Policies and Practices

I find so much irony in life; it's a curse at times, other times baffling, mostly amusing. Currently everyone is up in arms about rules, one of those micro-macrocosm things we get tied up in way too frequently. In our little lives, remember that there is the intent of the law, and the letter of the law, and then the procedures and practices that grow up around the law, and also the guidance or misguidance of the levels of enforcement of the law. And your opinion of the law, of course, which is probably somewhat different than mine. Let me say before I launch into anything that I am speaking here for myself, in my own private blog, and not as an officer or responsible party for any of the rules and regulations of any of my member organizations.

Kids on the border: clearly zero tolerance is evil and beyond absurd. The phrase itself is a buzzword that gets strong emotions roused. It's duality thinking: right or wrong, this way or that way, no grey areas to interpret, no mitigating circumstances or good excuses or any other kind of justification. Doesn't really work too well with people. Really doesn't work well with the kind of people I hang around with.

At Market, for instance, we have a lot of policies and guidelines and rules. Like Michael famously says, when we add a rule we don't take away any of the old ones. Generally I am a rule-follower, but that is tempered by what I perceive as the intent of the law, as well as the equity and sensibility of the procedures and enforcement directives. For instance, there are quite a few Market rules that I interpret a little differently from the way you might interpret them. Sometimes I have modified my thinking over the years, for instance when I got on board for loading out at HM instead of pretending to. That was ethical, as I realized we were making our GM, my friend, essentially lie for us when she signed the contract. I don't like to lie and didn't want anyone to do it on my behalf. The rule wasn't likely to change, so I did.

And with the weights: we didn't use to have a policy. The fire marshal came with a draconian one, involving 80 pounds per leg, and specific types of weights, unlike what most of us had been doing for years to keep everyone safe. The intent of the law was public safety, but we worked hard to craft a workable policy and negotiate it with the marshal. We settled on 25 pounds per leg, but I only have three corners to my space. I used to put a corner in the fountain well, but that was prohibited, so I developed a workaround. It isn't strictly in compliance with the policy. I'm not thinking the Market would get shut down because of my workaround, but it could in a zero-tolerance atmosphere. About 80% of us are not in strict compliance with our weights policy, I believe. We all have workarounds, be they in the type of weights we use, the way we use them, or the other time-tested methods of securing our booths to the ground. I want and need that flexibility. I would have to change my space to comply or maybe quit the Market. I know quite a few people that won't come on windy days because they can't comply. It's a policy that needs a compassionate procedural adaptation that still meets the goals of public safety while allowing us to sell in iffy weather. That struggle isn't over. Market, however, has several compassionate responses. There is assistance available to meet the policy. That's how we work.

So I was alarmed to hear that a potential volunteer was told that service meant you had to obey all the rules to the letter. Um, does anyone do that? It's akin to saying that someone can be completely honest. There is always that lie of omission or kindness or convenience that gets the denial going. I tend to agree that it is good to follow rules as well as one can. Yet our rules are flexible for a reason. We know our population is a group of self-motivated entrepreneurs who live by their own efforts and reasonable adjustments to systems. There's a lot of personal choice built in because we like it that way. You don't want to bring tent weights? Don't bring a tent. Don't want to pay $13 plus 10%? Get a 4x4 or share a booth. We still have the honor system because we are honorable, and we enjoy being treated as honorable people. Because some might not be, do we want to have to keep receipt books and have our fees assessed like some Fairs used to do? No thank you. Let's build up reasons to act honorable, like respectful interactions and neighborly policies, and compassionate enforcement.

Packing early is a great example of how a zero-tolerance rule could go bad. Suppose you are doing some organizing in preparation for packing and your neighbor interprets that as packing and reports you, and you lose your point for the day. What kind of due process will we build into that system so you can explain you were putting away your lunchbox? What about your eight hours of full compliance with every rule? What about your years of dedicated service? What about your migraine? What about your exhausted kids? Nope. We delegated our staff person to take away points, and that is that. I venture to say no one wants to sell at that Market.

I've watched one of our associated organizations react to rule breaches with fines and suspensions. Those people resented the hell out of it and generally quit. Sure, there are others glad to sell, and customers rarely know, but do we want members going away mad? Is that good for our community?

What is good for our community? What kind of organization do we want to be? I'm guessing compassionate is high on most lists. I think we continue to want case-by-case, workable solutions for our common problems. Over time, we need to find ways to keep our values in place while we adapt to changing conditions. Right now, we have a fading founding generation and a lot of new members. They might not feel the community interest yet, so maybe they think packing early is what you do when there are few customers to notice. Maybe their needs are getting more attention than your need to keep the community value of waiting to pack until the moment of 5:00. We will have to work with them to bring them into our community feeling so that they are motivated to honor it. It's a long discussion, and it could end in lots of ways: closing earlier for everyone, for instance, like another organization did. All members' opportunity to sell was cut short so the big guys could maximize their employee time and cut their costs, and get on to their other work. I know some members who still resent that, years later. Decisions have consequences too.

