Drenched, but still happy

 Yes indeed we all got drenched at about 3:00 pm but until then it was a lovely day with sun and plenty of customers. I think sales were pretty good, because there were maybe a third of the booths, clustering together more, and that spread sales farther around. You could see people going around more than once, seeming to be looking for something to buy, for whatever reasons. One guy was carrying flowers and seemed especially pleased so I asked him if it was his birthday, and it was. He was carrying too many things so I gave him a bag, because I knew it would allow him to buy more, which he looked like he wanted to do. And it worked, as he had actually been considering a hat. I was careful to tell him I hadn't known that and didn't do it to get his business, and I didn't. I just hate to see people carrying everything awkwardly and not connecting that with the obvious need for a carrying assist. 

I could give away a lot of bags but am trying hard not to. I'm nearly out of the regular bags and won't be replacing them with commercially made ones. I'll have black bags and small ones for a longer time, so will focus on them and making my load lighter. I saw a woman who had on a shirt of an iris that I had made in the 80's! It was really surprisingly beautiful and she said she hadn't worn it, but found it in her drawers and brought it out. It would make a stunning tote bag so I will see if I can find the old art. I know I would have saved it, or at least a paper print I could make new art from. 

We had some fun conversations about art yesterday. One of the upsides of slower days is more conversing with other artists, birders, botanists, and many types of appreciators. Market is such a lovely place to receive guests and I treasure that social day once a week. The rain can't spoil that although of course it did remove all the customers from the mix. It was especially wet. I had to spread everything out in my shop to dry, every bag and hat, and it is nicely sunny today so I could put the popup and sides and weights outside for a few hours. Those weights seem to never dry. I think I brought home at least ten pounds of water in place of a few pounds of hats I sold. 

I was even wet through my rain pants which I don't remember experiencing before. At least we had a pretty dry setup period which makes the rest work fine. I don't mind as much getting wet at the end of the day, with all of my treats ready for later and all of the satisfaction tucked away. I know I will be going home to a dry and warm house and that makes me feel very lucky.

Got some choice gossip but it's mostly kind of depressing. Apparently many of our young staff does not get any training on how to behave in the workplace or in their off hours with their coworkers. I won't repeat any stories as none of them were firsthand, but an hour or two of expectations and a different setting of the professional atmosphere would greatly benefit these workers as I hope they do not carry those behaviors on to their next jobs. We've lost so much from the days when we did actual hiring processes and didn't have a toxic workplace that members avoid and find out later that they've been roundly trashed in by people they are paying with their hard-earned sales. Where is the Personnel Committee and Board in this scenario where we are now known as a place you would definitely not want to be employed? 

One thing that seems to be not reaching those in power is that we live in a small town. All of the artisan communities are connected, with hundreds of us knowing each other, working together, sharing studios and selling next to each other in shows all over the region and in many other places in our own town. You know it is said that 90% of people will talk about their negative experiences and a much smaller percentage will talk about the positive ones. Yes many of us love the market in many ways and promote it and have worked for it, but those glowing testimonials are falling flat when everyone can see that something is terribly wrong.

The food court is now marked up with irregular pink and black paint lines that must look shocking for the six days a week that market is not there. I remember being horrified when a Tuesday market food booth set up on our stage and left grease stains there. All of the safety paint on the irregularities of the sidewalks are sort of excusable, but the idea that the park is practically owned by market is so short-sighted and sad. It is the premier and only downtown park, used by many residents and visitors to downtown. I have always maintained that the city should be able to use it in the ways that serve the city, as long as we can negotiate with them about our needs and make sure we are collaborating on the best use of the space. I complained loudly when a Sunday Streets event marked up the west block with paint for two days, marks that lasted for a very long time. I wish we had a lot more collaboration and that I was still in communication with City staff, as I noticed yesterday as I stood in a puddle along with most people in our neighborhood, that the sidewalk cracks had been filled with asphalted gravel, which meant they no longer drained rain toward the fountain, or anywhere. I bring a broom, but there was too much water yesterday to sweep, and in my space I would be sweeping it into my neighbors' booths. But I can't just email the city and ask them to think about drainage again. I even have a map of the lakes that form I could share with them.

Oh well, just one thing. The poor new food booth had to wait until 11:30 for the ribbon across their front counter to be cut, and looked closed for the busiest morning hours of their first day. Removing it would have been the first thing I did in the morning, but they are new and I'm sure were wanting to start off complying, no matter how confusing that was. It feels repeatedly that no one is thoughtful about the members' ability to make sales, that no one really cares about anything except our payments, which must increase despite the increasing difficulty of our existences. We've lost the real "heart of Beth" as we used to call it, the empathy and knowledge of our experience that leads to decisions that work for the members and not just the org. They're not even working for the org anymore. Policies are having to be made for specific instances, sometimes for one person, for things that used to be understood, with no need to be widespread. Like the letter we got, everyone got, by email that they say they can only use so often, to tell us all to be nice at Holiday Market. We are nice. We are some of the nicest, most mutually supportive people you can find anywhere. Some people in power just do not know us, and aren't trying to know us anymore. They have a warped view of our special place and our amazing culture.

But the worst news I heard yesterday was at farmers. They voted, by a member vote even, to eliminate their seniority system. I'm not sure if they got any benefits out of it except for space allocations, and am not sure how any points they used were counted. I have a memory at one point of how much money you made and paid being integrated into that seniority, but I can't be sure if I got that right, as I'm not a member. But for people like the Bergs, and others, who have invested their lives in the organization, they were disenfranchised. Farmers started long before they became LCFM in 1979, selling with us from the very beginning. Some were even generational farmers, having connections to the old Producers Market that ended in 1959. Farms tend to stay in families if possible. So those older folks just got pushed out by the new and younger folks, who of course voted out that system they weren't benefitting from yet. It would be like taking away all of our member points, which only go back to when points started anyway, which was in the 80s.

Member votes are manipulated and we've seen that happen too, when everyone got to join the survey about closing for a week in November, even those who didn't sell then and had no real stake in the issue. I lost an important selling day, and I'm still shocked by the wording of that survey, pitched as "if you love your staff, you will vote to close." It was the first time I really saw the manipulative ability of this GM and how she would be using it, and I did complain, passionately, about being manipulated. But now it is the norm. Check out the newsletter cartoon. Prepare to be ridiculed if you have an opinion.

It has been that way. Membership organizations are different from other businesses. I also found out that no farmers got to vote on closing at 2:00...and they don't like it. They lost an hour of sales and the long setups and short selling hours just hurt them. I feel like it is a result of adding a Springfield market and stretching their staff out, so they have to cut selling hours to manage their work hours. That's backwards for a membership organization. We are also going in that direction, having lost any sense of balance about who benefits from decisions and policies. This is tragic. I feel for the farmers. There was already a lot of space assignment without choice, and we saw that at Holiday Market too. We saw Standards erosion to fill those HM spaces, and the minutes where the Standards Committee was informed of that choice, were never published. The Chair soon quit. Standards, arguably our most important committee, is also captured now. 

I hope the people who have the power to take our market back wake up soon and do it. There are now so many facets to work on that it is becoming a daunting task. I can't do it. What can you do? Must be something. We have an election in June, coming right up.