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  • From: Leslie Moyer <unschooler AT lrec.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Ineffective market saga...suggestions? (long)
  • Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 15:55:57 -0600

This is very long....apologies in advance. It has been all I can do to not
complain about the market I attend. I've written about 10 emails and deleted
them prior to sending. Mostly because I think I know the answers to my
problems, but I'm not ready to do anything about solving them yet. But here
goes....maybe you all have suggestions I can't see from sitting so closely to
the problem.

We have a TERRIBLE board at the market I attended last season. I moved here
2 years ago and prior to that I wasn't a vendor, but I was the secretary of
the board of a large farmers market (about 70 vendors--all grown/produced
within the state, no resellers--mostly food, very few crafters) in a nearby
town (about an hour away). I served as the mid-week market manager for that
market for one season and was on the board for 2 additional years (3 years
total), where I was very active and put out a nice customer newsletter for 3
years. (As secretary, I did a monthly vendor newsletter as well.) The
market wasn't without its problems, but it functioned very smoothly and
effectively and I learned a lot. That market is now up to probably near 100
vendors. I've also been involved with a statewide local food initiative (Buy
Fresh Buy Local) and, due to that, I've worked with a lot of other market
managers, vendors/farmers, and market board members across my state,
including the people who started THIS market.

I just started selling vegetables last year, but just dabbled (1/2
acre)....our farming plan is primarily an orchard and we've been readying the
ground for that these past 2 years (spent the first year deciding precisely
where to put it and this past year cover cropping, deer fencing, etc.). Our
first 200 trees are arriving in March & by 2013 we'll have about 7 or 8 acres
in orchard trees. I'm also selling plants this year--herbs, vegetable
transplants, edible shrubs, etc. And the move, in general, was sort of
complicated. That is all to say I've been busy and I still have a lot to do.

The board here consisted this year of 5 people, but one quit very early in
the season and was not replaced as far as I know. The president and VP
started the market. The president is an elderly woman and, due to some
health problems this spring, the VP was in charge of most things. They're
both control freaks and, though several people (myself included) have
volunteered to do many things (particularly PR things), they have refused all
help and made life miserable for those who tried to help in any way. They had
a PR person who quit in frustration when the Pres and VP would not allow her
to ask vendors if they wanted the newspaper to interview them for personal
stories throughout the year. Actually, first they fired her, then passively
allowed her back on the board, then she quit again in frustration.

The VP was instrumental in getting the market started 4 years ago when she
was employed with a local governmental organization who helped to launch the
market financially. At some point during the formation, she was fired from
her job. I don't know any of the details....I only know that the result is
that the market has a VERY POOR relationship with SEVERAL local organizations
and governmental agencies that we NEED desperately to have a good
relationship with. It's a small town--we can't afford to make enemies. They
have a poor or non-existent relationship with every single governmental,
business, and educational entity (a university in our small town is a very
important asset) that exists in our area with the POSSIBLE exception of the
Extension Service....I say "possible" because, given enough time, poor
communication will sabotage that one, too, if it hasn't already.

The board does NOT tell the members when or where the board meetings are,
they do NOT give us meeting minutes to tell us what went on in the meetings,
and on the single occasion this summer when they did tell us about a meeting,
they changed it and held it earlier in the day without telling anyone (even
though most vendors were present--it was held during the market hours--and
some could have attended, myself included). As a 501(c)3, these meetings are
supposed to be open not only to the vendor members, but to the public, I
believe, right?

The other two members of the board are ineffectual, at best. They basically
have no voice, but don't seem to care to do anything differently from the
Pres and VP, either.

The main problem with their ineffectiveness has been the COMPLETE lack of
publicity for the market (and, hence, poor customer attendance). Their signs
are small and faded, they do virtually NO advertising and the little bit they
do is completely ineffectual. They have many sources of free PR and goodwill
via networking with existing community organizations (who WANT to work with
us!) that they are not taking advantage of, and, in fact, are working counter
to. However, despite that, a small group of 3 of us vendors were able to
pretty much coerce them into changing locations for the coming year that will
HELP make them more visible. However, it will also make it harder for
existing customers to find the market unless they do a good job of PR in the
early spring (they won't). [Previous location was TERRIBLE, by the way!!!!]
They already frittered away the fall opportunities to inform customers of the
change. I offered to help with that, but was brushed off.

