a few members who were closeted in every other aspect of their lives…simply because they had no other (practical, realistic) choice.  “We had two different types of envelopes, one that said ‘Outwoods’ and one that did not,” recounts Outwoods co-chair Dan M. Vega, who has himself been a member for nearly two decades.  “That was a lot of work, trying to figure out who gets which envelope.”  

Expensive and impractical by 21st Century standards, the newsletter has been replaced with Meetup, the networking app—for younger readers:  think of an app—that allows people to connect with like-minded others in their physical area.  Says Vega, “That online presence makes it easier for people.”  

That ease can manifest in ways which might have seemed fanciful to Outwoods’ initial members.  “It’s much easier for an event change,” Vega observes.  “It lets anyone who wants to lead an event to do it just a week prior, where before, we’d do our newsletter for January in the middle of December…but a lot of people don’t plan that far ahead.”

That same means of mass communication offers an opportunity for a degree of popular self-selection.  “Event leaders can just invite certain members to an event,” says Vega.  “Paddlers can invite other paddlers to a paddling event, for example.  It’s led to the formation of cliques.” 

The passage of three-and-a-half decades hasn’t just changed the way Outwoods members communicate with each other…it’s also changed the world outside of Outwoods, as well.  “What we’ve noticed, especially since the marriage amendment passed, young people are finding community within their own circle of friends,” Vega notes.  “They are not reaching out for a gay-specific outlet.  They’re more accepted in their own circle of friends and co-workers and study groups and such, so [being openly gay] is really not that big a deal.”  

Which isn’t to say that Outwoods has been wholly forsaken by the New Phone Who Dis Generation.  “We do have younger members, but their mentality is different,” Vega says. “They have different issues.  The relativity is not there.”

A highly-specific, all-but-forgotten demographic has asserted itself recently, looking to Outwoods for something more than just an excuse to play Frolf in the snow.  Catalogs the co-chair, “People who come out later in life–forty, fifty, sixty-year-olds–are not going to reach out to their friends.”

The needs of this sub-group run parallel to those of Outwoods’ original, Newsletter Era membership, people whose own circle of friends and co-workers and study groups and such might have a little more trouble adjusting to a drastic-seeming self-redefinition.  As Vega puts it, “They’re not reaching out to their immediate social circle–they’re looking for something specific.”  

Something like Outwoods.  

A group can’t remain evergreen without green, naturally.  “We ask for a donation from members through Meetup,” says Vega, who adds with a laugh:  “We ask around February and March, when people are fresh off the New Year and have paid off their credit cards, and right before tax time.”  

The world’s changes have forced Outwoods to change in some ways…but its original purpose remains as sturdy and unyielding as a tree trunk.  “We’re still strong,” Dan M. Vega insists.  “We’re still out there.  We’re still helping people connect to the outdoors.  We’re not going anywhere.”

www.outwoods.org
www.meetup.com/Outwoods/