Finch says that "on December 18 I got so desperate that, pretty much on the spur of the moment, I got permission to use the Miami University server and started WOM-PO with an email to a few friends .
"[1] Among the first few subscribers were Wendy Battin, Catherine Daly, Marilyn Hacker, Farideh Hasanzadeh, Allison Joseph, Rachel Loden, Gwyn McVay, Marilyn Nelson, Judith Roitman, Susan Schultz, Kathrine Varnes, and Elizabeth Waldner.
Some notable members of Wom-Po have included poets Sandra Beasley, Margo Berdeshevsky, Chana Bloch, Allison Hedge Coke, Martha Collins, Sharon Doubiago, Annie Finch, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Daisy Fried, Kate Gale, Daniela Gioseffi, Arielle Greenberg, Gabriel Gudding, R. S. Gwynn, Allison Joseph, Marilyn Hacker, Farideh Hassanzadeh, Eloise Klein Healy, Julie Kane, Amy King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jeffrey Levine, Marilyn Nelson, Mendi Obadike, Alicia Ostriker, Katha Pollitt, Molly Peacock, Mira Rosenthal, Metta Sama, Rati Saxena, Susan M. Schultz, Peggy Shumaker, Evie Shockley, Ron Silliman, Patricia Smith, Stephanie Strickland, Lesley Wheeler, and Rachel Zucker.
Wom-Po is a close community with distinctive longstanding traditions such as referring to members playfully as "womponies" and an annual Friday breakfast at the Associated Writers Program conference.
[4] Several volunteer-run weekly newsletters keep the list free of self-promotional and congratulatory posts so that discussion can focus on poetry.