Board chair 'relieved' after members reject call to dissolve Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival

Wordstock's board chair has expressed relief after members voted to keep the Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival going, rejecting calls to dissolve the organization.

Kyla Heyming said on Wednesday, the entire membership of Wordstock Sudbury met to discuss a board recommendation to dissolve the organization due to financial problems. 

"After a long, almost two-and-a-half-hour meeting, discussion and brainstorming, the membership expressed their desire to keep the festival," Heyming told CBC News 

"I am both relieved and exhausted, if I'm being honest. This has been a really difficult time."

Established in 2013 to support and promote the love of reading and writing in northern Ontario, Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival is a three-day celebration of the literary arts. The festival features some of Canada's most celebrated authors, poets, playwrights, and songwriters. 

Heyming said the board had arrived at the decision to dissolve the organization after years of inadequate funding as well as other obstacles and challenges.

She said they had also found it difficult to get volunteers.

"It was almost unanimous," she said of Wednesday's vote. "The great majority of the membership voted to decline the recommendation of the board and to keep the organization going."

She said a lot of members have also offered to step up to either join the board or to volunteer in some capacity to help keep the organization going.

'We still need funds'

On the issue of funding, Heyming said one of the challenges the organization faced was not having someone to work on applying for grants, but that has now been resolved as many people have offered to volunteer.

"We still need funds … but we didn't necessarily have the human resources [to look for funding]," she said.

Last year, Heyming said it cost around $100,000 to put on the festival.

Meanwhile, Heyming said they still have to decide whether or not a festival would be held this year.

"That's still up for discussion. There's going to be a lot of work and discussion within the next month to see exactly how many members will want to join the board and to see what they're able to do in that time," she said.