CWA Blog Archive-Professionalizing Routesetting Through The CWA Summit

Professionalizing Routesetting Through The CWA Summit

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Reflecting on attending the 2022 CWA Summit in Salt Lake City for the first time, the author celebrates how far routesetting's professionalization has come. Compared to the 2018 and 2019 schedules, they found it inspiring to see so many routesetting sessions focused on professionalizing this facet of the industry, with sessions on routesetting data, team development, and new guidelines moving the field toward more standardized policy while remaining fluid in team management. The author sees a movement where high-level routesetters are viewed as far more than people who control what goes on the wall, but as industry leaders, promoters of change, and creatives pushing the bounds of what's possible in the sport. A significant portion addresses diversity in routesetting. While new gyms open everywhere, there's a well-known shortage of experienced setters to fill positions, and the makeup of setting teams remains overwhelmingly cis white men. In the Routesetting Team Development session, the author learned from Flannery Shay-Nemirow and Genevieve De La Plante of the BIG initiative how offering women- and minority-specific routesetting clinics can break down the common barriers that gatekeep women from learning to set. This connects the setter shortage to the diversity gap: broadening who has access to setting education both addresses the talent shortage and diversifies teams. The throughline is that routesetting is undergoing genuine professionalization, visible in the CWA Summit's evolution toward data-driven, standardized, professionally-minded content, and that this maturation includes elevating setters' status and diversifying their ranks. The author frames the shift optimistically: setting is being recognized as skilled, leadership-caliber work, standards and guidelines are formalizing the craft, and initiatives like BIG are working to make setting accessible to women and minorities historically kept out. For the industry, professionalizing routesetting means both raising the profession's standing and widening its doors, addressing the setter shortage while building more representative teams, with the CWA Summit serving as a visible engine of that progress.

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Reflecting on the 2022 Summit, the author celebrates routesetting's professionalization, more sessions on data, team development, and guidelines than in prior years, and setters increasingly viewed as industry leaders and creatives. It highlights the BIG initiative's women- and minority-specific clinics as a way to address both the setter shortage and setting's cis-white-male makeup.