Local Economic Trading Systems

Melissa Beedle, Features Editor

magine teenagers doing yard work

for seniors, and seniors staffing day-

care centres for working mothers, all
for Time Dollars (a moneyless trading sys-
tem) they can spend on what they need.
Imagine the poor and the elderly turning
their unused time into a resource through
Time Dollars. All this is happening—in
Portland, Maine, and beyond. In New
York City, women have joined forces to
create a skills bank called Womanshare. In
inner-city St. Louis, Missouri, Time
Dollars have been integrated with the
social-service delivery system to raise self-
esteem and build community.

Around the world there are many trad-
ing systems that have been created as
alternatives to the almighty dollar. In New
York, two women created Womanshare

after a trip together to the south of

France for an international retreat with
the well-known Vietnamese writer and
Buddhist monk, Tich Nhat Hanh. He
urged everyone to return home and
seek’ to effect change by working
together, supporting each other, and
actively engaging in the social and
political life of our times.

Jane and Diana sat down to plan—
decided to
exchange. After six months of plan-

and create a_ service
ning, they began asking friends for
reactions. They quickly found that
women of all ages with all kinds of
professional and life experiences
responded to the idea of an economic
democracy that could expand the
social and economic parameters of
their lives. The first step was to help
each woman identify her skills. The
women were invited to share an
evening interviewing one another. At
first many women would say, “I don’t
have any skills I can think of,’ but it
turned out that every woman there
had at least 20 skills that could help
others. Many of these skills were the
kind of nurturing work that many
women do and that is invisible to the
market economy.

Working together to shape and
define the program’s principles, shar-
ing pot-lucks together, and exploring
new ways of offering to help one
another, the women found themselves
feeling more connected to a diverse
social network, and becoming empow-
ered to live their lives with greater
self-sufficiency.

Three forms of sharing evolved in
addition to the one-to-one sharing of
help. First, members began putting on
workshops for other members. For

HOVember = au/eodl

example, a lawyer offered a workshop on
living wills. Then came “barnraisings”
which often involved the use of skills
learned during a workshop. Diana taught
carpentry to other members, and togeth-
er, they took on projects to help other
members. And finally, there are affinity
groups. These are outside the Time-
Dollar system, but they are still a vital
part of the community. At potlucks,
members join in small groups to prob-
lem-share. A creative expression group
has been meeting regularly for years.
Womanshare has become a fluid,
growing entity, always open to new
opportunities. One new idea that has
recently been put into effect was a joint
fund so that one member could take a
course and then come back and teach the
other members what she had learned.

 

 

 

\

Members are from diverse cultural
backgrounds, ranging in age from 30 to
80. Both single and married women are
members. It is a grassroots co-operative
that runs through the energies of its

 

 

 

 

pee ee ee
*

tate
ni ate et a's e's

'
pete ena eta tate y
's*4

 

 

 

 

In many ways, time dollars are
simpler than regular money, but
their implications for social change
are enormous.

 

of

members, and a small annual fee to cover
material costs.

Time Dollars, like Womanshare, is an
economic-exchange system that encour-
ages the trading of service credits
(something like favours) among neigh-
Dollar

represents one hour of service, no matter

bours and friends. One Time
what the work. For example, after you
have earned two Time Dollars helping me
weed my garden, you might spend one for
an hour of Chris’s time changing your oil,
and another paying Ann to visit your
aging mother. I earn a Time Dollar back
by teaching Ann to play the guitar...and so
on. None of us worries too much about
the exact time spent, because we’re having
a good time getting to know one another
and creating a network of folks we can
depend on.

There are about 200 ongoing networks
of favours like this across the US and
internationally, ranging in size from
dozens to thousands of members. They
are called ‘Time-Dollar Exchanges.
Members record the favours they give and
receive using some form of a chequing
system. Your monthly statement might
show a positive or negative Time-Dollar
balance. However, the favours you earn,
together with those you spend, all count
on the plus side of a special column called
“social capital” because both activities
contribute to the health of the
community.

In many ways, Time Dollars are sim-
pler than regular money, but their
implications for social change are enor-
mous. The expression, “what goes around
comes atound,” stems from the kind of
exchanges stimulated by Time Dollars.
Such reciprocity is probably the most
important ingredient holding communi-
ties together. Many modern inventions
have worked to dissolve community, but
the Time-Dollar idea promises to bring it
back.

OUnePPPess | 1a

 

 

_—