Perspective and process

As the scribe for OCF Craft Committee, I do double duty there. I'm a witness and recorder to all that we do, and I serve as the person in place to communicate that to whomever is interested in reading the minutes or our articles and letters. It hasn't been an easy two or three years, and I'm still a newbie when it comes to being a Fair volunteer.

I've been a booth holder and crafter there for around 30 years. I spent a fair amount of that time articulating my complaints in true outsider tradition. When you don't feel seen or recognized, you tend to complain about "them" and throw ideas for improvement out there with little direction. I didn't know many of "them" but I've always liked the ones I did know, so for me there came a time when the obvious way to make progress toward a better experience was to get to know more volunteers. That has worked really well for me.

One of my regular tote bag designs

I tend to like almost all of them, at least on some levels. It's easy to admire dedication and once I started volunteering I was able to see the immense number of hours that people put in, rather unselfishly. As in all human endeavors there is self-interest, but in general the goals are shared: to keep the organization thriving to hold the annual event and to grow in ability and dependability so when people come and go, the big spinning peach doesn't wobble too much.

Last night at the Board meeting a few clues were revealed that I hadn't seen before. Any group of passionate people is going to disagree and the OCF group is so many thousands of passionate individuals that it is a wonder forward action occurs. Credit can be given to the hippie process of consensus seeking and to the transparency of the detailed minutes and now the recordings. Recordings of candidate interviews for Board positions and now the Board meetings themselves gives the observer plenty of opportunity for analysis and a more informed view of how things work or don't. At least now our complaints can be a little more informed and our solutions can be a little better directed.

My new love is the Vision Action Committee and though I don't plan on joining, I find them to be in a great place of responsiveness which isn't so easy to access through other channels. I wrote them a letter two years ago when I had a frustrating experience trying to navigate Fair structure. I tried to articulate my biggest goal: better communication: that by understanding each others experiences we will learn respect and be better able to work together. This isn't a new opinion but I found my comments printed in the FFN and listened to, carefully, by the committee. I won't be able to attend the Vision Summit on April 26, but you should if you have big ideas about what the OCF should be doing. That is a good place to work.

Calling out the Board as a whole, as the Craft Committee just did, and as I have often done with my complaining letters in the past, is just not very effective. Anytime you take individuals as a group you will risk putting some on the defensive, showing them that you didn't see the individuals who acted on your behalf, and allowing each of them to sidestep any responsibility. It would be a lot more effective to get to know each person, to speak to them about whatever issues you perceive divide you, and then work together to meet the mutually agreed-upon goals. I see the individual Board members doing this. I see people who go to a lot of meetings trying to do this. I didn't see myself doing it last night, and don't see my committee doing it, but we can start. We have to overcome feeling excluded and not wanted, but those are our feelings, not the full reality.

I felt a little bullied and dismissed, though I succeeded in not taking it personally as I was there to speak for my group, and all crafters, not myself. Our report explained and clarified and asked for diligence on their parts in listening better to our expertise. I don't think we convinced anyone that we had such expertise, but that may come as we demonstrate more of it. We've been doing a lot of important work supporting Craft Inventory after it kind of fell off the rails, and we also have been working with Registration and management in pretty effective ways. But the Board doesn't necessarily know any of that. Not all of them probably read our minutes, and not everything is in the minutes, of course. The issues that seem so essential to us are not seen as essential by many. Even though nearly a thousand crafters probably agree with us that the issues we are trying to address are vital, that isn't being generally communicated, and the fast pace and business of a Board meeting is not necessarily the best place to communicate it.

But a conversation with an individual Board member might be. If I said "My survival as a craftsperson who makes screenprints depends on a level of protection against screenprints made by workers in a factory using automatic printing equipment," that might get some traction. Then we could talk about how to do that, by strengthening the jury process and giving management and crews better tools to use to exclude factory-made screenprints. Of course it is never simple, because I screenprint on things made in factories. That is within the guidelines, and some of my items are now being made in local factories of less than ten people, but still an issue with a little muddiness. So to simplify it I might go to a level of abstraction: "My survival as a person who works alone and does things by hand is put at risk by selling next to someone who actually does not use their own hands to make their items," that is a little more useful but it might not have the juice of my personal statement.

As a committee we are trying to sit right on that fine line of abstraction that will include the situations of all craftspersons while not stepping on any of us unintentionally. That I think is the key to the imports confusion: it is a bit muddy and lots of people don't see the fine distinctions we are trying to make. Yes we will still have imports, but not all kinds of imports, and we might have them there, but not over there. There isn't time in a Board meeting to articulate the fine points. The process of making policy requires that fine point work to be done in committee. That is the process.

So the Craft Committee is trying to stay within those limits. We are doing a huge amount of work to articulate those fine points, but the Board doesn't know that. We have to tell them, and in return they have to allow us the supportive and respectful atmosphere to bring our finished work to them to make it policy. That's the way the two bodies have to work together here. So we tried to make that clear, to improve that atmosphere. I don't know that we succeeded, but it was an early step in a long process.

We will be meeting this Saturday, the last one we will be able to meet before the Saturday Market season starts. The group we call the Craft Policy Working Group will meet, and continue our work to compile and clarify craft policy. If you even read the guidelines, you are well aware that they are confusing and sometimes contradictory, and that taking a section of them and simplifying it would be a good service. That is the piece of service we are trying to do. I think it deserves respect, and I think it will get respect, but I will personally have to toughen up a little, as we all will.

This is not a group of people who can be controlled, manipulated, or deceived, those of the OCF. We are aware, we're deep thinkers, and we all have a ton of ownership and devotion to our bite of the peach. We do move forward, but it isn't always smooth. I still have faith. Hard work is respected, and skills are recognized. The hours we are putting in being thoughtful and caring will have positive results, if we hang in there, keep working, keep communicating, and be patient. All of us have to do this on all of the levels.

Getting pissed and walking away is the way to waste your efforts. All change in OCF is caused by a driven individual persisting in finding consensus and having needs addressed and met. It does happen. It isn't easy. I salute the people who can go to those meetings month after month and keep their faith. I'm not tough enough yet, though I do read every word of the minutes as soon as they are posted and I do pay close attention. I have to step up the other side and lose my fear of standing up before the big boys. I'm working on that. I'm turning 65 soon, so I don't know how much braver I will get, but you never know. I felt a lot of support in the room. That matters very much to me. Change will come, one sentence, one person, at a time. I want to be there to witness it.

2014 special logo bag. I'll have an even better one this year I hope.