Wyoming loves its history, but right now, three of its longstanding, influential history organizations do not love each other.
Since February, accusations have been flying between the Wyoming Historical Society and what used to be its longtime fundraising arm, the Wyoming Historical Foundation.
The situation has reached a boiling point more recently, leading Wyoming Historical Society’s executive committee to sever the relationship over what Executive Director Aley Philp characterized as irreconcilable differences.
“What we have decided as a society is the foundation can do what they feel, they can raise money for their foundation, but we are going to raise our own funds,” she said. “There is nothing in either of our bylaws that stops us from doing that. We’re just going to go our own separate ways, and we’re going to raise funds and utilize them as we need to, and they can do what they would like to do. They can move on.”
Further communications between the two organizations will only be taking place via attorneys, Philp told Cowboy State Daily.
The severed relationship between the two organizations in May was followed in mid-May by a joint statement of no confidence in both Philp and the Wyoming Historical Society’s executive committee, initially signed by 101 members of the Wyoming Historical Society.
That statement has since gained additional signatures, and, according to the Foundation, now numbers 151.
The Wyoming Historical Foundation has traditionally been referred to as “the friends” over the past few decades by Wyoming Historical Society, with its primary mission being to fundraise for an endowment that supports Wyoming Historical Society — though that’s not the only cause the Foundation raises money for, according to Foundation President Ann Noble.
Noble told Cowboy State Daily she’d heard there was a point by point refutation of the no-confidence statement, written by Wyoming Historical Society President Beki Speas, but it is one she has not been sent directly, which she and other members of the Foundation that signed the statement as members of the Society find puzzling.
Philp explained that to Cowboy State Daily, saying, “We did not respond to the friends, and we will not have direct response to the friends. Any responses to the Foundation will be coming from our legal counsel to their legal counsel. There will be no responses to the friends, because there isn’t a need for one, to be honest.”
While they were “friends” once upon a time, future communications have now gone the way of many severed marriages. Only and ever more through attorneys.
“While we will work with the Foundation as a legal entity and between our legal counsel, the friends are upset members,” she said. “Our responses to them are in the letters to the membership. And we’ll respond to them by responding to all members.”
Noble told Cowboy State Daily the no confidence statement doesn’t originate with the Foundation. While it includes some Foundation members like herself, it is written by members of the Society, some of whom also happen to be in the Foundation.
WyoHistory.Org Leaving As Well
The fracture of history groups, however, does not stop with the separation of Wyoming Historical Foundation and Wyoming Historical Society.
WyoHistory.org, which has operated under the Wyoming Historical Society umbrella, is already taking steps to remove itself from that umbrella, according to founder Tom Rea.
“We started (WyoHistory.Org) in 2010 and it went online in 2011,” Rea told Cowboy State Daily. “So, it’s been 15 years, and I’m now sort of the editor emeritus and Kylie McCormick is our new editor and project director, and she is fantastic.”
Rea said WyoHistory.Org has since retained an attorney to represent it during its divorce from Wyoming Historical Society. The lawyer has advised him not to talk about internal matters right now.
“Our dispute is separate from what is going on with the Foundation and with the Society,” Rea said. “And we hope to reach some sort of compromise.”
Rea said he could not discuss any details or say what his organization’s dispute is about but said within a year he intends for it to become a separate 501c3 of its own.
Cease And Desist
Rea’s name, along with McCormick’s, appears on a list of about 24 people who have received “cease and desist” letters from the Wyoming Historical Society. Those names include longtime, active members of the Society, and include some of Wyoming’s most prominent history buffs.
Linda Fabian, for example, who has decades of service with the Wyoming Historical Society, Ann Chambers Noble, who is president of the Wyoming Historical Foundation and a 37-year member of the Wyoming Historical Society, as well as many other names.
One that particularly stands out, and has recently become part of a Facebook meme, is Lucille Dumbrill, a 96-year-old historian, with decades of service and membership in the Society.
Philp said the letters ask all of those individuals to stop spreading false information about herself and Wyoming Historical Society.
Noble, Leslie Waggener, and Deb Davidson, who all received cease and desist letters, told Cowboy State Daily that Philp is making an unfair characterization, and that they’re being vilified for daring to ask questions about several issues they feel are still concerning matters.
At first, the issues were small ones, Noble added. Things that could be attributed to a new person in the role of executive director.
