The number of visitors to our website has exploded from almost 2,000 in March 2009 unique visitors to 9,000 unique visitors in the month of May 2010! Very cool.

Here’s a look at all the countries that visit our site:

Our website visitors...It's a small world these days

What the heck I thought, once-in-a-lifetime and all that, so I got up and out MUCH earlier than usual with my trusty video camera to see what all the fuss was about.

It was an enthusiastic crowd waiting and the parade of vehicles giving advance notice was a surprise. The torch exchange happened to take place right in front of me.

I decided to head off later in the day for a second unique spot, which led to one more viewing point not far away (just for a different camera angle).

The next day a friend was carrying the torch so off we went to capture it.

Low and behold at the end of that second day (which was the final day of the relay) I hear a commotion around the corner and here comes the torch relay again right past me. What the heck grab the camera!

So from no awareness or interest to video clips of five torch relay viewing points. I must admit the energy of the crowds was very positive and uplifting. It was a great way to introduce the Olympics to Canada.

Here’s my 13 minute video of what I saw those two days (just got around to finishing the editing and titles). Enjoy.

This article stresses the equalizing effect of a TimeBank:

“At a philosophical level, time banking promises a form of egalitarianism through an alternate economy. In its world, a lawyer’s time is equal to a babysitter’s, and everyone, regardless of physical or intellectual abilities, has something to give whether it’s rides to the doctor, plumbing work, or companionship.

“One of the things that’s great about time banking is it’s a great leveler. I really wanted to create a culture in which everything was equal, everyone was valued, everyone could contribute,’’ said Ellin.

She was inspired to start a time bank through her work as a psychologist, and her frequent contact with families who were struggling with social isolation while dealing with their teenagers’ mental health issues.

“I realized I needed to figure out a social network that’s accessible quickly, easily, and automatically’’ so the families could get their needs met, she said. It takes time to build a relationship, she said, “before you can impose on someone and ask them for a favor.’’

With time banks, people can contribute in any way they can, and are paid back with what they need when they need it. And in the process, the hierarchy that results from traditional volunteerism is eliminated, said Ellin.”

There is occasional news coverage for TimeBanks and often it reflects harder economic times forcing people to look for alternatives. Or there is the every growing desire for more feeling of community, in world where we often are separate and feel alone.

TimeBanks can be many things to many people. They are more than a good idea they are life changing way of going through life.

“What I had hoped would happen is that it would be a very large network and within that there’d be neighborhood groups,’’ she said. So far, Jamaica Plain and the Cambridge-Somerville area have their unique identities within the group, she said. “It seems sort of miraculous but it’s actually working.’’

Check out the full article :

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/natick/articles/2010/04/25/wayland_architect_works_to_spread_time_banking_network_west_of_boston/

TimeBank Leadership

Every group requires leadership which includes people like you offering time, talent and a terrific attitude. In order for you and your community to experience the best of TimeBanking each community needs their local leaders.

Many hands make light work and big impact. Leading your local TimeBank group is all about helping to plan, coordinate and put on introductory meetings, social events, training sessions and community projects. You can be a key to making TimeBanking a reality and a model for a better way of community life.

Contact us at info@LMTimeBank.org or call 778-232-5388 to get started on helping to grow a TimeBank group in your community.

Here’s an idea of what the leadership plan looks like for a TimeBank. You earn TimeCredits for every hour you contribute!

Become a Time Bank Coordinator
Are You a Community Weaver?

By now, you know that TimeBanks are like members of a family—they come in different shapes and sizes, but at the same time, they share the same genes. Basic TimeBanking is always the same: it’s about creating win-win exchanges using Time Credits where every hour you contribute always equals one Time Credit. All TimeBanks also share the need to coordinate those exchanges. More than anything else, TimeBank Coordinators are community weavers and networkers. They know how to draw people together, recruit new members, and get them started on sharing their talents with your group!
There are six main leadership roles in a TimeBank—and it is usually the Coordinator’s role is to make sure they all work. Here they are:

Role I: Time Bank Ambassador

• Member Recruitment

Role II. Membership Coordinator

• Member Orientation
• ‘Keeping in Touch’
• Making matches

Role III. Events Coordinator

• Focuses on all group activities of the TimeBank

Role IV. Webmaster

• Training New Members in On-Line TimeBanking
• Running the on-line community page

Role V. Administration

• Collecting dues
• Financials/Budgeting
• Fundraising

Role VI. Team Leader

• Makes sure that everyone is happily taking responsibility for their role.

These different leadership roles can be blended together. They may be taken on by two or three people. But as TimeBanks get bigger and more multifaceted, the roles separate out and need to be taken care of separately.

Being a Team Leader
If individuals to take on the different leadership roles and tasks, the load becomes lighter for everyone. We all know that working together calls for trust, acceptance and willingness to take responsibility. The trick is to be very, very clear about each individual role and what is involved, so that people know exactly what they are responsible for, and don’t accidentally step on each other’s toes! Each of the roles is designed to be light and not require much coordination between them.

