Timebank
From Bacewiki
Bay Area Community Exchange has a Time Bank where members contribute hours of service to the community so that our lives all become richer, we build community and we collectively help meet each others needs. Amy, Tara, Ken R., Rupert, Mike, Rick and Mira are currently the Timebank Team. You can contact Mira at timebankinfo (at) sfbace (dot) org for more info. Many thanks to Tom Brown of Open Source Currency and Austin Time Exchange for innumerable hours of volunteer time setting up and tailoring this system for us!
To attend meetings, learn about timebanks and give feedback, or help out in general, jump on our timebank listserv
START TIME BANKING at http://timebank.sfbace.org
Contents |
Time Bank Meetings and Notes
Timebank meeting notes posted here
Timebank Newsletter - May, 2010
Potential community partner organizations
Bug tracking and feature requests for Timebank website
About Time Banks
Timebanks pool the resources of the community and distribute those resources to those that need them in a decentralized way. They are mutual credit accounting systems, where credit between two parties is created at the time of transaction. One member is debited a certain number of hours in her account in receipt of a service and another member is credited the same number of hours in his account for giving a service. Each member has a balance, which is the sum of their credit and debits. When a member gives as much as she receives, her balance is zero. Negative balances are both allowed and encouraged as they represent circulation of resources within the community. When there are no balance limits on accounts, Timebanks borderline on being a gift economy. Timebanks also function as a directory of resources, listing who is part of the system and what their gifts are and offers and requests.
At their best, Timebanks not only help meet the needs of the community and provide security, but also create community connection. One aspect that distinguishes Timebanks from other kinds of mutual credit systems is that everyone's time is valued equally. This aspect might encourage people whose time is undervalued in the market - women, the elderly, people of color, and the disabled - to join this more equitable system. However, it might discourage people who are valued higher in the market, because of physical traits, training, or education (privilege) to join. Though many people with privilege join timebanks anyway because they like being part of a more equitable system. When you offer your time based on the hour and not based on trying to get the highest market value, this helps to create a more cooperative culture. It creates a consciousness shift where you don't have to focus on keeping score so much because there is less scarcity in the system, allowing other values, context and relationships to emerge and determine the perception of the value of the exchange. Putting less emphasis on abstract numerical value as an intermediary tends to encourage a more giving, caring and trusting culture. Additionally, when people aren't rewarded for work with money at an amount determined by the market, their hidden gifts and passions can emerge, creating a society of more happy and self-actualized people.
Core Values of a Timebank
(from the Cape Cod Timebank)
1. Assets - We are all assets. Every human being has something to contribute.
2. Redefining Work - Some work is beyond price. Work has to be redefined to value whatever it takes to raise healthy children, build strong families, revitalize neighborhoods, make democracy work, advance social justice, and make the planet sustainable. That kind of work needs to be honored, recorded and rewarded.
3. Reciprocity - Helping works better as a two-way street. The question: “How can I help you?” needs to change so we ask “How can we help build the world we both will live in?”
4. Social Networks - We need each other. Networks are stronger than individuals. People helping each other reweave communities of support, strength & trust. Community is built upon sinking roots, building trust, creating networks. Special relationships are built on commitment.
5. Respect - Every human being matters. Respect underlies freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and everything we value. Respect supplies the heart and soul of democracy. When respect is denied to anyone, we are all injured. We must respect where people are in the moment, not where we hope they will be at some future point.
Timebanks Tax Exemption
The three rules a Time Bank must follow in order to maintain the tax-exempt status of the Time Dollars are: 1. All exchanges must be one to one – an hour for an hour, regardless of the service, NO EXCEPTIONS! 2. Members should have only a moral obligation to participate in making exchanges in the Time Bank. If someone performs a service, there is no guarantee that they will receive a service in exchange. 3. The purpose of the Time Bank should be charitable (not for profit). More details here from Cape Cod Time Exchange
(I believe these qualifications below only apply to systems that are not on hour-for-hour equivalency, but we should check) For individual tax liability, timebanks are similar to Craigslist, most transactions don't need to be taxed. However, there are a few conditions where taxes might be applicable. In these situations, the members involved in the transaction are responsible for resolving any tax liabilities: 1. Professional services, especially when liscensed. 2. Economic activity that results in the equivalent of $1000 in annual income. 3. Transactions that have been subject to taxes in the past. 4. Business sales of goods and services. (Courtesy of Columbia Circle Exchange.)
