New chair Paul Gellerman sits in the center at the Broad Street Market Alliance Board meeting.
The Broad Street Market Alliance has new leadership.
At a special board meeting last week, former alliance secretary Paul Gellerman was elected chair of the nonprofit that manages the market’s daily operations and marketing as well as vendor relations.
The new chair announced the change at the alliance’s monthly board meeting Wednesday night.
In addition, Doug Rickards was elected vice chair (a formerly vacant position) and Bryan Davis was elected secretary (formerly held by Gellerman). Merrick Green remains the board’s treasurer.
Gellerman said the new leadership team was looking forward to adding more structure to the meetings and increasing board member participation.
“One of the expectations is everybody on the board is participating,” he said. “That participation can take many different forms, but really the expectation of communication—if you’re unable to attend a meeting, that’s getting at least communicated.”
Previous board chair Tashia James, who remains on the board, was not present at January’s meeting and other board members noted that she had missed several other meetings.
“We are all really looking forward to moving along together,” Gellerman added on the leadership transition.
Board committee member and market vendor representative Tito Tep, owner of Tep’s Fresh Seafood, thanked the public for being patient with the alliance as they reorganized.
He said the alliance’s struggles with posting meeting minutes and other records on its website over the last several months had frustrated not just the public, but board members too.
“Thank you for being patient and giving us time to get our house in order and to put our best foot forward moving forward,” Tep said. “I think I have a really good feeling that it’s going to work out.”
The board also noted Wednesday that a new market vendor, Damien’s Fried Chicken, is scheduled for a soft opening in the market today. The vendor will serve a variety of fried foods including chicken, liver and gizzards.
“Encourage everybody to stop by,” Gellerman said.
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