The Weblog
This page contains news, event information, and other items added by the market managers.
RCM Order Reminder
Russellville Community Market closes at 10 p.m. this evening – be sure to place your order!
Pick up is Thursday at All Saints Episcopal Church on Phoenix from 4 – 6:30 p.m.
See you on Thursday!!
Russellville Community Market
FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.
RCM Opening Bell
Happy New Year RCM community! Welcome to 2017.
If you missed our email message about the future of RCM, please see our Facebook page for the latest.
But for now, we are open for orders!
Like us on Facebook for up to date news and exciting RCM announcements. Check out our page for great info on local foods issues and upcoming events too! RCM Facebook
Peruse the “Featured Items” section as well as the “What’s New” section at the top of the market page for all the latest products available.
To ensure your order is placed, make sure you click the *“Place My Order” *button once you have completed your shopping. *Remember, you have until 10:00pm Tuesday evening to place your orders.*
Happy Shopping! See you on Thursday!
RCM Order Reminder
Russellville Community Market closes at 10 p.m. this evening – be sure to place your order!
Pick up is Thursday at All Saints Episcopal Church on Phoenix from 4 – 6:30 p.m.
See you on Thursday!!
Russellville Community Market
FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.
Happy New Year--We're Open!
Happy New Year RCM community! Welcome to 2017.
If you missed our email message yesterday about the future of RCM, please see our Facebook page for the latest.
But for now, we are open for orders!
Like us on Facebook for up to date news and exciting RCM announcements. Check out our page for great info on local foods issues and upcoming events too! RCM Facebook
Peruse the “Featured Items” section as well as the “What’s New” section at the top of the market page for all the latest products available.
To ensure your order is placed, make sure you click the *“Place My Order” *button once you have completed your shopping. *Remember, you have until 10:00pm Tuesday evening to place your orders.*
Happy Shopping! See you on Thursday!
The Future of RCM
We want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year, and express our appreciation for everyone’s involvement with Russellville Community Market over the years. We also appreciate everyone’s feedback via the recent survey about the market.
Over the years, the RCM board and our market managers have made diligent efforts to grow the market and improve its function. During the last year, these efforts included significant financial commitments to advertising, market promotions, and to paying a market manager. Unfortunately, our efforts to grow the market have not resulted in an increased income level that will allow us to continue to pay a market manager and we have been unable to identify a reliable person to make a long term commitment to take over the market manager position as a volunteer.
As a result, the RCM board met on December 16th to make some difficult decisions about the future of RCM. Below is a summary of our discussion and conclusions:
In the event that a viable solution for moving forward with market management cannot be found, RCM will shut down for the foreseeable future after the market on Thursday, January 12th.
The RCM board will take the coming months to think about the future of the market and come to the March RCM board meeting with ideas about ways to move forward and possibly reopen the market. We invite people from the RCM community to offer ideas for sustainable ways forward, to nominate new RCM board members who are passionate about local food, and to consider making a commitment to volunteering as a market manager. If you would like to share any ideas you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact Bryan Mader at bryanrmader@yahoo.com, at 913-636-8193 (call or text) or through the RCM email address at russellvillecommunitymarket@gmail.com.
During the RCM board meeting on the first Thursday of March, the RCM board will consider our options and decide whether to attempt to reopen the market under an alternative management model or close the market permanently. People from the RCM community are encouraged to share ideas in the interim and/or attend the RCM board meeting in March.
Once again, we appreciate everyone’s involvement with RCM over the years and we hope we can find a sustainable way to continue to support the availability of fresh, local food for the community and good livelihoods for our local farmers.
With that said, we will have two markets before our closure on January 12th. We will be having a market on January 5th and on January 12th.
If you have any further questions or comments, please contact us at the email/phone listed above.
Thank you
RCM Christmas Order Reminder
As we do each year, RCM will be closed for Christmas week, beginning on December 26th through December 30th. We will re-open for business as usual on January 1st! That means you only have the rest of today to stock up for your Christmas needs!
