This is a CTP of initiative: Slow Food USA
The critical turning point refers to the strategic planning process that the national association Slow Food USA undertook in the second semester of 2015. The planning process provided to the national initiative an opportunity to reflect on the role that the North American organization can play in the food movement landscape and which strategies would be the more effective to achieve their goals.
It was a critical time in the life of the organization and otherwise a strategic point. And it was possible to make big changes within the organization
During the process, Slow Food USA leaders discussed and get agreements regarding the mission and the activities that Slow Food USA should develop over the country. As the initiative describes in its 2015 annual report (1), such strategic planning process “involved engaging several stakeholders to gather information, evaluate past successes and failures, and eventually elaborate an action plan to be implemented in the following years”.
According to the interviewee, the goal of this strategic planning process was to define a sustainable business model that will support the mission of making accessible “good, clean, and fair food for all”, since Slow Food USA’s former business model was not generating the funding needed to support the national network´s structure and staffing.
Then, the national organization discussed the viability of their past membership model, which has been the principal source of funding for Slow Food USA, due to the fact the national association had decreased in the number of members and external supporters.
As a result of the strategic planning process, Slow Food USA designs a number of strategies to reorient its membership program and to explore alternative models to revitalize the organization. Thus, the initiative conducts its work through intentional gatherings, campaigns, and partnerships, aiming to engage more supporters and chapter leaders that spread the work across the country.
Besides, the Strategic plan focused also on creating new fundraising mechanisms. Slow Food USA planned a strategy to raise $125,000 in membership during the last September 2015 launching the “Why I’m a Member” campaign. The activity involved many current members and chapters leaders to share their “Slow Food stories” and motivate other foodies to enroll the movement and strengthen the network:
We discovered that the membership model is not working for us as a major source of income for the organization. We are changing from a membership-based organization to holding working convivia, work conferences, things like Terra Madre, Salone del Gusto, Slow Fish, Slow Meat. Events and conferences to generate interest in the organization and revitalize the organization and find mid-level founders. We realize we do not need big funders, but some people can afford to give a couple of thousand dollars per year. And people like to be part of that group. And also wanted to engage the youth more
References:
(1) 2015 Slow Food USA Annual Report. https://www.slowfoodusa.org/contents/sdownload/4270/file/8pg+6x9+annual+report_online.pdf
The critical turning point was co-produced mainly by the Slow Food USA Board of Directors and the reduced staff of the national headquarters, which were profoundly involved in the planning process. The new Executive Director Richard McCarthy was the person in charge of leading the process, along with other members, such as Megan Larmer, Chloe Lyon and Caroline Morris. Besides, the national association involved in the process several chapter leaders and responsible for national programs, such as Andrew Nowak & Lauren Howe (National School Garden Program).
This critical turning point was developed under specific taught circumstances in the history of Slow Food USA. It should be mentioned the internal crisis that the national association vivid during the period 2011-2012 and which leads to the previous director's resignation in June 2012. After that, the national association had to deal with a strong discontent and lack of consensus within the Slow Food community about the mission and what primary goals of the organization should be.
In January 2013, Slow Food USA hired a high qualified new Executive Director, Richard McCarthy (1), with extended experience in food non-profit organization for farmer’s markets, community building and sustainable economic development. McCarthy will be initially committed to reducing internal contestation, healing and recovering a trustful atmosphere within the national association:
McCarthy has a successful experience leading Market Umbrella, and he was very good doing damage control, which was very important because there was lot of damage under former leadership. A lot of damage. We are now becoming healthy again. The staff went down from 12 to 3 people running the national office. Josh took a very expensive space for the office there, just a business chaos. Thus, do not doing better oversizing is how these things happens
During the period 2013-2015 Slow Food USA had to deal with a limited staff running the Brooklyn headquarters. The reduction in staff frees up funding for external consultants who “facilitated the planning process and provided new insights about how to build a resilient organization”.
Later, the network was involved in a new hiring strategy for Slow Food USA´s oriented to implement the strategic plan:
We are looking at, finding people who are good at media, communication skills because it is something we need to work about. There are new hired people for communications, media, and these things. It’s a big change
Besides, the elaboration of a strategic plan counted also with the contribution of several Slow Food chapter leaders and active practitioners that gave their input and rich insights to the managers. Then, it exists the perception that the network should involve in better ways all chapter leaders and make them easy to participate in Slow Food.
The network comes aware of existing limitations to volunteer’s engagement as the following explains:
We have a small staff in one small city, the rest of the time we depend of committed leadership. The leaders have daily problems. Time is limited, they have families to raise, parents to care of, and with volunteers you get what you get
Contextual circumstances also contributed to the coproduction of this critical turning point. Slow Food leaders perceive, as well, positive trends in North American´s consumption behaviors. People demand healthier and sustainable ways of producing food, showing increasing interest in cook educational programs, starting urban gardens. Schools gardens are also growing up around the country.
These circumstances will ground forthcoming large-scale Slow Food USA programs that will be oriented to responsible consumption, taste activities and biodiversity conservation:
I was almost alone when I started my local Slow Food chapter in early 2000s, and now there is huge awareness in a big community. And there are lot of organizations working to effect change. I think we have 88 farmer’s markets in the city now and in the metropolitan area and there was just one when I started, in 2000, just one. That is a huge change. I can see the same in other places over the country
Notes:
(1) After Hurricane Katrina, MacCarthy also played a key role in restarting the local agricultural economy in the New Orleans area, aiming to help provide returning residents with a sense of normalcy and resilience through the revival of farmers markets. Source: Slow Food USA Webpage.
