Market Farming

[Leslie Moyer <unschooler AT lrec.org>]

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