How To Ensure Contributor Vendors Are Following Their Code Of Conduct

As many of you know, I am the Director of Vending for The Contributor, a newspaper dedicated to news about the Homeless and sold by Homeless vendors. We've been enjoying excellent vendor/community relations and we aim to keep it that way. Our vendors are trained and easily identifiable. In order to become a vendor, one must sign a code of conduct that is gone over very carefully during vendor training, and it is repeated at each vendor meeting. This code of conduct lays out the places and manner in which one can sell the newspaper and we demand that the code of conduct is followed to the letter or we terminate that vendor's right to sell The Contributor. It is critically important for the community to know they have a way in which they can report vendors who violate established rules or cause troubles for patrons, business owners and/or citizens who walk the streets of downtown Nashville. While we so far have been very fortunate in that our vendors have been respectful and well-mannered in their duties, we want to ensure the general public that if a problem arises, we are here to address that problem promptly so that it does not occur again. All our trained vendors are required to wear their badge on the lanyard around their necks at all times when selling the paper. It is to be clearly visible to the public and they are to present it to anyone who asks to see it. It has their name on it and two contact numbers of Contributor staff members. If you have a problem with a vendor, or you have a comment on a vendor, good or bad, please do not hesitate to call us at The Contributor to report it. We are very proud of our vendors and want to make certain they are allowed to sell the papers in Nashville without problems or restrictions. Their behavior towards their potential customers and the downtown community will make or break this ability. Therefore, it is extremely important we nip problems in the bud and react quickly to reports so that we may investigate them and provide corrective action. Some of the conduct that is expressly prohibited: 1. Aggressively approaching people to sell the paper (similar to aggressive panhandling, something expressly forbidden by us). 2. Entering businesses or standing directly in front of businesses without the express, written permission of the business owner on file at our office to sell the papers. 3. Wearing clothing that might mislead someone into thinking that The Contributor is part of a different organization; i.e. a shirt from the Power Project or from the Rescue Mission. We also discourage the wearing of "ad" shirts that promote alcohol or illegal activities. 4. Selling the paper with only one newspaper left. 5. Selling anything along with the Contributor while selling the paper. 6. Working while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. 7. Blocking or obstructing the sidewalk or passageway while selling the papers. Finally, our vendors are instructed to immediately and without argument or malice leave an area when asked to do so by someone who doesn't want them there. We recognize that there are Constitutional Rights in place to ensure free speech and freedom of the press to report the news in our democracy but we believe that Nashville is plenty large enough to move over a block or two and still ensure a good selection of prospective customers. Our goal is to assist the Homeless in earning an honest wage without panhandling. We believe that the community will unite behind this so long as our vendors conduct themselves in a manner befitting a concerned and proud member of our community. We hope that by instilling these virtues in our vending staff, their impact within the Homeless community will assist others in feeling like they are also a part of this community and as such, have a vested interest in ensuring that the community is treated in the manner in which they'd like to be treated by the community themselves. To all our vendors who work so hard and follow the simple rules of conduct, we are immensely proud of you and we SALUTE you! Please keep up the great work! To our community members who have stopped and congratulated our vendors for their efforts, we thank and greatly appreciate you, too - we need you all on board in order to make this a success. So far, it looks as though we're accomplishing that and we're hoping to keep this trend going.