“the world is run by those who show up” – judi tyabji
Conversation over this morning’s coffee prompts me to write this short bit on our democratic system. My wife, Judi, says that the world is run by those who show up, and there’s a great deal of truth in that.
The annual general meeting of the local agricultural society was held last evening. Despite being an active farmer I chose not to go, but Judi felt a duty to the incumbent board to attend. There had been a great deal of questionable management of funds by the previous board, and last year a group were elected to sort out the serious abuses of both executive authority and breaches of the governing Societies Act.
The new board started to clean up the mess, much to the chagrin of those who had been running the society like a private club for private profit. As you might imagine, the AGM afforded an election of officers, and the disgruntled bunch who had previously helped themselves to society proceeds were out in force, bringing with them locals who knew little or nothing about what had been going on, and managed to get themselves voted back in.
Frankly I don’t really care too much about this little society which I am sure will return to its past ways. I saw an increasing number of vacant stalls at the weekend farmer’s market the last time this group took it over, and many local musicians who liked to play and sing at the market on the weekend stopped going altogether. I am quite sure that will happen again and in the scheme of things it’s not that big a deal. Chances are fairly high that another market will establish elsewhere in the area and that will be properly run.
What is rather comical and at the same time alarming, is the fact that the people who demand that they run the show aren’t capable of doing so. The amount of ignorance demonstrated and downright falsehoods provided in leaflets handed out to those cajoled to attend the meeting and vote out the incumbents is alarming. The fact that so many of these people accepted the information without question was even more telling.
My cousin was the incumbent society president, and she is a sheep farmer with a small local hobby farm. She is dedicated to heritage breeds, saved a small flock from near extinction, and her whole operation is non-GMO, natural, and old-fashioned in its methods. The information circulated against her is that she is a secret advocate of factory farming, shilling for corporate agendas from the big city that will destroy the small local farmer. Unlike many of those who replaced her on the board, she IS the small local farmer!
In a small way the events last night demonstrated how easily our democratic process can be manipulated by those with a personal agenda. Bullies and the unscrupulous will prevail in all walks of life unless the majority who prefer honesty and adherence to due process step forward. I have experienced this myself first hand during my fourteen years in elected office at both local and provincial government levels.
I guess I have to take some responsibility, as I was one of the guilty who didn’t show up to keep the operation in the hands of those who will manage the society for the members and not themselves. Ah democracy is a great institution, but I think that Judi is right; the world is run by those who show up!
April 1st, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Thank you for this pithy analysis. You have said it very well.
After several months of our Board’s being treated like mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed a lot of BS), I finally got the picture. It seems the group running the market in 1994, when it was in desperate need of new premises, created the PRaDAA society because that was the only way PEPS/PRRD would lease them the property. There probably never was an intention to run the Association like a real society, with proper record-keeping and public transparency. Over and over we heard from the market-committee group that their actions were justified by history, which makes me think that a certain amount of diddling with the public trust has been going on for a long time, and is likely to continue now that they have climbed into the saddle of this very sick horse.
In my view, PRaDAA is rotten to the core and likely no one could have saved it from itself. The most cost-effective way to a clean, effective, democratic farmers’ market would have been to close PRaDAA and pass the remaining funds on to a new organisation staffed by real farmers, vendors, and crafters who have a true interest in upholding the public trust.
The personal toll on the incumbent Board members was unfortunately not mitigated by a positive outcome. Each of us has lost what we thought were pleasant friendships and acquaintanceships, not to mention the pleasure of attending the market every summer weekend, which I for one will never do again. How can I stroll down that vendors’ aisle, knowing what I have come to know about PRaDAA?
The organisation was poisoned years ago, the doses increasingly administered by the “co-ordination” of the self-styled “independent” (i.e., secret) Open-Air Market and its risible “Operations Manual”, and the disease is now apparent to us all. This thing is moribund. A fresh, clean, honest farmers’ market can’t be born too soon.
April 1st, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Bravo Eva! I am disgusted at the way they used the vulnerabilities of a non-profit society to line their pockets and monopolize/reduce the local exchange of farm products. I will be looking for ways to buy local produce outside of the PRaDAA’s market.