They have no paid market manager. Because of this, they have a rule that the
board members have to attend EVERY market--they rely on the board members to
run the market....poorly. It is never clear who is in charge and it often
seems like a free-for-all. Rules are not enforced equally or at all.

One last pet peeve....their market guidelines have a list of objectives for
the market and not ONE single one of them is about providing a market for the
vendors to sell their product. They list things like, "educating the public
about good nutrition," and "increase the availability of nutritious foods for
low income, disadvantaged populations specifically Women, Infants, and
Children Supplemental Food Program recipients, Food Stamp recipients, and
Elders", and "enhance the positive image of [our town] and the community as a
whole." It would be one thing if this was an accidental oversight, but this
is exactly how the market behaves and sort of what I was getting at when I
sort of grumbled over the 501(c)3 status issue.

Okay--so....terrible board in every sense of the word. What can be done
about it? My choices seem to be:

1. Run for a seat on the board -- IF they even follow their own bylaws and
actually open a seat for election and not just re-appoint themselves. I
believe one of their terms expires this year--maybe 2 of them. But at least
one of them had a term that expired last year and they re-elected her for
another 3-year term. I could run for a seat on the board, but it would mean
serving on the board with at least 2 of them and I would find it so
frustrating as to be unworkable, I'm afraid. The last person who tried to
make change from within lasted about 3 months...and that was about 2 1/2
months longer than I could have, I think. And I have two other big problems
with this solution: I can't commit to attending every market, as the bylaws
or guidelines currently require, and certainly can't commit to managing the
market as is currently required of the board AND we still have so much farm
work to do and I should really spend my energy there--where I am certain it
will be more productive.

2. Stage a coup. Run for a seat on the board and/or campaign for a complete
turnover of the board by calling all market members for whom I have contact
information (about half of them?) and letting them know how I think things
could be run better--what I could and would do and recruit people to run for
the other board seats. Work through the bylaws to remove other board members
if we can (re: non-compliance of bylaws). The problem with this is that I'd
have to follow through. ;-) :-) See problems with #1.

3. Bide my time and do nothing.... This board can't last forever. They're
burning themselves out trying to do it all (but not succeeding and earning
lots of criticism along the way). It may take several years, but eventually
there will be all new board members that I could work with. My orchard trees
won't be producing significant fruit for a few years--I have some time that I
could wait until I need to get serious about working to solve some of these
problems. BUT....if I do this, what will happen to the market in the
meantime? The only thing I think this market is doing right is that it is a
producer-only market. The one person that I know that MAY be willing to step
up when they fall thinks differently from me on these issues and would be in
favor, I think, of allowing resellers. (Who looks like the control freak
now? <g>)

4. Give up on this market and drive the hour+ into the bigger market. I
don't have enough produce to sell at the large market yet and my plants won't
be anything unique in order to get me into that market just yet. That market
is full and they aren't allowing new vendors at the moment. When we have
fruit ready to sell, I think we WILL be able to get in because they really
NEED fruit there and they will make room for us (we have been told). In the
meantime, I'll have a few years where I'd like to get the bugs worked out in
this smaller market, though... The problem with this solution is that I
moved out here to live out HERE. I want this to be my home now and I don't
want to spend every weekend driving the hour+ into town at 4am.

5. Skip the market theatrics altogether and shift to a total U-Pick
operation. We're gearing up for this to be a part of our business
anyway....especially as we grow older. But perhaps it makes sense to start
this way from the beginning. I think since we have Buy Fresh Buy Local here,
which does a good job of publicizing U-Picks, that we could get the publicity
we need for customers. The problem with this solution is that I'm such a
"fixer" and I believe so strongly in the need for a good market here in my
community--for selfish reasons as well as for virtuous reasons.

If you've read this far, thanks! Any guidance or other thoughts on the
choices I've presented? Any other suggestions? Thoughts about how to
approach this?

--Leslie









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