Training Market Managers to Develop Legacy Folders

How a two-year pilot program helped farmers markets create legacy folders to strengthen and support the longevity of the farmers market community in Vermont.

Published in January 2025

Background

In Vermont, there are about 60 farmers markets that operate between May and October and 15 to 20 markets that operate for some portion of November to April. Most markets in Vermont are small entities, with only three organizations across the state operating multiple market locations. Most Vermont markets hire a contractor as the market manager for the season or use part-time seasonal market day management, guided by a decision-making volunteer board composed of vendors. Many Vermont markets have operated for more than 20 or 30 years with a variety of managers, leading to different file management systems and the loss of institutional history if not recorded. For example, some markets do not have paperwork such as confirmation of incorporation status, a recordkeeping issue which can lead to challenges securing grant funding.

In any given year, about 20 percent of Vermont markets report leadership turnover as a major issue that can put a market at risk. The departure of a staff member or a long-term board member can have significant consequences for markets, as that individual often holds much of the market’s critical institutional knowledge: login information for email and social media accounts, relationships with the community or site owners, access to bank accounts, human resource records, SNAP authorization or other payment processing information, and much more.

Leadership turnover is a challenge not only for Vermont markets but for markets across the country. It is imperative for market leaders to prioritize recordkeeping to maintain information critical to the daily functioning and long-term success of the market in a location that is accessible to multiple market leaders. The Farmers Market Legal Toolkit (FMLT) offers guidance for a market’s leadership team to collect information necessary for the survival of the market. For more information, view FMLT’s Legacy Binder Components checklist resource.

In 2019, the Vermont Farmers Market Association (VTFMA) began a pilot project to guide Vermont markets in using the checklist to build their own legacy folder and help improve the example checklist for the FMLT. This case study describes that two-year pilot.

Training Markets to Create and Use Legacy Folders

 In 2022 and 2023, VTFMA convened farmers market managers in Vermont to create legacy folders for their market organizations. The result was greater awareness among market leaders of the need to find and consistently update their market’s historic and legal documents, as well as the need for a process to share the folder with more than one member of the market’s community to ensure continuity.

VTFMA included this program in one of its market support grants because of the high level of turnover of staff among markets in Vermont and urgent requests from market boards for assistance in finding historical data. Each year of the project centered on a group of five market managers, with a total of ten managers receiving the training. All participants were directly paid a stipend to ensure they received compensation for time spent on the training in addition to what they were already paid by their market organization for their regular market responsibilities. After completing the training, all participating managers reported the training to be useful for finding and organizing the information and resources necessary to run the market, as well as for their general professional development.

Credit: NOFA-VT

Year One Training Overview

The first year of the pilot included managers from some of the largest markets in the state, who were more likely to have time over the winter to participate and to have some recordkeeping systems already in place. The training included the following activities:

• three half-day remote training sessions with an outside presenter held between January and April;
• participation in a panel discussion about the training at the annual Vermont Farmers Market Conference in March; and
• a short remote follow-up evaluation session.

The three training sessions were designed to provide an overview of the key components of a legacy folder, reiterate why the legacy folder is an important risk management tool, and discuss ideas for how to create and maintain a legacy folder.

The first session’s presenter was Darlene Wolnik, a nationally known farmers market consultant with the Farmers Market Coalition who helped develop the legacy binder checklist for FMLT. The session included an overview of the components of a legacy folder and a discussion of what participants already had among the listed items. Participants discussed challenges they expected through the process, and they developed a central location and process for their market’s legacy folder. After the session, each participant started work on finding missing records and creating their own file organization system.

The second session featured Michael Hurwitz, a food systems consultant knowledgeable about farmers markets and the challenges they are facing. The session covered the importance of having good systems, included time for participants to report back on what they accomplished after the first session and to set goals and provided an opportunity for them to share major needs and challenges.

Markets that participated in the legacy folder training project. Credit: Andrew Graham/NOFA-VT

The third session, led again by Darlene Wolnik, focused on what participants hoped to complete before the opening of the summer market season and the major needs and challenges remaining for each of their markets in terms of recording and sharing critical information.

New Approach for Year Two

Five new markets participated in the second year of the project. Based on feedback from the first-year participants, VTFMA used a single instructor, Darlene Wolnik, for all three sessions. This was a significant improvement as it streamlined and provided continuity between the training sessions.

In addition, the participants in year two were able to learn from some of the managers who completed the first year and attended the second training session to talk about their legacy folder implementation process.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

In both years of the training, market managers reported challenges by the time of the third training session, including locating documents or finding the time to look for them. In addition, some participating markets found that their boards were not initially enthusiastic about supporting this extra set of activities, even though NOFA-VT paid for their time apart from their market work to participate in the training. Managers shared that some board members were unaware of the need to make historical documents available to newer managers even though this information is critical for them to answer common questions about market rules and procedures. Some participating managers also reported that current or former board members held needed paperwork for the market’s legacy folder and were not forthcoming about sharing it.

There were also challenges with the timing of the training because most participants reported they had to set the legacy folder project aside to prepare for their market’s opening in May. Starting the training in November, right after markets wrap up for the summer season, would have allowed more time between the end of the trainings and the start of the market season, including time for follow-up to encourage markets to complete the legacy folder before the summer season started.

Lastly, although participants provided helpful feedback on the training in April, it would have been more helpful to solicit feedback from participants earlier in the process before they started planning for the start of the market season. This would have been useful information to incorporate into the training program, including addressing challenges related to experience with board support, missing documents, and time constraints.

Conclusion

Given the risk of leadership turnover, market leaders should prioritize recordkeeping, including creating legacy folders, to store the information critical to the daily functioning and long-term success of the market. This pilot project was one example of how state farmers market associations can support farmers market managers in creating legacy folders and was generally successful. All participating market managers reported that the training was useful and that they made much more progress towards building a legacy folder for their market than they would have on their own. In their evaluations at the end of the training, market managers reported that the most important aspect of the project was being part of a community of practice to talk through similar challenges and workshop solutions.

Due to the project’s success, VTFMA has received funding to train two additional groups of five market managers each. This means that within a span of six years, 20 markets in Vermont will have developed the foundations for a legacy folder. Anyone wishing for further information about this project is encouraged to reach out to Andrew Graham, who led the pilot project, at .