No matter how many people are on your leadership team, it is a good idea to designate a support person or support team behind each leadership position. A person can be the leader in one role and the designated support person in another role. This way, if someone gets sick, busy or goes out of town, the work will still be covered. When it comes time to rotate the team roles, you will also have an understudy who is already familiar with your responsibilities.

A coordinator is just one person, and the different roles call for many different skills and personality types.

In truth, TimeBanking is all about mutual contribution, so creating a TimeBank where members are fully engaged and invested in its operations and management is vital to its success.

The Heart and Soul of a TimeBank
The Membership Coordinator is the heart and soul of a TimeBank. Membership Coordinators usually perform the team leader role as well. Here are some of the qualities a membership coordinator needs:
Above all, Membership Coordinators are warm, friendly and non-judgmental. You will also need:

• Good listening skills
• An ability to form accurate impressions of people
• The ability to draw people out and help members discover what skills they have that are valuable to your community
• To be very good at following up and making sure that everyone keeps their commitments

Knowing a lot of people in the community isn’t a core part of the membership coordinator role. What counts is that you know how to make people feel comfortable when you meet them. Coordinators are team players who know how to create an atmosphere that welcomes everyone—regardless of their race or background—into your TimeBank community.
More than anything else, though, membership coordinators know how to follow through and make sure that everyone keeps their commitments!

Make Sure You have a Full Team
When you look over the roles you’ll notice that many of them require quite different personalities.

• The TimeBank Ambassador know lots of people and loves to meet new people all the time, but not necessarily in depth.
• The Events Coordinator loves to throw parties.
• The Web Master is the one person in your TimeBank who actually read the manual.
• The Administrator loves to write and cross off lists.

No one is good at everything. Make sure you know your strengths and weaknesses. Strange to tell, but there is someone out there who loves to do the jobs that make you squirm. You’ll greatly increase the chance of success for your TimeBank if you can build a team of people who all love their role—and rotate them so they no one gets burned out.

Contact us to help us change your world for the better.  info@LMTimeBank.org or 778-232-5388

Come discover TimeBanking for you. Help create a neighbourhood network by bringing TimeBanking to your community. Find a meeting place and we will come to inform and educate on the why and how of TimeBanking.

Real People Real Benefits TimeBanking UK

no dollars here

There are often questions around whether or not TimeCredits are money (many TimeBanks use the term TimeDollars, LMTB and smoe other TimeBanks use the term TimeCredits, they are the same thing).

In my understanding and opinion it’s best to keep away from monetary words and concepts as much as possible. The short answer is NO TimeCredits are not money, but they allow you to do many of the same things money does.

To me TimeBanking is about helping your neighbour because you can, and you also know that someone will be there to help you when you need it. Kind of like barn raising or harvest time (way long ago), where neighbouring farmers came from all over to help each other build or harvest (sometimes followed by a big feeding “funfest”).

To use monetary words and concepts invokes the notion of “I’m owed something” and less about volunteering, pay it forward and gifting.

It should be about being free to give and receive and feeling good about both…the credits just help ensure you’re not too out of balance in either giving or receiving, for obvious reasons.

It shouldn’t be about getting equal “dollar value” (or greater) but about creating value and receiving value, freely and regularly. Abundance mentality versus scarcity mentality . Needing to get something in return is not paying to forward or volunteering.

I don’t like and don’t use the “dollar” term or “debt” (although I’ve resorted to using “credit” and “TimeBank” because they can have alternative meanings).

Monetary words and concepts, to me, are old world, limiting ideas that are due for a change. Most people are tied to their present ideas around the “money” words and it’s tough to change the ideas without using new words to describe new ideas.

TimeBanking is a new idea (for most people) that can relate to “moneylike” ideas but needs to be different and unique or else people don’t quite get it and struggle to make it like money, which it is not.

How many hangups do people have about money? Is it time for  change?

We’ve been seduced by the money game and forgot the “creating value for people game” which is FAR more rewarding. Yes we need money to live, but less than we think and even less when we work together OUTSIDE the money game.

It is a philosophical shift that requires new language to break free from monetary ideas.

I think sticking with money words and ideas makes TimeBanking harder to understand and invokes scarcity mentality in folks.

TimeCredits (or TimeDollars if you must) are not dollars in any way, shape or form. They never were and hopefully never will be.

Check out the new idea and see what you think.

A TimeBank is starting up in your town. Check it out. Help make it grow and have fun!

http://okgtimebanks.org

It looks like they are brand spanking new, so connect, say hi and offer a hand in building it, while becoming an active member.

Good luck all!

Here’s a quote from their website:

“Timebanks’ mission is “Strengthening communities through reciprocity”

One of the economic reality of the Okanagan Valley region is its very cyclical nature due to the surge of activity during summer and then the slowdown from October to March. Since we all want to stay here the slowdown is often difficult for a lot of people. The other side of the coin is it creates a lot of “available time” from laid off people and part timers.