Pricing Goods in Time Dollars (taxability issues from Timebanks USA FAQ section)
Timebank.sfbace.org system development
Feature development or [[1]]
Questions in development of the system
Goals- What is the purpose of this system? What are are goals? Who are we trying to serve?
Scope- Who should be involved, how, and when? Do we try to get goods on the system (e.g. food), housing and other possibly taxable items? Do we encourage or enforce more timedollar or more LETS like pricing (i.e. hour for hour or open to some market rate adjustments)?
Demurrage- Do we charge negative interest on a periodic basis as a penalty of not circulating for positive balances? This would also offset negative balances left hanging by members of the system who leave without settling.
Inactivity- After a period of time not using the system, do members lose or freeze accounts or a specific amount of credits deducted in order to both encourage use of the system and also to avoid lots of false directory profiles that make finding a match cumbersome?
Balance limits- Do we enforce or flag balances that are very high under or over ensuring more stability and fairness or do we let internal motivations and relationships support more even giving and receiving?
Orientation- Do we make orientation mandatory before joining? In person orientation only or is there an online option?
Operating cost recovery- Do we recover costs of operating the system in terms of time or money in order to assure sustainability?
Encouraging rather than strictly enforcing more positive behavioral patterns through exchanges may facilitate maximum cultural transformation, but in the end, may compromise the integrity and stability of the system.
Why Timebanks? by Julia Frech
When times get tough, our most important asset is a resilient and supportive community. More secure than money in the bank, and more long-lasting than storing food and water; creating a more self sufficient community is the smartest investment we can make now. Mendo Time Bank started with those goals in mind.
Time Banking was started in the 1980’s by Edgar Cahn in Washington DC as a way to compensate for the cutback of social services. It has become an international phenomenon, and there are hundreds of Time Banks all over the US and the world. In general they are started to help the local community meet unmet needs with untapped resources. Whether based in inner city schools, jails, cities or rural communities, the effect is the same: they strengthen the community by creating an incentive and market for people to help each other. Each hour helping somebody in the network earns the giver one Time Dollar that they can then spend on any other service offered by members.
A Time Bank is both a system of quantifying community credit, and a network of people that are ready to support each other. Time Banking is a mutual credit system, as members can earn credit anywhere in their community and spend the credit on anything else. At any given time, half of the members will have a positive Time Dollar account balance, and half will have a negative account balance with a total net balance of zero. Instead of a third party charging interest on the credit, we extend credit to each other without interest.
As the national economy contracts, the supply of money coming in to the local economy decreases, and people spend less money at local businesses. This causes further contraction and job losses. However, because we live in a place with abundant natural resources and local talent, it doesn’t make sense to be dependent on a relatively scarce currency beyond our control.
Having a community credit system based on time avoids the problem of scarcity, because value is created by members as it is needed. It is 100% independent of our national monetary system, making it the most useful for people who are currently undercompensated financially. Furthermore, it is not subject to the shocks and fluctuations of a national currency. One hour always equals one Time Dollar, and our skills and local resources back the value.
Currently there are over a hundred members of Mendo Time Bank, offering each other everything from bread baking to graphic design, fruit tree pruning to babysitting. They are helping each other do childcare, window washing and flyer posting, all with no money involved. There’s no doubt that joining a Time Bank will increase your opportunities for getting your needs met, but it is also about creating the kind of community and economy that will support us no matter what.
Resources
The Basic Function of Money (a Yes Mag article on Time Dollars)
Neighbors Helping Neighbors- No Cash Required
Tackling Social Exclusion with Community Currencies: Learning from LETS to Time Banks
Change Takes Time- Exploring Structural and Development Issues of Time Banking
Pricing Goods in Time Dollars (taxability issues from Timebanks USA FAQ section)
The Role of a Third Sector in Paving a Third Way: Lessons Learned from LETS in the UK
Public services and timebanking article.
Mutual Credit and the Commons Problem, Why LETS Need Not Collapse Under Opportunistic Behavior
Timebanks USA orientation materials, especially the Timebank Intro Powerpoint
Paper on the Tlaloc LETS-Hours Hybrid System
Stephanie Rearick on Timebanks at Economics of Peace Conference Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Other Timebanks:
Portland Hour Exchange (Portland, ME)
History of Time Exchanges
"Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces." -Etienne de La Boétie
