The Central Wisconsin Education Association (CWEA) is an organization of professional educators and other interested persons formed to promote the professional development of its members and to advance education, particularly in a fourteen county area of central Wisconsin. Approximately 600 members were present at the first meeting held on 24 October 1913 in Wausau, Wisconsin. They elected S. B. Tobey to serve as president and Ira C. Painter to serve as secretary, an office that he held until his death in 1949. Subsequent meetings were held in Wausau, Merrill, and Stevens Point until 1934 when Wausau became the permanent meeting place. An executive committee, composed of a chairman and four members, coordinated the association's activities. Financed by membership dues alone in its first years, the group received subsidies based on total membership from the Wisconsin Education Association (WEA) after 1934. The Association was chartered by the National Education Association (NEA) on 1 February 1921.