But maybe there are a lot of solutions for this particular problem that aren't punitive. For instance, the GM gives them a call to make sure they get the intent of the rule and the expectation of the community, after someone files a written complaint. Or maybe we stop allowing envelopes to be turned in early and pay all of our staff to work longer hours to accommodate a later closing procedure. Maybe we ask our GM to work a 12-hour day so she can be there to monitor closing and respond in the moment, or maybe we decide she is human and works hard enough to not be there for early opening and late closing. Maybe we hire parking staff to tell us where and when to park. Maybe we pay a closing monitor to go around and make lists of people who do get their points.

Maybe we ring a bell at 5:00 and make it clear that you have to wait for the bell, or maybe we don't allow any cars at all in neighboring parking spots until 5:00, including customers, or issue a parking sticker to member cars so they can be so identified. Maybe we give out flyers, maybe we make jokes and point and laugh at early packers, maybe we kick them right out of the Market or maybe we do nothing and let them do whatever they choose. Karma will sort it out.

Obviously there is a range of solutions and some group needs to sort them out and find the best ones. That is why we have a Board, to work out policy with which to direct our staff. But this Board can be composed of lots of types of people, some who don't mind zero-tolerance or others who don't like rules at all. That's why we have discussions. That's why we continue to work toward consensus on these types of decisions, so we can come up with the most well-thought-out solutions that will work the best in practice. That's why Facebook discussions of policy are so marginally useful. You can't build consensus on the member's FB site.

For one thing, staff can't weigh in there. You might not realize that only the GM is authorized to enforce rules like parking and leaving early. You might not know that you are asking for her to prioritize being there from 4:30 to 5:00 instead of in the morning when bigger, more complicated situations need her attention. So if the consensus is to prioritize parking and leaving early over dealing with the mentally ill, the cars that need to be towed, or hazards on the site, she can be directed to work then, and can delegate the other things, but I prefer to let her decide on priorities. Public safety and operations flow are more important to me. She knows her job, and I want her to decide how to do it. She'll do what we ask, but we need her input in the decision-making. And we need the input of all staff, most importantly when we are discussing their jobs. So the member's page is not the best place, but the Board meeting can be.

And philosophy issues like how we get loyalty and buy-in on our regulations, how we move forward when things aren't working ideally, those things aren't driven by someone's opinion, however forcefully or eloquently they are stated. Those are group decisions made by as large a group as possible, in an organized group process. With rules. With a facilitator and a scribe, so the discussions can move forward to action. With careful process, with people who understand how to make good participatory decisions in a group. That's why we have elected Board members, who get training. And we have non-voting people at the meetings, who are equally able to give input and help find the solutions. Our process is sound, and has been in place for almost 50 years, and is why we are thriving now.

I had my best Park Blocks day ever yesterday. I have never seen it so crowded in the aisles, and even with quite a few regular members absent, we were full. I hope everyone did well. There was a lot going on. I had quite a few situations that weren't ideal for me that I was mostly unable to deal with in a really elegant way. I had to wing it and do the best that I could. I was only operating one tiny business in one tiny space. I can't even imagine all the things the staff members had to handle with so much happening. I barely saw any of them, but I trust them and I know the reason it ran so smoothly was that they are stellar at what they do. They are amazing. Their energy is high and their accomplishments are legion. I truly appreciate how willing they are to respond to our needs and help us make the Market we want. I support them fully in interpreting our intent and our letter of our laws for the common good of us all.

I do not want a Market that is punitive. I do not want the point system to be compromised by tieing operational rules to it. I want us to have sensible, well-thought out policies with room for interpretation and incentive for compliance, not punishment for non-compliance. We have always, throughout our history, maintained a lot of respect for ourselves and each other and worked very hard to craft policy and procedures that meet our mutual needs.

We've always had to struggle to get everyone to follow them, but we work it out so the intent is clear. We count on each other to make our rules work. We ask questions and think deeply about solutions. I have a lot of faith in our process and abilities to work together. So I ask people to be patient and engage in the process in similar good faith. We all work toward improvement, within the framework of who we are and how we want to live. See people on August 1st for policy discussions, at the Board meeting, where they are best done thoughtfully. And slowly. And inclusively. And above all, from our best selves, not our tired selves on our one day off. Thanks for reading.