4 hours (2hours each from Gunt and myself at a working bee): Painting window sills for a family preparing to shift. The girls played with their children.
2 hours: use of trailer
2 hours: The girls helped to plan a nature trail for a upcoming festival.
Received
1.5 hours x 2 sessions: Printmaking sessions for the girls.
1 hour : The girls talked to a local elder about his childhood and his father's Confectionary business.
2 hours: borrowed a hedge trimmer.
This is a fairly average glimpse of our trading with Timebank. The trades change but the amount of hours traded are fairly consistent.
Four out of these five trades were with people we met through the Timebank.
Most of them we now call our friends.
All of them our now consciously part of our community.
Although our family's life is fairly full we hold Timebank trades as one of our priorities.
Giving to others feeds our family in so many deep and nourishing ways.
At times we strike the balance when the dichotomy of "Giver" and "Receiver" can fall away.
For instance, when the girls helped with the Nature Trail the woman and I couldn't decide who was the Giver and who was the Receiver. J, the elderly man who chatted about his childhood, also felt that he was the Receiver and not the Giver.
These times are special.
Received
1.5 hours x 2 sessions: Printmaking sessions for the girls.
1 hour : The girls talked to a local elder about his childhood and his father's Confectionary business.
2 hours: borrowed a hedge trimmer.
This is a fairly average glimpse of our trading with Timebank. The trades change but the amount of hours traded are fairly consistent.
Four out of these five trades were with people we met through the Timebank.
Most of them we now call our friends.
All of them our now consciously part of our community.
Although our family's life is fairly full we hold Timebank trades as one of our priorities.
Giving to others feeds our family in so many deep and nourishing ways.
At times we strike the balance when the dichotomy of "Giver" and "Receiver" can fall away.
For instance, when the girls helped with the Nature Trail the woman and I couldn't decide who was the Giver and who was the Receiver. J, the elderly man who chatted about his childhood, also felt that he was the Receiver and not the Giver.
These times are special.
They remind us all of the wealth that is our interdependence.
And we have plans: we have just discovered that we have a retired Orchestra Conductor and a retired Opera Singer on the Timebank. The girls do really enjoy the limited range of classical music we have and singing is just what Sky does. Seriously, she sings all the time. So we are thinking it would be great to organise a time to meet up with these people. Perhaps they could show the girls some photos. Who knows where it could lead.
The photos are from a Spring Fair we went to a while back. Gunt pinched the camera and got excited by the machinery and the girls enjoyed helping T at the stall.
And we have plans: we have just discovered that we have a retired Orchestra Conductor and a retired Opera Singer on the Timebank. The girls do really enjoy the limited range of classical music we have and singing is just what Sky does. Seriously, she sings all the time. So we are thinking it would be great to organise a time to meet up with these people. Perhaps they could show the girls some photos. Who knows where it could lead.
The photos are from a Spring Fair we went to a while back. Gunt pinched the camera and got excited by the machinery and the girls enjoyed helping T at the stall.
I just love this idea. I think our area would benefit so much from something like this. I'd like to lern more about the intricacies of your Timebank system, or of similar ones. Are there any places you can point me to?
ReplyDeleteOkay, I've just spent an hour reading at Timebanks.org and am overwhelmed by the complexity and by the elegance of the solutions. Does your community use web-based software?
ReplyDeleteYes, we pay for the software from USA so there is some start up funding needed. The web-based software allows for a common place for people to check into recent requests and offers and ease of inputting hours. The software makes it easy.
ReplyDelete"No More Throw Away People" is the book Edgar Kahn wrote about the concept and I think it is well worth the read as it fills 5 the bigger picture of Timebanking.
I've inserted a couple of clips in the right-hand sidebar - these may be helpful to have a look at.
There has been a real surge in Timebanks starting all over the country. The concept got a lot of cudos during the period of the earthquake because the network of members was a coordinated pool of locals who got to work quickly.
I'm very happy to answer more questions as they come up. Email me if need be.