March Comments
In an effort to get something posted last month, I didn’t take the time to introduce myself. My name is Jo Ellen Saumier. I’ve been selling at Farmers’ Markets in Northern New York since 1998. Most of that time I have managed a small Farmers’ Market on the shores of the Chateaugay Lakes system.
For much of that time I have served on the Board of Directors of the Adirondack Farmers’ Market Cooperative, Inc., the sponsoring body for my market. I served as Secretary for three years and have been Treasurer for the last four or five.
Before that, I worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension for 27 years with responsibilities for a variety of educational programs. While I was with Extension, I both served on not-for-profit Boards of Directors and created them from scratch. This has given me a variety of experiences that got me nominated to be the first Market Governance blogger.
While Board rules, regs, and operations are not new to me, blogging is. So I beg your patience as I learn to use this program.
Now, on to market governance. Two topics are coming up for discussion at the next AFMC Board meeting.
One has to do with serving samples at the market. It appears that the Department of Health is stepping up their enforcment of the need to have a permit for offering samples served at the market. It is our understanding at this time, that samples offered from food prepared in a licensed kitchen do not need a permit, but those prepared on-site do. Do any of you have rules or regs to deal with this? Are you aware of it? Or have your markets had visits from DOH inspectors? If any market does have something already in place, please share it and help the rest of us out.
The other topic at our next meeting is a review and updating of our market rules and regulations. It’s not a fun task, but something that has to be done on a regular basis. Has your market looked at its rules lately? With the new market season rapidly approaching, it’s time to dust them off and make sure all of your members are aware of them. It can save a lot of headaches down the road.
That’s all for now. Happy planting!
4 comments 
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March 12th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Do any of you have rules or regs to deal with this?
March 16th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
I hope someone does because this is going to be important for this season.
April 26th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I am the new Treasurer for the Saratoga Farmers Market and am in the process of re
viewing our tax status. I understand that the Adirondack Farmers Market has a farmers cooperative tax status as does the SFMA. It is my understanding that section 521 is not tax exempt and pays taxes on undistributed income. Is there a process in place at Adirondack that distributes income to the vendors and would then have no taxable income? If so – how is that accomplished?
Hopefully you can clarify some of the issues surrounding this confusing subject!
Thanks
April 27th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Thanks for the question. I started with a fairly simple answer, but it has developed into a longer answer than I anticipated. So I will use the answer as my next posting which will appear in the next day or two. I hope that is okay with you.