February 22, 2007
Strategic Planning Begins
Our team of Timebank volunteers are in the process of creating our one year strategic plan. We're determining what our vision, mission, and purpose is and what goals we would like to achieve within the next year. Once we have a little more focus and structure we will open the strategic planning up to our members and other community members. We will also post updates and the completed Strategic Plan on the blog. Creating the Timebank is a community process. We all share ownership of the project and we all self select how involved we want to be in the process. So if you're excited about strategic planning, let us know and we'll make sure you get involved. And if you're interested in volunteering (and to earn Time Dollars for doing so) you are more than welcome!
How Many Time Dollars Have Been Exchanged?
The Old North End Timebank started on November 30th, 2006.
Between November 30th, 2006 and December 31st, 2006
8 hours were exchanged between four people.
Between January 1st, 2007 and February 22nd, 2007
113.75 Time Dollars were exchanged.
In the last 30 days
93.75 Time Dollars were exchanged.
Between November 30th, 2006 and December 31st, 2006
8 hours were exchanged between four people.
Between January 1st, 2007 and February 22nd, 2007
113.75 Time Dollars were exchanged.
In the last 30 days
93.75 Time Dollars were exchanged.
Diversity Creates Community
When I was twenty I studied fine arts in Tasmania, Australia. While there, I was able to spend two and a half months traveling the countryside WWOOFing (willing workers on organic farms). I visited a handful of intentional communities - groups of people who come together to intentionally live in community with each other. While intentional communities vary widely in philosophies and structures, most of the people who live in an intentional community share a set of values and ideals.
I learned something truly remarkable living among these various communities. The more homogenous a community was in values and viewpoints - no matter how lofty, ideal, or well intentioned those values - the more imbalance, disharmony and lack of community abounded. It is only within a diverse community that we can find health and balance. No matter how messy and uncomfortable it may be to have your viewpoints challenged and to connect with and comingle with people who are very different from you - to miss out on this opportunity provides you with a half life, an unbalanced perspective, and infinite missed opportunities to expand the possibilities of who you are and what is possible in your community. We are all human. We all share common ground. It is in the struggle to find that common ground, to understand each other, and to accomodate our varied needs, desires, dreams, and passions that we become fully alive.
So many of us march into the world hoping to find community. We have visions for how the world should be and we wish we could mold it to fit our sensibilities. But the goal is not to press our vision upon the world. The goal is to bring people together and through the dance that is human forgiveness and suffering and desire and compromise to create a world that each of us alone could never have dreamed possible.
We are living in a world where a handful of people impose their vision of society on us. Money is concentrated in the hands of the few. Money is an instrument of desire - a tool to make our wishes real. We all have the power to co-create the world we want to live in. However, we have been convinced that we have to be smart enough, professional enough, pretty enough, wealthy enough to do so. That power belongs to a privelaged few. We have been stripped of the tools to come together and exchange with each other to create the world we want to build. Time Dollars is a tool to bring people together. A way to co-create the community we want to live in.
I learned something truly remarkable living among these various communities. The more homogenous a community was in values and viewpoints - no matter how lofty, ideal, or well intentioned those values - the more imbalance, disharmony and lack of community abounded. It is only within a diverse community that we can find health and balance. No matter how messy and uncomfortable it may be to have your viewpoints challenged and to connect with and comingle with people who are very different from you - to miss out on this opportunity provides you with a half life, an unbalanced perspective, and infinite missed opportunities to expand the possibilities of who you are and what is possible in your community. We are all human. We all share common ground. It is in the struggle to find that common ground, to understand each other, and to accomodate our varied needs, desires, dreams, and passions that we become fully alive.
So many of us march into the world hoping to find community. We have visions for how the world should be and we wish we could mold it to fit our sensibilities. But the goal is not to press our vision upon the world. The goal is to bring people together and through the dance that is human forgiveness and suffering and desire and compromise to create a world that each of us alone could never have dreamed possible.
We are living in a world where a handful of people impose their vision of society on us. Money is concentrated in the hands of the few. Money is an instrument of desire - a tool to make our wishes real. We all have the power to co-create the world we want to live in. However, we have been convinced that we have to be smart enough, professional enough, pretty enough, wealthy enough to do so. That power belongs to a privelaged few. We have been stripped of the tools to come together and exchange with each other to create the world we want to build. Time Dollars is a tool to bring people together. A way to co-create the community we want to live in.
The Five Core Values of Time Banking
Assets
We are all assets, and we all have something unique to give. Every human being has the capacity to be a builder and contributor.
Redefining Work
Work must be redefined to include whatever it takes to rear healthy children, make neighborhoods safe and vibrant, and care for the frail and vulnerable.
Reciprocity
Helping works better as a two-way street because those who receive help earn that help giving in return to another. "You need me" becomes "We need each other."
Social Capital
Being together means being stronger. People earning Time Dollars are joined by their helping actions into a network of support, strength, and trust.
Respect
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.
We are all assets, and we all have something unique to give. Every human being has the capacity to be a builder and contributor.
Redefining Work
Work must be redefined to include whatever it takes to rear healthy children, make neighborhoods safe and vibrant, and care for the frail and vulnerable.
