The Election

I've never seen an election like this one. Even though they approved the structure, no one wanted to assume any of the new positions. So candidates had to be nominated, and they were not flattered by the nominations. Most of them tried to decline the nominations.


Somehow, the elections still happened. As we progressed, it became much more difficult for people to decline nominations, since the artisans who had been elected to positions they didn't want were not going to let the others off the hook.

We made it through six of eleven elections, which is a good starting point. I was most concerned with electing a director of education since we'd like to start offering workshops.

The following officers were elected:
Buyer: Lucia
Director of Education: Virginia
City Representative: Pilar
Director of Sales: Mercedes
Internet Sales Manager: Tania
Market Sales Manager: Americo


However, I foresee some serious challenges as no one was enthusiastic about their new responsibilities. When I spoke with Virginia about her position, she told me that she didn't live in Urubamba and didn't always come to the market, nor did she have a phone. This was a little disheartening. Hopefully, volunteers will continue to be able to organize the workshops for the near future, and we'll just count on Virginia letting us know what type of workshops they want.


Americo was initially elected to the position of buyer, but he doesn't know anything about fabric, so he traded posts with Lucia who was elected market sales manager, also not something I'd seen in an election before.

Luckily, the internet sales manager does have an email address, so that's a positive sign. But she doesn't speak any English and most of the internet retailers are English-speaking. I'm hoping they also speak some Spanish.

I have more confidence in Lucia - the new buyer - since she has already been buying wool for herself for years. It's just a matter of giving her a form to collect the artisans' purchase orders and track payments. I'm working on that now.


The election ended after an hour and a half, and it's end was "celebrated" with a women vs. men volleyball game in the market.