Just handed the 4 budget templates to our print designer. They will be ready by next week and uploaded on our marketshare page.
These templates are for 4 different market types (different staff size, vendor fees and organizational structure) and forecast a 3-year budget forecast for each market.
I am also working on a budget for a token system and one for an earned income for beverage sales for a market. Those 2 scenarios will be ready by the end of the month.
Once we finish those, we will be adding a formula worksheet to create your own budgets. This tool will be available for free like our other tools. We hope to get the budget tool done by March.
If the budget sheets are useful to you, do let us know and if we can schedule other Share subjects…
A little background-Staff at marketumbrella.org were honored to be invited to the Australian Farmers Market Conference in 2009, where our ED was the keynote speaker and we also presented our 4M management structure and learned loads of new ideas to bring back. While there, we met some amazing market managers and farmers and saw markets and gardens galore…
The Australian markets were started about 12 years ago by Jane Adams, who came to America to study the open-air market system, chiefly the DC markets. So, a lot of similarities…
As you can imagine, our thoughts have been with the folks we met since the catastrophic flooding in Queensland and now in Victoria (where Melbourne is located). Here is the response from Sophie O’Neill, food activist in Victoria:
Dear Darlene
Thank you and Richard for your message. I have passed it on to the girls in the VFMA Office.
Whilst the floods in Victoria haven’t been as widespread and catastrophic as those in Queensland they still have certainly done considerable damage to several Victorian towns and producers. In fact Miranda was telling me on the weekend of one producer that was hit by the bushfires only a couple of years ago that has now been wiped out by floods at almost the same time of year – cruel and crazy times indeed. But as you know, farmers are made of tough stuff and will soldier on.
I hope you guys are all well and thanks again for your thoughts.
Cheers
Sophie
This sort of program can be combined with incentives for shoppers to increase “supply” and “demand” at the same time.
Federal government spends millions on hoop houses – Yahoo! News.
I appreciate this point of view, but I’d like to know where she sells, whether its at farmers markets, through CSAs, a U-pick-em or wholesale.. By the way, the link is at the bottom…
I think what is not clear in this snippet is an explanation of why the move to one federally run program was deemed necessary, rather than leaving it the community-level organic certification it had been. I remember that when it became a federal certification in 2002 or so, that it benefited big farms and big retail outlets like Whole Foods, as they were ready to market their organic labels. It is also true that we need to reward more good stewardship of land among farmers, so programs that encourage that are a good idea. I am not so sure that is still true that the new laws still benefit the big guys and also wonder whether farmers now have more or less availability to sustainable practices because of the change.
Got in town in just enough time to make the twice-monthly Burlington Farmers Market in the winter. Very active, good number of vendors. More and more of the markets here are thriving in the winter- for example, Rutland’s market sounds like a huge success and goes all year now.
Listening in on the Vermont Farmers Market Association annual meeting while at the NOFA-VT Direct Marketing Conference.
Professional, really covering a great many topics and a diversity in farm stands, markets and CSAs represented.
Saw a bit of the round table on emerging farmers market questions, and sat in on the SNAP at farmers market talk. Seems like they have 30 markets in the state doing tokens, and a mini-grant program for new markets to start EBT. Very detailed talk and an obvious, great partnership between the Department of Children and Families rep and NOFA.
Lunch is coming, local ingredients galore.
Local apples and apple ciders on the table all morning have been delightful.
South Royalton is a charming little town; the picture postcard of Vermont it seems. The conference is being held at the Vermont Law School campus.
Should I buy books? there are a lot of farmer business planning books for sale. I wonder if our farmers would use it…
Fascinating and necessary article for all food activists to read:
Genetic Engineering for Good — Emerging Ideas — Utne Reader.
Ahh, transparency. The idea of having a set of values and standing directly behind them. The Trader Joe’s story seems to be still developing, but certainly the sense of fun and the lower price points for some items (loss leaders) is selling their brand to white collar shoppers.
The Eco-Myth of Trader Joe’s – Emerging Ideas – Utne Reader.
I often check these reports to keep up on the news from the supermarket side. Often fascinating and sometimes about farmers markets, like this one:
I really like the way they post the data they collect:
NOFAVT
Simple, clear and accessible. I think if more markets thought of evaluation as a daily exercise we might not get so freaked out by grant reports or annual meetings. For example, one of the simple ways that our Executive Director does it is to ask the market staff (as they watch people coming and going) “Who’s not here?”
That could mean today or at all or right then, but whatever it translates to, it starts the part of the brain that scans and analyzes so that it is on alert during market times. Then to decide on whom to focus the communication to get them there….
One of marketumbrella.org’s favorite authors Rebecca Solnit adds another piece to her growing oeuvre about human-scaled endeavors, hope and social contracts:
Iceberg Economies and Shadow Selves: Further Adventures in the Territories of Hope.
This article from 1996 gave me some of my earliest knowledge of the retail anthropology idea and began my exploration of it, using it in the next few retail stores I managed and/or helped to design. I had already found Jane Jacobs and William Whyte by this date, whose groundbreaking studies on public spaces led to Paco’s work in the retail sector. Whyte’s work of course is also the basis for Projects for Public Spaces excellent design and analysis that continues still, and includes their Public Market work. Gladwell (the author of the piece) became known for his “The Tipping Point” book and other research of crowd behavior.
gladwell
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 