The first related event mentioned by the interview was the controversial period 2008-2012 in which Slow Food USA was led by the young president Josh Viertel. This person tries to transform the initiative into a kind of political-oriented movement, a circumstance that causes strong reactions within the initiative, in special among the most experienced members and well-known chapter leaders and spokespersons, which eventually had a negative impact within the entire association (as explained in other CTP).
A second related event was the resignation of Viertel in June 2012 followed by a 6- month period of internal debate within the initiative while slow food leaders discussed the orientation, goals and the challenges that the national association should confront in the next stage, including a change in leadership.
After this brief period of introspection, Slow Food USA hired, in January 2013, Richard McCarthy as the new Executive Director who starts to work in Brooking headquarters. In 2015 the national association started a process of harvesting and designing a strategy which could shape the future vision of the organization. In 2016, Slow food USA started to explain to its members the new strategic direction through several online and face-to-face meetings.
Any opposition or contestation has been reported by the interviewee regarding this critical turning point. It has been mentioned before that Slow Food USA had recently overcome a dramatic internal situation. As a part of this “recovering” work, the new team focused on strengthening the Slow Food community and elaborates a common vision which every partner feel comfortable with. Besides, most of the associates were comprehensive with the limited resources that new staff has available.
Practitioners and chapter leaders were patience and confident regarding the planning process. Only a few critics arose regarding the internal communication process. For this reason, Slow Food USA decided to increase its headquarters team with people with high communication skills. A program of internships have been implemented oriented to young people and students willing to assist the national association in developing strategies for the organization’s communications platforms:
Communication has not been working. There was a lot of complaining from chapter leaders about that. They don’t know who the members are. The current employees are stretch to the mass. They are making a proper job about that. It's a lot of responsibility
This critical turning point relates to a very recent period so, probably only the Slow Food USA management staff, the members of the Board of Directors as well as the most engaged practitioners and chapter leaders are able to anticipate the great importance that would mean this step in the story of Slow Food USA.
As the Executive Director recognized in 2013 (1), Slow Food USA’s biggest priority was “to assure its members that the house is standing on solid values, and to assure partners and supporters that they can count on Slow Food to be there for them to grow a good, clean and fair food system that serves everybody”.
The strategic plan was undertaken as the better way to refund the initiative, coming back to its roots, and take the necessary decisions to make the national association a more resilient organization. Second, the plan aims to foresee future needs and provide chapters with resources to become more effective and autonomous.
However, as the interviewee affirms, people who were not involved in the strategic planning work still needs to acknowledge the content and dimension of the new direction:
I am going to the board meeting in NY city next week and we are going to learning about the new direction of the organization. We are about to be learning about the way that chapter will be affected about that change. So, I have not been on the strategic plan community, I have not the information yet. I work on the board and I think I am lack of the disclosure of the need to implement this strategic plan, the new direction
References:
[1] Interview with Richard McCarthy in The New York Times blog:
https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/new-leader-for-slow-food-usa
Several lessons have been identified by the interviewee regarding this critical turning point. The first one relates to existing new forms of leadership, and how collaborative leadership models have positively contributed to the good performance of Slow Food USA’s management staff.
The mentioned strategic planning process has been described as a learning process that has involved new direction of the organization but also national governors and local chapter leaders. Besides, the interviewee has observed examples of new good practices between the executive director and his staff, which facilitated a kind of consensus on the strategy and the correct direction of the initiative.
No strong leadership neither competitive attitudes but collaborative have been appreciated as leadership skills that enhance consensus and contribute to maintaining a good internal environment:
I think that people in the Board are very committed, enthusiastic, that s is very important. We have a Executive Director. Employees joggling to much perhaps at the moment. There is no one that causes trouble in the group, that disagrees, that causes disagreement. There is a group of folks that agree and, when they do not agree, they agree to disagree and it works.
At some boards, they are egos… I am not saying anything negative about the male gender but there is something on board that men see them as competitor, and I don't see that on boards with women. I was part of a board of a group of professional women, very ambitious women, and I didn't see that ego. This boards is very group of individuals not ego-driven. They are strong leaders, strong people, something good about this board (...) You know that Carlo Petrini is a man on my ages. I think that all males of my generation want to be the boss. It something generational. Younger men are more collaborative. Not being as so bossy
The strategic planning processes permitted engaged people to discuss the challenges that Slow Food USA should face in the next years. One of this big issues was to defining sustainable business models which permit Slow Food USA providing high-quality support to the national network and local chapters as well as maintaining the same commitment with the international movement.
Slow Food leaders debated the most appropriate fundraising strategies, being aware of the concerning decreasing trend in the number of associates in the past years as the executive director posts in the following interview:
"During this difficult economic period of nonprofit soul-searching and business model rethinking, some of the pillar organizations haven’t even survived the financial realities. And interesting enough, the ones that have grown — Wholesome Wave, Fair Food Network, for instance — are so deeply rooted in the values of good, clean and fair food for all. I find hope in that” (McCarthy, 2013)
The respondent recognizes that Slow Food is observing what other grassroots initiatives or social movements are dealing with contextual negative conditions, comparing their performance with alternative ways of doing:
What is part about of our strategic planning is watching about what other organizations are doing. Organizations that have expanded doing similar work than us. The best I can figure is that they are not volunteering-based organizations. One can see environmental organizations like WWF that has offices over the country and they have hired staff
References:
[1] Interview with Richard McCarthy in The New York Times blog:
https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/new-leader-for-slow-food-usa
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