Be Nice

 Sure, I will Be Nice because I am not a mean person and just have an informed opinion, despite being portrayed as (choose your own derogatory term.) I have not gone to a Board meeting since I resigned as Secretary in August 2024, so for the record, I am not disrupting anyone's experience. I wrote to the Board, as any member must when they feel the Board needs to hear from them, but was and expected to be ignored. Writing in a blog is my free speech right, so if you don't like my opinions, don't read them. 

I am not part of any group or aligned with any other person in my opinions. I base them on the facts I observe and believe to be true. I don't want to argue with anyone, push my view on them, or in any way disrupt the natural flow of market from which we all benefit. I do not go around on Saturdays stirring up dissension. I respect my neighbors and fellow crafters and I keep my rants to this space, to allow us all to sell beside each other. I would participate in Board meetings again if I felt that truth was being told and the values I hold were being honored. I trust a couple of people are still trying to work that way, but the org as a whole is not. I refuse to engage with the people who have bullied me. 

I was prompted to write mostly by the resignation of our FOURTH Treasurer since this manager was hired, as well as three Assistant Managers and a qualified Promotions Manager. That's just the highlight of our staffing picture. All of the Treasurers, when asked, said the job was overwhelming, and all of them were doing the GM job for free while she got paid bigger and bigger bucks, far beyond what any of us earn, with a Gold Plan health insurance, far better than any of us probably have. Her daughter is also on that Gold Plan. We simply cannot afford to support this level of support while also being mismanaged in myriad ways. And the org has been unable to convince anyone to be Secretary, despite stripping out all of the oversight duties and the membership support that a Secretary must provide to keep the org lawful, communicative, and to keep the public record accurate and true. That is a whole post on its own and I've written it a few times now. So someone yelling at us to volunteer when things are in this state is not the tone that will help. 

Defend the staff all you want. I'm not anti-staff at all, in fact I am pro-staff. I just want a certain level of competence, harmony, and leadership for my fees. I notice the Chair's letter did not address any of the possible motivations for three (only three, such a small percentage of members) people calling for the replacement of the lead professional. Please note, I have never wanted the Membership Coordinator to be replaced. Let's not confuse the drama with the truth. Sadly, she trained herself and has never worked under a really good manager, so if she did leave out of loyalty I would not be happy, but I would hope for her if she did, to work under someone good at their job next time. 

The Treasurer who resigned spelled out a few that he had in mind. I give you his statement:  

5/6/2026 I am resigning as Saturday Market budget committee chair and treasurer effective immediately. I would like to share with you my reasons: 

• In the past Saturday Market staff have done our accounting, usually the manager. Now, staff do basic bookkeeping and data entry, but critical financial, budgeting, and accounting information used to run the business is lacking. The staff and board are relying on volunteers to do what should be staff work. The volunteer treasurer puts in the hours and then meets with the budget committee. They discuss the numbers and make recommendations to the board. Sometimes the board votes against the recommendations when they’re difficult and/or unpopular with management and staff. The budget committee is doing their job, but the board is ignoring the recommendations. 

• We can’t keep raising fees to spend more money. What about our stated mission to encourage new artists? 

• Nepotism exists on our staff. It’s understandable we want to hire those we care about, but nepotism is wrong. It is illegal. It makes honest discussion about ever growing payroll and staffing impossible. And we need to have those honest discussions. 

• I volunteer to contribute my skills and time to a cause I love and to feel good about contributing to a larger purpose. I feel from a financial standpoint we are heading for trouble, and I don’t want to be part of that.

He submitted his statement respectfully but the Chair did not address any of his concerns, but I didn't expect that either. I have a few more reasons, including that anyone who has a different opinion than the Board Chair is vilified, marginalized, and portrayed as a threat or a terrible force that must be shunned. We have over 600 members. One might expect a few different opinions, and a few members willing to put those opinions into the common discourse. One might expect the occasional member who would like to see people held accountable for unethical things they did, or see staff held to their job descriptions, as a minimal expectation of performance. That wouldn't be drama, under real professionals. That would be a discussion of facts, with reasons, and reform if needed. See what happened to the police officer who had a racist discussion? Unacceptable. Yet our manager told one of our esteemed members that she hadn't written a letter she submitted, because her English wasn't good enough. Please note that none of our current staff is bilingual. If there is a language barrier (which there wasn't in that clear and heartfelt letter) than it is on the org, not the members. 

We have a Board, a Personnel Committee, a bit of a Budget Committee left, and some small but I am sure dedicated to their tasks Committees such as HM, Sustainability, and Standards. I have no doubt that most of those volunteers are working hard and doing what needs to be done. As someone who volunteered for most of my 51 years, I know how these things work. I've worked with maybe 20 managers. I've never worked in an atmosphere this toxic. I know just what has been said about me in the office, after instead of thanks after 15 years of hard service, I "left them in the lurch." That was the mildest thing. The office is a professional place where members should never be discussed as gossip, or targets of humiliation and marginalization. I could go on, but this situation is not about me, it's about dozens of members. Not three. Many have gone away rather than deal with this toxicity. 

Not only is my opinion not welcome, I am at risk of retaliation for sharing it, and dismissed with a blanket disapproval of my character, intentions, and hard work for decades. I've been treated much better than a lot of people, so I suppose I should be grateful for that. I have, however, been used, manipulated, lied to, and bullied for the last four years, something that never happened to me in all of the previous decades. Sometimes I had to be the one to stand in the fray, and fire managers who of course had support and people who loved them. We don't all think alike. 

But when it comes to hiring, retaining, and training the good management we are paying for, and deserve, I pitched in to put that in place with my whole heart, and hundreds, maybe thousands of my volunteer hours. I am not deserving of the general vilification of those who disagree and have the courage to take steps that are unpopular. I don't care about popularity. No one is deserving of that treatment for volunteering. It is hard, with many choices that are practical, tough, and needed. Drama about hurt feelings is not a professional response to a professional situation. Drama is now our go-to whenever anything happens. It is driving people away who would make excellent contributions if allowed and respected. The contempt is daunting and undeserved.

I care about affordable fees, benefits, salaries, and the protection of volunteers and other members from manipulation, lies, and attacks on their characters. Not everyone has to think or do things the same way. Discussions are supposed to include diverse opinions and dissent. That is how good policy and decisions are made. Pushing everyone out of the room, taking away their selling rights and community, and vilifying people who have the same rights to their opinions as everyone else, is a losing strategy that will get none of our problems solved. 

Serving the market is not about honor and power and railing against people who disagree as if opinions were threats. Opinions are just that. Being afraid to think for yourself, express yourself honestly according to your observations, and speak about things that need improvement is dysfunctional for a membership organization, and a far cry from anyone's experience in all of our history. 

We've had struggles. There have been things only a few saw or heard and no one wants to bring up, that didn't go well. They become history. It's important that people are honest. Please think for yourself. 

We don't have to take our life advice from Thumper. Nice is not the right goal, to my mind. It falls far short of what is coming from those who would have us shut up. When are they going to start being nice to people who disagree with them?