“Some of us were sending in our checks to get our dues paid, and the checks weren’t getting cashed,” Noble said. “And it would be like six months before we would find out if we got renewed or not.”
Noble eventually sent an email with several concerns outlined on behalf of the Foundation — an email she says never got a response.
“I thought maybe it was just me,” Noble said.
What About That Audit?
Noble came by her role on the Wyoming Historical Foundation in the wake of Fabian’s retirement from the Wyoming Historical Society. In the wake of that, Noble felt she needed to step up and do more for the Society.
At Fabian’s recommendation, she joined the Wyoming Historical Foundation, eventually becoming its president after the former president, Jeremy Johnston, died from cancer.
“I had to sit up straight then and try to fill very big shoes,” Noble said. “So, I read the bylaws, and I started to read them a lot more intently.”
At about the same time, Noble said she started getting more calls from people who were experiencing the same issue she was with membership checks not being cashed, as well as not getting a response from either phone calls or emails.
“So that’s when I started asking more and more of those questions in the capacity of, if I’m going to be asking people for money … I felt an obligation to make sure people felt comfortable making those donations,” Noble said. “Some of our checks are $5 and some of our checks are $5,000. The people who love Wyoming history give this money to it.”
Noble decided one way to quell all the questions she was getting was to just ask for an audit.
“That’s already in the bylaws,” Noble added. “It’s in the bylaws to do that. And every nonprofit board I’ve served on, and I’ve served on a lot of them, that’s always been a normal operating procedure.”
But the request for an audit received immediate, “huge” pushback from Wyoming Historical Society’s executive committee, Noble said.
Among the concerns, Noble acknowledged, was the expense of an audit. Which Noble felt was fair. So she recommended Wyoming Historical Foundation provide some funding toward an audit, which would help her with fundraising.
Lost Mail?
Philp acknowledged that the organization’s bylaws do mention an annual “audit,” but said an audit back in the 1950s and an audit now are two dramatically different things.
“You know, you got your friend down the street who was a CPA to look through everything, and that was considered an audit,” she said. “Now an audit is a very big, expensive thing. And our bylaws were never updated to change that phrasing.”
Despite that, though, Philp said Wyoming Historical Society has had an external financial review every year involving a professional accountant, who looks over everything for anything untoward.
“It’s not the modern term of an audit,” Philp said. “But as far as we can tell(that) has never been done, at least in recent memory, for probably more than 40 years, and at least 18.”
Philp said the $5,000 Wyoming Historical Foundation offered to help pay for an audit doesn’t begin to cover the cost of an actual audit today. She estimated that’s in the range of $30,000 or more.
The $5,000 figure appears to come from a letter from the Society’s president, Beki Speas, to Society members. In it, Speas says the Foundation had offered $5,000 for an audit.
However, Noble told Cowboy State Daily that the Foundation was willing to go higher than that if needed.
“It was discussed and agreed upon in the Feb. 4, 2025 Foundation meeting that we would help pay, if not fully pay for an audit, but that we had to have an amount and a bid from the Society.”
Noble said the Foundation has never heard back from the Society on an amount for the audit, but continues to be willing to help pay for it.
Budget Is Online
For transparency’s sake, Philp did push the executive committee to post its annual budget on its website, so people can see for themselves where the money is going.
“We are completely transparent about that,” she said. “We never want to hide anything. We are open to all of it. We want everything to be out there. We have nothing to hide.”
As far as membership checks not being cashed, Philp attributed that to issues with lost mail.
“We all know that mail in Wyoming can be spotty at times,” she said. “But there’s been less than a dozen instances where the check was just never received by the society.”
The Society has since added an online method of payment, so that people can pay their dues without having to rely on the mail.
“It’s been very few instances, considering we get well over 20 to 30 checks every single week,” she said. “And there were less than a dozen instances in the last 18 months.”
Unfinished Tasks
Deb Davidson, who is secretary for the Goshen County Historical Society, said red flags began to appear for her after the annual report her chapter prepares wasn’t included in the overall, year-end annual report.
“That’s supposed to go into that report for the annual meeting,” she said.
Her report is fairly large and time-consuming to do, she added, even though after all this time, she does have it somewhat streamlined.
“I was very disappointed when I attended the annual meeting and it was not in there,” she said.
