The Market Is Open

Happy Sunday to all of you. The market is open!

Today I’d like to diverge from the usual and discuss a few important logistical needs with ALFN. I know this isn’t the best hook as a topic sentence, but let’s face it—sometimes one needs to talk nuts and bolts. In our case, we need to discuss a couple of open positions on the Board of Directors and an upcoming change to membership in August.

First, we are still searching for a treasurer to fill Michelle’s shoes this fall. She has done such a wonderful job setting up a structured system, and we simply need to find a person skilled in accounting to come alongside us. The transition should be smooth, but it will help us greatly to find someone early. Please shoot us an email if you know of any possible candidates.

Second, Rebecca Kaufman is stepping down from the Governance position, and we need a fresh individual to help us stay legal. We will miss her professional guidance, but we are excited as she moves to a new place.

Do you know anyone who would be suited for the Governance Chair? Here is a description of the position:

Responsible for organizational compliance with internal bylaws and constitution, as well as advises on any legal questions. Required skills: Significant legal experience, preferably in nonprofit, environmental, agricultural, or restaurant law.

Again, if you know of any legal-minded folks, please shoot an email to us.

Finally, I want to give all of you a heads up to a small change we plan to implement in August. As you know our membership fees help us pay operational costs. Lately, we have found it difficult to maintain a consistent membership quota from our monthly subscribers. We are happy to continue to offer payment plans from the monthly to the quarterly. However, due to the infrastructure of the locallygrown.net website, adjusting monthly/quarterly memberships is quite time consuming. Consequently, the board has decided to make a small change. Annual membership fees will be the same—$60. However, we are asking members who choose to pay monthly to pay $7.50. This small increase will help us maintain a more sustainable management of our time as we transition from weekly market to weekly market. This small change will not begin until the first of August. I will continue to remind everyone, as we change these details on the website.

A final word about membership fees: We hope all of you view these annual costs not as fees, but as membership dues. We hope you feel connected to a larger community of people who are working to establish a more robust local food network. There are numerous people at different stages in this process. We have conventional farmers and organic certified farmers. We have elderly eaters and young eaters. We have vegetarians and carnivores. We have cheerful individuals and… cheerful individuals:) However, through all of our diverse reasons for connecting to ALFN, all of us share the desire to cultivate a local foodshed that ties grower and eater into a web of sustainability and societal health. Sixty dollars isn’t a tax, but a brick for building a local food economy. Thank you for joining us.

After all this talk of membership, I’m feeling poetic. Expect an “Ode to $60” next week.

Enjoy food and friends this week,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager