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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Ineffective market saga...suggestions? (long)

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Ineffective market saga...suggestions? (long)
  • Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 10:34:59 -0500

Warning -- the below is also long; those who aren't interested, please skip this!

Does the market have written bylaws, and if so can you get a copy? The people currently running it may be in clear violation. Whether being able to prove this will get you anywhere useful is likely to depend on other factors. (I know one case -- see third paragraph -- in which the bylaws just mysteriously disappeared.)

How, if at all, is the market formally organized? Who "owns" the rights to the market name / organization? If the people who started it, and who are not running it well, effectively own the market, there's not likely to be much you can do about this one; in which case, your choices are a) to try to start another in the same area, which in a small town is most likely impractical unless the old one is clearly dying and maybe even then b) to put up with it as is (possibly working around the edges as best you can to change things) and hope things improve eventually c) to, as you say, give up on this market entirely, and either apply to the other one or try other marketing methods.

Do you have effective support from other vendors? By "effective", I mean, if they're unhappy with the current situation, will they do more than just grumble? If you have significant effective support, and if the bylaws and market organization allow for it, I'd be inclined to try to stage a coup: run a slate of reform candidates for the board, and hope to get a majority. If you can't come up with enough such candidates to potentially take a majority, however, that won't work. (In a similar situation some years ago, I discovered that when it came down to it nobody but me was willing to do anything but grumble. I quit that market; but it was 45 minutes away in a different town. I'm not sure what I would have done if it had been in my hometown.) -- it occurs to me, depending on how the bylaws/organization (if any) are written, the other candidates might not need to be vendors; but I think you would still need significant support among the vendors, or there's going to be too much bad will to get anything done. If you lose a couple of disgruntled people, that's one thing; but if most of the current vendors disagree with you, you'd need not only to take over the board, but to find a whole new set of vendors.

As far as the rules requiring that all board members need to attend every market: this is just silly. A board and a market manager are not the same thing. If the market can't afford a paid market manager, a volunteer, or a combination of volunteers, needs to do the job; and these people can certainly be board membors -- they can even be vendors, if it's a small market that generally runs smoothly; although this isn't ideal it works quite well for one market I go to. But there needs to be one clear person in authority at any given market day, not a board meeting every time there's a minor dispute! (though there does need to be a clear appeals process to the entire board, in writing, to protect against a possible terrible manager.) A manager and assistant manager could divide the duty so neither of them needs to be there every time. If you try to stage a coup, I'd make changing this rule part of the platform; and make it clear what process you want to change it to.

In fact, if you try to stage a coup, you might start by writing up a draft of proposed bylaws and market rules, and then (this is very important) pass it around current vendors for comment and suggestions -- and then listen, hard, to the comments and suggestions, and incorporate what seems like a good idea; so that it doesn't come across as you, a new vendor, trying to take over the market as an individual. (I'm sure people on this list can give you suggestions on sample bylaws and rules to start from.) Then run on that platform. But, bear in mind, if this fails you will certainly be badly in dutch with the current administration and may get thrown out of the market.

Good luck with this mess, in any case. There are such things as properly functioning producer-only markets; I know several of them in this area alone (and it sounds as if the market you used to work with is another). Whether it's possible to get one in any particular town is sometimes a different matter.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale







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