I’m helping some friends and fellow cooperative market share holders do something good for the future of the Allegany Harvest Market which is a new cooperative market venture being started in Houghton, New York. I’m excited and I hope that this blog post helps them to gain more members. One of the principles that I learned long ago is that the best way to be successful is to help someone else succeed. It is in that spirit that I recommend that you seriously consider membership in the cooperative.
At the moment, our cooperative stands at 37 member-owners (m-o’s) – more than a third of the way to our June 1 goal of 100! – but we still need a lot more m-o’s. We have a group of us working hard to get the word out and recruit new m-o’s – you may have seen evidence of our work around in the form of posters and “blurbs” in various publications. We need your help, though. Each of you has invested interest and financial resources into this project and I know you’d all like to see it move forward. To that end, we need you to help us with recruitment. For added incentive and a bit of fun, we’ve decided to create a contest! Here are the basic details:
* If you convince 10 or more people to attend an informational meeting or an open house before June 1 (see details below) and they each sign in and list you as their referral, you will receive a free dozen eggs from one of our future vendors.
* If you convince 5 or more people to become m-o’s before June 1 and they each list you as their referral on their member-ownership application, you will receive a choice of several items from some of our future vendors (choices may include health and beauty products, meat, or other goodies).
* You will get an additional 1/2 credit for every new m-o referred by one of your recruits – this is a nice easy way to bump ahead in this competition!
* The m-o who refers the most new m-o’s before June 1 will receive a large collection of great items from some of our future vendors.
* There will be brochures available for you to pick up and distribute. Find them at Our Common Ground starting Wed. April 27 or email if you need other arrangements to pick them up.Good luck!
Becky Webb
for the Member-Owner Outreach Team (MOO)Here are the details of upcoming recruitment events:
Upcoming Informational Meetings
* Wed. April 27 @ 7pm
* Thurs. May 12 @ 7pm
* Tues. May 17 @ 7pmOpen House Events
* Sat. May 7 – Family fun open house from 1-3pm
* Sat. May 28 – Open house and booth at the Houghton Community Yard SaleAll events will take place at the future AHM space – next to Our Common Ground, in the old Citgo station in Houghton.