Group member survey comments on group challenges and suggested improvements.
| Recruitment and membership |
| • “The main challenge is getting new neighbors to come and join the group. There seems to be an us vs. them mentality that is hard to bridge”. • “The group is currently open to all, which hasn’t been an issue but as we’ve grown private companies have started to participate, which I understand has a time and a place. Though I do feel when they have full access to our meetings it limits the ability to share openly and honestly with some of the challenges we face”. |
| Group organization and processes |
| Determining group purpose: • “The group is a very neutral place that is a bit amorphous in terms of leadership. It has a few people at the top calling meetings and bringing talking points, but otherwise it is led by the membership and an eclectic one at that. This is a positive thing, but it also keeps our goals in a nebulous space. It is difficult to aim for anything in particular when there aren’t any strong pulls in any given direction”. • “The group was created with a precise goal to determine a common strategy to fight leafroll virus and share mealybug population counts. Over the years it lost determination to succeed in determining and achieving precise objectives”. • “I don’t understand the group’s objectives or structure”; “I don’t know the objectives or purpose of this group”. Suggested improvements: • “Better defined goals”. • “Brief discussion of group mission and values at the beginning of each meeting”. • “I think this group needs to write out what they wish to achieve, and that would help us feel more confident our efforts are being invested in ways that will pay off”. • “A reintroduction to the group and how we might contribute might be useful”. • “The group should be better managed with precise objectives to accomplish each year. Red blotch is a serious threat for our vineyard. We should use this group to determine a common strategy to slow the spread of the virus and coordinate between-neighbor replantation”. |
| Meeting logistics: • “I would like to see more growers attending meetings”. • “COVID was definitely a challenge for this group, seeing that we were unable to meet in-person for a couple of years”. • “The biggest challenge is that in the growing season, some people, myself included, simply can’t attend the meetings. This is understandable though, given we work in vineyards. At this time, I try to at least communicate with some people who attend the meetings more regularly about what I see across Napa and Sonoma as a consultant”. |
| Facilitating meetings: • “There needs to be more structure to the meetings so more people can talk, and the group is too large. I would recommend breaking up into smaller groups within the meeting and assigning a “leader/representative” to each group that had a list of topics to discuss. Then coming back together and have each subgroup give a short summary of what they talked about”. • “I suppose if the group met or communicated more regularly it would feel like a more essential part of how I approached my work. I have not felt any group has been as organized or effective as [other group name] was before COVID”. • “The group has struggled to be anything beyond a forum for conversation. Projects do not typically get off the ground”. |
| Leadership |
| • “My only concern with the continuation of the group is that the organizer is part of a management company, not a full-time employee of one of the properties. If they get another job will the group continue?”. • “The biggest challenge is just getting everyone in the same room at the same time. I hope [coordinator name] keeps at it, I’m not sure who would step up if he doesn’t”. |