Russellville Community Market closes at 10 p.m. this evening – be sure to place your order!
Pick up is Thursday at All Saints Episcopal Church on Phoenix from 4 – 6:30 p.m.
See you on Thursday!!
Russellville Community Market
FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.
RCM Improvement Survey: Response Summary
RCM Friends,
Recently we sent out a link to a survey on Facebook and through the RCM email system, requesting your feedback about how to improve RCM for the future. We greatly appreciate your feedback, and want to say a big “Thank you.” to all who took the time to give us your feedback.
The summary of answers is below. As promised, no individual answers will be shared.
1) What do you most often buy on RCM?
a. 33.3% responded “Vegetables”
b. 26.4% responded “Meat”
c. 13.3% responded “Baked Goods”
d. 13.3% responded “Eggs”
e. 13.3% responded “Other”
2) How do you feel about the prices of RCM products?
a. 53.3% responded “The prices are fair.”
b. 13.3% responded “The prices are too high.”
c. 33.3% responded “Other.” This meant that respondents usually felt like some prices were too high while others were fair.
3) Are the ordering times a convenient option?
a. 80% responded “Yes.”
b. 6.7% responded “No.”
c. 13.3% responded “Other.”
4) Is the current pick-up location a convenient option?
a. 86.7% responded “Yes.”
b. 6.7% responded “No.”
c. 6.7% responded “Other.”
5) Is the pick-up time a convenient option?
a. 93.3% responded “Yes.”
b. 6.7% responded “No.”
6) Do you face any barriers to ordering from RCM?
a. 46.7% responded “I sometimes forget to order.”
b. 33.3% responded “Other”
c. 13.3% responded “I do not understand how to use the website.”
d. 6.7% responded “The current email reminders are not sufficient for reminding me to order.”
7) How would you like to be reminded about ordering from RCM?
a. 46.7% responded “Email reminders.”
b. 26.7% responded “Facebook reminders.”
c. 20% responded “Text message reminders.”
d. 6.7% responded “Other.”
As questions #8, #9, and #10 were open ended, we will not be sharing individual answers, but instead will summarize some of the more frequent responses.
8) How can RCM improve its offerings to the community?
a. Problems with orders not being filled
b. Improved product choices
9) What would keep you as a regular customer of RCM?
a. More product choices
b. Venue change
10) What other improvements would you like to see RCM make?
a. Ensure that farmers deliver what has been ordered.
b. More product choices
We would like to offer some responses to the concerns we heard in your feedback:
A) Inherent within farming and farmers’ markets is the idea of unpredictability. What this means in practice is that it is nearly impossible for a farmer to predict growing patterns, weather patterns, and life circumstances. Unfortunately, this can cause some orders, or even parts of some orders, to be unavailable for pick-up. We do know that our farmers make every effort to deliver what has been ordered, and want their customers to have high quality products.
B) RCM accepts many different forms of payment for orders. This includes: cash, check, SNAP/EBT, credit and debit card options.
C) You, as customers, are our greatest asset for spreading the word about RCM. We have tried many avenues of advertising, with little success. However, our word of mouth advertising has been successful.
Thank you again to those who participated. Your feedback will give the RCM board of directors some ideas to consider as we discuss the future of RCM.
RCM-- STOCK UP FOR CHRISTMAS
As we do each year, RCM will be closed for Christmas week, beginning on December 26th through December 30th. We will re-open for business as usual on January 1st! That means you only have this week left to stock up for your Christmas needs!
REMEMBER PICK-UP IS THURSDAY FROM 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. AT ALL SAINT’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON SOUTH PHOENIX.
Russellville Community Market
FRESH.LOCAL.ONLINE.
RCM Improvement Survey
RCM Friends!
Please take a couple of minutes to complete the following survey. It is a short, 10-question survey about how we can make RCM better! Answers are confidential (even we won’t know who said what), and we will not share your answers with anyone else!
Thank you so much!
Click here to access the survey.
Please Read: RCM Order Reminder--Christmas!