That’s when she began to notice a pattern of tasks not completed, as well as answers that were, in her opinion, not always correct. The last straw for her, though, came when end-of-year tax forms she’d been expecting never arrived.
“We had to ask for them, and it was actually after one of the deadlines,” she said.
Noble said all of the tasks not completed were part of a detailed, five-page job description given to Philp when she was first hired.
“When some of us brought up these concerns that ‘Hey, the chapters aren’t getting the forms for these things … at one point she was making the case that ‘Well I was never told that was what my job was,’” Noble said. “And that’s when I became very nervous, because there was a job description. So that was a big red flag.”
What About The Annals Of Wyoming?
One of the not-yet-finished tasks that’s raised some questions are the Wyoming Annals, a publication that’s supposed to come out “periodically” each year. Interpretations vary on how often the annals are supposed to come out, but allegations in Wyoming Historical Foundation suggest Philp doesn’t see it as a “main membership benefit,” so there are questions about when the next one is coming out, given that the previous editor has retired, and a new one has not yet been hired.
Philp said her words there were taken out of context in the “no confidence” statement, and that what she was referring to were new members she was trying to recruit.
“It’s not that the current membership doesn’t value it,” she said. “But when I’m out there doing my job to recruit new members, to get people excited about the society and they say, ‘Well what do I get for my $50 and I say, ‘Well you get the Annals and a newsletter, they go, ‘Well, what else?’”
Philp added that the Annals are in progress, but that first it requires a new job description, which has to be approved by Wyoming Parks and Cultural Resources.
“In the past that position was employed through the State Archives, but they are no longer going to be able to have that employee due to budget cuts and everything,” Philp said. “So, we’re working with them to make sure that it still fulfills the state statute while moving them under us.”
What About Bonding?
Another of the unfinished tasks involved bonding for Philp, which was supposed to be in the amount of $200,000.
Philp said the company involved had been told to change the name on the bonding to the new executive director, but did not. After that was discovered, it was then learned that the company also could not match the $200,000 requirement, so a decision was made to find a new firm to accomplish the bonding.
As far as claims about a conflict of interest over the printer Philp’s been renting to the Society, Philp said she’s not operating her business any more, and she’s not really making any money off the deal.
“The Society would like to buy the printer from me, as I’m selling out my business anyways, and that would save them a ton of money,” she said. “But at that point in time, the Treasurer and the board said, ‘We can’t afford to purchase it right now. We’d like to in the future, and we can see the point. Can we rent it?”
No Quorum, Inadequate Notice
Leslie Waggener, a Wyoming Historical Foundation Board member, said she herself had no idea the extent of issues going on behind the scenes until joining the board in February.
“I have seen these problems as they have progressed,” she said. “And I would say, within the last few months, they have just really reached a crisis level.”
Among her biggest questions is about bylaw changes that she said used Google Documents to record votes. That’s not adequate security, in her opinion, nor did the vote about bylaw changes include what she felt was adequate notice.
There are also concerns about the Executive Committee appointing a fifth member to the board during a meeting on April 12. The committee is actually supposed to be a nine-member board, which meant that appointment took place without a quorum.
In the past, Waggener said, the nominating committee puts forward names to fill an unexpired term, rather than the executive committee, on its own, selecting a new member. That person then stands for election at the next, available annual meeting.
The lack of quorum, according to Wyoming Historical Foundation, happened due to several resignations in February by members who Noble said felt uncomfortable with things that were happening.
“There was a call from the management and oversight (committee) to fire Aley, and when she wasn’t, many members resigned,” Noble said. “And in the bylaws, it clearly states you need five members of the executive committee to conduct business, and they were down to only four members.”
Noble acknowledged the bylaws do contain a provision that allows the executive committee to appoint a new member.
“But that’s supposed to be just a temporary thing, until they can be voted in legitimately,” she added. “So, we questioned them on that.”
Noble said she was told that the Society’s legal counsel had OK’d that.
“But we could never get her to show us a letter or get what legal counsel from what lawyer had recommended it,” Noble said. “And it just deteriorated from there, and then they completely rewrote the bylaws again … completely ignoring what the bylaws say to do to make bylaw changes.”
That alone should make the bylaw changes null and void, Noble believes.
“But we also really question the vote,” she added, suggesting many had been disenfranchised because the vote had taken place through online means instead of at the annual meeting.
