Time Banking Deficit Spending Works!

Subject: Kick Starting the Trading of Time Dollars

There is a psychological hurdle that every Time Bank needs to overcome
to build a thriving core economy of people exchanging services for Time
Dollars. We all need to overcome our training that debt is bad. For the
Time Dollar economy to work half of the members need to be in debt.
Unlike the market economy where people compete for a limited quantity of
dollars, Time Dollars are created on the spot when every people agree to
trade time for Time Dollars. The sum of all member balances in the Time
Bank is always zero.

If everyone in the Time Bank decided they weren't going to spend a Time
Dollar until they earned one, no one would ever have a chance to earn a
Time Dollar. Many of us have been taught since childhood that "it is
more blessed to give than receive." In the Time Dollar world it is "as
blessed to receive as it is to give" – it may be more blessed because it
takes some courage to overcome deep habits learned in the market economy
that don't apply in the core economy of Time Banking.

To help people get over the psychological barrier against going into
debt, we strongly recommend that the Time Bank goes into debt to give
people a starting positive balance. We suggest that you pay each member
for signing up and placing ads. Many Time Banks pay their members a Time
Dollar for going through a one-on-one orientation and another Time
Dollar for a pair of ads – one offer and one request. People have a
tendency to put in many more offers than requests, so we want to provide
an incentive to list offers. (Remember the Time Dollar economy can't
work if everyone is focused on offers.) You may even choose to offer up
to five Time Dollars for up to five pairs of offers and requests.

Members of the leadership team are paid Time Dollars for running the
orientations. During the orientations the member coordinator (and their
deputies) goes over the member's profile to fill in any blanks, takes a
picture for their profile if they haven't already uploaded one, and
explores the types of services they would like to offer and receive.

Here is a list of issues that we've found to be important in orientation
meetings:

Don't fall into the trap of only listing what you could get paid to do
in the market economy – The Time Dollar economy is an informal economy
of people doing the types of favors that family and neighbors have been
doing for millennia. Thus mentoring, dog walking, braiding hair, chicken
soup are all fine offers. Someone can offer guitar beginning lessons if
they've only been taking lessons for a year. Many people try out a new
found skill in the Time Bank and then go on to offer it for money
outside the Time Bank.

Neither the giver or receiver should expect professional standards.
Sometimes you get professional quality work, but that is not the point.
The point of Time Dollar trades is to build relationships of give and
take. It about building that village referred to in the phrase "it takes
a village to raise a child."

Be courteous and respond quickly –When members get a request they should
respond quickly and be willing to say no. Though the services may not be
at a professional level, our courtesy to each other should be more than
professional. These are people who will become extended family. Don't
leave them hanging. One shouldn't say yes when you would prefer to say
no. That's a dysfunctional extended family. If one is swamped that week,
just say so. We all get swamped.

Offer what you like to do, not what you can do – Sometimes people go
crazy and list everything they could possibly do. Then when someone
calls them, they drag their feet on doing the service. Members should
only list they would be thrilled to do.

It is as blessed to receive as it is to give – Please make sure that
everyone understands at asking for a service is what drive the whole
Time Dollar economy. Many of us have blocks against asking. Askers are
the heroes in the Time Dollar economy. Each Time Bank sets its own limit
for how much member can go into debt. We recommend that the member
coordinator have a chat about earning opportunities when a member's
account gets below negative ten.

Trust and verify – Time banks are all about building trusting
relationships you can count on. Trust is built from time spent
together – at potlucks and doing trades. At the beginning, trust comes
from knowing that everyone has had an orientation meeting, everyone has
two character references, and personal contact at potlucks.

There are some services where assuming the best may not be the best
policy – specifically, child care, elder care, transportation and
letting someone in the house while away. Members may want to be in
earshot for the first few times that they hire a babysitter. Member
should be encouraged to call the references listed in a person's
profile. Time Banks don't generally do criminal checks or driving record
checks. It is the responsibility to of each member to determine the
safety of each exchange as they would with any other neighbor that
offers to baby sit, house sit, drive, etc.

Membership Fees – Orientation is the best time to discuss membership
fees. Some Time Banks charge the fee during the orientation. That is
harder to do in a brand new Time Bank where there isn't already an
establish economy of giving and receiving. You may want to explain that
fees will be charged three months after the Time Bank has started.

We recommend a sliding scale of $10-40 and TD$ 1-4 per year. Explain why
the Time Bank needs both federal and Time Dollars to run.

Member survey – Filling out the member survey is very important for
getting grants. This allows you to get data on the type of people in
your Time Bank and later you will be able to generate statistics for how
lives have been improved by belonging to the Time Bank. Hard data needs
and benefits will greatly improve your chances in getting grants.

Writing better ads – The orientation is a great time to spiff up the ads
the member's ads. Be creative. Make them fun to read. The member will
get more activity if the ads are well written and everyone will have
more fun reading the ads if people put time into make them fun, enticing
and creative.

Invite into Leadership – A member-led Time Bank needs lots of leaders to
keep the burden of leadership light. Every role should have an
understudy in case the designated person for the role is unavailable for
some reason. Leadership roles should rotate every 6-12 months to keep
the leadership fresh and to provide new ideas and contacts for the Time
Bank. Ask new members if they have any interest in participating in any
of the Time Bank leadership roles in the next six months.


It is hard to overstress the importance of the orientation. Time Banking
is a new cultural experience and there are many things that need to be
explained. The necessity and valor of going into debt for the Time
Dollar economy to work needs to be explained because it is so foreign to
our standard money culture. The informal nature of the offerings, doing
what you love to do, ability to say no, the courtesy of quick replies,
the central importance of potlucks for building community are all part
of bringing people into a new culture.

At the beginning we are letting the Time Bank take the brunt of peoples'
weird feelings about going into debt. The Time Bank goes into debt so
everyone can start with positive balances. Many people ask what are the
consequences of the Time Bank going into debt. When the federal
government prints too much money, the money is worth less. Similarly, if
everyone has very high Time Dollar balances there will be less incentive
to say yes when someone responds to a service ads. That's the only
problem we know of with a Time Bank going too far into debt.

Even with high positive balances, many people will continue to happily
do Time Bank activities. They just like to give. After all, there are
millions of people who do volunteer work for years with no TD$
compensation. Volunteers on average burn out after about three years.
Time Bankers stay engaged in helping their neighbors for much longer.

If people's Time Bank accounts get too high you can raise your TD$
membership fee or hold a TD$ fund raiser. With a Time Dollars$ fund
raiser, you will probably get your biggest donations from the people
with the highest balances and they'll be charging off to earn more.

So far we have only spoken about priming the pump. Once your Time Bank
economy is in full swing, you'll still need to juice it every now and
then. The primary strategy is to get people to come to potlucks.
One-on-one time is the most important driver of trust to build trades.
The secondary strategy is to have the membership coordinator comb the
list of wants and offers and play match maker. "Hey Jim, I noticed that
you were looking for someone to sew drapes. Have you met Sara Smith who
has an ad up for sewing projects?" These introductions are best done in
person at the monthly potluck, but can also be done via email.

Cheers,
TonyBudak@TBMW.org
www.tbmw.org

"Failure is impossible" - Susan B. Anthony