Reciprocity
Helping works better as a two-way street because those who receive help earn that help giving in return to another. "You need me" becomes "We need each other."
Social Capital
Being together means being stronger. People earning Time Dollars are joined by their helping actions into a network of support, strength, and trust.
Respect
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.
February 20, 2007
Goodbye to Joanna
Joanna Dillon has been the creative force behind this beautiful blog. I must admit to a certain degree of tech unsavviness and a feeling of vulnerability without her guiding hand. For the last seven weeks Joanna has spent an intensive internship with us, propelling us into new ways to tell and share stories and lending her endless enthusiasm and dedication to all of our projects. We wish her luck with her last semester at Bennington College and hope she will return to Burlington in the glorious days of summer. Thank you Joanna!
Our First Timebank Party - A Success!
On February 11th we had our first Old North End Timebank Party. We'll have a video up here detailing all of the excitement. Some highlights include: a silent auction of rambling proportions (we had cookbooks and microwaves and hand knitted hats and original artwork and dolphin lamps); time dollars exchanges happening right before our eyes (there were some babysitting and bread baking arrangements made that would not have otherwise happened); and vegan nachos (with homemade vegan cheese that had us dreaming of marketing and selling it to earn money for our timebank).
All in all, we earned $47 for our Timebank from the Silent Auction, ate yummy food, and made new friends. Thank you to all of you who came and contributed to a wonderful Sunday afternoon. We look forward to doing it again some time soon. Anyone interested in hosting?
All in all, we earned $47 for our Timebank from the Silent Auction, ate yummy food, and made new friends. Thank you to all of you who came and contributed to a wonderful Sunday afternoon. We look forward to doing it again some time soon. Anyone interested in hosting?
February 14, 2007
TimeBank Stories: Meet Pam Green
a few weeks ago Melissa and I met with Pam Green, the Program Coordinator of the VT Women's Mentoring Program to talk about why she joined the TimeBank and how she feels it will help the Mentoring Program.
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February 08, 2007
The Geography of Timebanking
Edgar Cahn, the founder of Time Dollars, believes that neighborhoods are the ecological niche of our species. Without safe, vibrant neighborhoods we cannot thrive. Time Dollars are a tool to bring people together to help each other and to help create the kind of neighborhood they want to live in.
Burlington Time Banks seeks to help community members access and create their own timebanks. We have dreams of South End and Old North End Timebanks. New North End Timebanks. Timebanks in Winooski. Middlebury. Rutland.
Burlington Time Banks has one timebank so far - the Old North End Timebank. This timebank is designed to bring together people who primarily live in the Old North End to take care of each other and make their own lives easier and more meaningful.
We are encouraging individuals who live in the Old North End to join. However, as we are a very young community project (the Old North End Timebank launched on November 30th 2006) and a very inclusive bunch of people, individuals who are passionate about the idea are welcome to join the Old North End Timebank to get firsthand experience Timebanking. Then, when a timebank starts in your neighborhood you will be able to join that timebank and hopefully, will be excited about helping getting it up and running.
Burlington Time Banks seeks to help community members access and create their own timebanks. We have dreams of South End and Old North End Timebanks. New North End Timebanks. Timebanks in Winooski. Middlebury. Rutland.
Burlington Time Banks has one timebank so far - the Old North End Timebank. This timebank is designed to bring together people who primarily live in the Old North End to take care of each other and make their own lives easier and more meaningful.
We are encouraging individuals who live in the Old North End to join. However, as we are a very young community project (the Old North End Timebank launched on November 30th 2006) and a very inclusive bunch of people, individuals who are passionate about the idea are welcome to join the Old North End Timebank to get firsthand experience Timebanking. Then, when a timebank starts in your neighborhood you will be able to join that timebank and hopefully, will be excited about helping getting it up and running.
February 07, 2007
Late Night Ramblings
Sleepy. But the Time Dollars fever has me up and working at midnight after a third successful practice of the Shitty Bluegrass Band. I am in awe of how my life has improved through learning the violin. I would never have been able to afford a violin or lessons, but through the Burlington Currency Project I earn Burlington Bread (another local currency). And with Burlington Bread I found an amazing teacher who not only accepts 100% payment in Burlington Bread but also loans me a violin! Time Dollars works this same magic.
It's the little things that add depth and luminescence to ordinary living. Having the opportunity to learn something you have always wanted to learn, but were told you never could. And through Time Dollars I am going to learn how to sing! I am twenty four and I never played a musical instrument before this summer. But I have always fantasized about singing and making music. Growing up without money meant those dreams remained a fantasy until now.
It's the little things that add depth and luminescence to ordinary living. Having the opportunity to learn something you have always wanted to learn, but were told you never could. And through Time Dollars I am going to learn how to sing! I am twenty four and I never played a musical instrument before this summer. But I have always fantasized about singing and making music. Growing up without money meant those dreams remained a fantasy until now.
February 01, 2007
Time Dollars Party!
Sunday. February 11th . 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Rock out with all your Old North End Timebank community members. There'll be live music, food, a raffle, a silent auction, and some serious networking. Friends and family welcome.
For more details check out our Timebank: community.timebanks.org.
For more details check out our Timebank: community.timebanks.org.
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