“A number of dues-paying members never got the email to vote,” Waggener said. “I never got the email to vote. So, when you’ve got a messed-up membership database that’s not even sending that option to vote to members, and then you’ve disenfranchised members who don’t have computers or don’t have proficiency, how can you trust that vote?”
Online Voting Options Added
Philp said she believes some of the points raised about recent votes reflect confusion about bylaw changes that were actually made in September of last year, which allowed membership to vote through not only mail-in ballots and in-person votes, but also, online ballots.
“That did mark a change from previous years,” Philp said. “And so, when the bylaws changes came up for this year, we were able to allow and make that accessible to every single one of our over 1,300 members, instead of just the 30 to 50 who show up to the annual meeting. That makes it a much more democratic process, in the fact that all membership had access, and every single member was allowed to vote.”
Those without computers, Philp added, could access one at the public library, but, she believes, with a majority of members having a smartphone, that access via email shouldn’t be a hindrance.
“All you needed was an email address,” she said. “And I mean, most of the membership all have smartphones, which requires an email address, so even those in their late 80s and older (have them.)”
The online method resulted in a lot more votes, Philp added.
“For the first time ever, we had a majority of the membership having access to being able to vote on the bylaws and the future of their society,” she said. “We had almost 600 votes coming in. That was close to half of our membership voting.”
Updating processes like that, Philp added, has been a bone of contention with some of the old guard in the membership, but is something she believes is necessary to bring the organization into the modern century.
“There was an obvious small percentage from the very beginning who were very resistant to the changes needed to move the society to actually function and survive in the modern world,” she said. “And (those changes) were recognized by past leaders. But when it came to the reality of actually pushing through with those plans, and what that actually meant for the changes in the society, there was a lot of fear.”
Toxic Leadership?
Philp also had a different take on the resignations Noble mentioned. She said they were related to the “toxic leadership” of a particular board member, which boiled over into a vote of “no confidence” in that person, who then resigned. That was later followed with three more resignations, leaving the board without a quorum.
“We looked at the bylaws, and article eight, section nine stated that if anyone left for any reason the executive committee was to appoint someone to fill that position,” Philp said. ‘So, there were four executive committee members left. They appointed someone and then it becomes a quorum of five. From there, they appointed several others to get to the full board membership of nine people.”
Philp said that was the only time the executive committee met without a quorum.
As far as issuing cease and desist letters to elderly members like Dumbrill, 96, Philp was unapologetic.
“She chose, and we don’t know the circumstances of how she signed a letter, but she did sign a letter with many, many false allegations,” Philp said. “And none of these people have ever called to talk to us, have a conversation with us, to talk things out. They immediately resorted to resolutions and threatening letters of their own.”
Society Questions About Foundation Unanswered
Philp also said questions that Wyoming Historical Society has had about how the Foundation is handling money raised on its behalf were going unanswered.
Wyoming Historical Foundation has an endowment housed with Wyoming Community Foundation, Noble confirmed, and dividends from that endowment do fund an annual $15,000 contribution to Wyoming Historical Society. The Society isn’t the only cause the Foundation raises money for but is one of its major causes and the main mission of the organization.
Philp said Wyoming Historical Society has come to feel it would be better off just raising its own money.
Donations for the endowment have ranged from $30,000 to $50,000 annually, which is double or more what the organization is getting from dividends off the endowment.
Meanwhile, there are immediate needs the Society has, among them, a need to modernize or become increasingly irrelevant.
“When you’re facing, ‘Hey, we need to change things or within several years we’re going to be facing a true budget crisis, the question is, should we be investing these donations, or should we actually be using them,” Philp said. “Because there’s more coming from (donations), and it will take many, many years to get to the point where the dividends are equal to what (we could be getting) from donations.”
The inability to use the funds for emergency purposes has also been a frustration for Wyoming Historical Society, Philp indicated.
“You would always hope that when you’re investing (donations) that, at some point, if there was an emergency, you could cash some of that out to use,” Philp said. “But unfortunately, the way it’s invested at this moment, it’s an irrevocable gift to the Community Foundation. So, all of that invested money can never be cashed out or used for the benefit of Wyoming history.”
The ultimate fate of the fund is the subject of ongoing discussions between attorneys for the two groups, Philp indicated, with Wyoming Historical Society advocating that they at least get paid their $15,000 installment for 2025.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