TimeBanks was simply an obvious solution to take advantage of all the pool of “unused time”. The shift in paradigm is instead of saying “I can’t afford this” now it is “I wonder who can do this for me in the timebank”

Interview with TimeBanking Founder Edgar Cahn

“It shouldn’t require an epic disaster to bring people together, but it is all too often the case. Why do we need an “excuse” to go out and meet neighbors on the street corner, to show hospitality to a stranger or to anticipate and respond to the needs of others?

I don’t have an answer for this, except to say that, if some kind of excuse is needed, then TimeBanking is such an excuse.

TimeBanking works proactively where storms work reactively, in providing opportunities and reasons for people to gather. It is the loom upon which community can be woven, as long as there are people willing to pull the threads.”

TimeBanks associated with the TimeBanks USA get a regular newsletter (one day I’ll get to doing ours!   ) and in the latest newsletter there is an update from the head office membership coordinator. She tells a great story of spontaneous local community building during the Washington, DC snowstorm (not this year in B.C., we have a “green” Olympics).

She poses an interesting question at the end which really speaks to the core of TimeBanking. Can we offer ourselves and be giving to others anytime not just when times are tough? Adversity brings out the best sometimes, how about anytime?

Have a read if you wish:

“Maybe some of you live in a place where three feet of snow is not a big deal. Here in Washington, DC, three feet of snow is equivalent to the End of the World, and in fact, in many circles last week, the storm was dubbed the “Snowpocalypse.” Washingtonians endured whiteouts, blackouts, brownouts and not-being-outs.

I personally shoveled approximately twelve cubic tons of snow. Well, that is probably an exaggeration, but it was a lot. A shovel was stolen from our front porch, the awning buckled under the weight of snow, one bush in the yard will never be the same. Everything shut down, from schools to churches to local and federal government. I really did a double-take when I saw this message scroll across the TV screen: “Spiritual Insights cancelled.” Now THAT is some storm!

In the midst of the chaos, the sore muscles and the cabin fever, there was a lot of friendly neighborhood camaraderie (minus the shovel-stealing, of course). There were countless “community digs,” as we began to call them, in which four or five people with shovels came to the aid of stuck vehicles. Neighbors clustered, beer and popcorn in hand, to watch another neighbor tow a service van up the hill with his Nissan truck.

When, after two days, snowplows had not come to our street, everyone pitched in to carve out some road. People of all ages, races and ethnicities came together to dig out from under the snow. We learned to speak a common language of groans and sighing, giggles and knowing looks. In short, it took the snowstorm of the century to achieve the kind of community for which I have always hoped.

It shouldn’t require an epic disaster to bring people together, but it is all too often the case. Why do we need an “excuse” to go out and meet neighbors on the street corner, to show hospitality to a stranger or to anticipate and respond to the needs of others?

I don’t have an answer for this, except to say that, if some kind of excuse is needed, then TimeBanking is such an excuse.

TimeBanking works proactively where storms work reactively, in providing opportunities and reasons for people to gather. It is the loom upon which community can be woven, as long as there are people willing to pull the threads.”

- Jen”

What say you?

Check out TimeBanking at http://LMTimeBank.org .

If you’re already a member, stay involved and make a difference in someone’s life today, while letting them make a difference in theirs. It’s about giving and receiving equally!

1. as a way to get to know my neighbours,
2. feel connected in my community and make a positive difference,
3. have people in my life I could count on to ask for a helping hand
4. share my time and talents with people genuinely wanting my help.

TimeBanking is not designed to replace currency or bartering exchanges but to enhance the connection, understanding and appreciation for people in your community and all the ways we can help each other. Get to know your neighbours and help each other out. It begins by helping the TimeBank grow…

TimeBanking was started in order to revitalize small urban communites. TimeBanking in a large urban area used to be difficult. With the web based software it is far easier, but it still requires people stepping up and volunteering to help grow their local neighbourhood TimeBank group.

One of the goals of the Lower Mainland TimeBank is to empower any neighbourhood and small community to have their “local community connection” hosted on a central TimeBank serving a larger geographic area (the exchange website allows communities to identify themselves and their local members).

The benefit with the internet hosted TimeBank is that you can access and connect with all local communites via a single, common, exchange website instead of having multiple TimeBanks in neighbouring communities which would require joining multiple TimeBanks to access other areas.

Come join us, not just as a member, but as a builder of the TimeBank in your area. The  structure is here for anyone to use and benefit from. It does rely on individuals stepping forward and running with the TimeBank idea in their own neighborhood to really see it work.

Contact me to discuss what you can do to make TimeBanking a vibrant, community building tool for everyone’s benefit in your community.

Michael
Lower Mainland TimeBank, Founder/Director

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