Time Bank Pilot Study | Alternative currency to get services you want

[jitterbug]

Time Bank Pilot Study
Alternative currency to get services you want

"Building Community One Hour at a Time"

Greetings!

Looking for a way to beat the high cost of housing in Sebastopol? Cittaslow Sebastopol and the City of Sebastopol are exploring the option of "Time Banking" with aTime Bank Pilot Study.

A Time Bank is a network of people who do things for each other and get "paid" for their time with Time Bank Credits. One hour of work = one Time Bank Credit.

For instance, Member A spends 3 hours painting a fence for Member B and earns 3 "Time Bank Credits." Member A can then use those 3 credits to ask Member C to do childcare, or perhaps ask Member D to help with rototilling.

"As a City, we can't control the price of housing. It just does take up a large portion of one's paycheck. What I like about the Time Bank is it gives our citizens a chance to get services they need without having to spend the small chunk of cash they have left after their housing costs."

- Larry McLaughlin, City Manager

By earning and spending credits, participants get rewarded for the unique skills they have to share while building community as they get to know other participants in the Time Bank network.

There are over 400 Time Banks throughout the U.S. Sebastopol thinks it might be time to try one out here.

To explore the possibilities, A Time Bank Pilot Study is being conducted in April and May.

Participants must be at least 18 years old and live in the 95472 zip code.

To meet the needs of the Study, participants must agree to:

• Engage with the online software (hOurworld).
• Attend an introductory gathering on Wednesday evening, April 6th (downtown Sebastopol location to be announced.)
• Request at least one service over the course of the study.
• Offer at least one service and do your best to provide at least one during the course of the study.
• Respond to other participants using email at least, and phone when mutually agreed upon.
• Answer an online survey giving feedback about your experience.
• Come to a final wrap up event the evening of Wednesday, June 8th (place to be announced) and share your experiences!

APPLY ONLINE NOW!
Space is limited

To assure a representative range of ages in the study, there are limited spots for each "decade." Apply today before your age range gets filled! (Those who do not get in will be put on a Waiting List. And certainly, we will keep you up-to-date on development of the Time Bank once we have analyzed the data from the study.

Learn more about Time Banking at
SebastopolTimeBank.org

Time Bank Values:

• Everyone has something to offer
• Giving is Receiving
• Volunteers make communities work
• People need people

In the context of addressing income inequality, a Time Bank treats everyone's time equally, regardless of gender, race, education or skill level.

Have questions? Contact the Cittaslow Sebastopol Time Bank Team at [email protected].

[GinaWillis]

As much as I support the concept of this Time Bank, I find this statement by our city manager (if Cittaslow quoted him accurately and in context) to be deeply disturbing:

"As a City, we can't control the price of housing. It just does take up a large portion of one's paycheck. What I like about the Time Bank is it gives our citizens a chance to get services they need without having to spend the small chunk of cash they have left after their housing costs."

- Larry McLaughlin, City Manager

Just today, the Press Democrat stated that barely one-quarter of Sonoma County's population can afford a median-priced home. And, in a separate article today, the paper stated local rents have risen 30 percent in the past three years.

I would expect our city government -- if it really is working in the interest of the people -- to offer something besides defeatism and empty rhetoric about attainable housing. Just work a little longer and more creatively, our city manager tells the squeezed working family, and maybe you might find a little more cash to scrape together at the end of the month to hang on a bit longer before the market crushes you. (Hey, maybe you could even mow some rich people's lawns, or get a paper route...)

To be sure, a city manager is only the implementer of policies set by our elected officials.
And one city can't "control" housing costs when they're the result of many larger forces.
But the word "control" is a cop-out. It posits a false dichotomy between blunt instruments like rent control, or the present state of chaos.

OK, if the city can't "control" housing costs, maybe it could at least start by not doing things that drive costs up.

At the recent "Housing for the Rest of Us" Science Buzz Cafe in Sebastopol, several residents cited city actions in planning, zoning, code enforcement, property taxation and assessment, and permit costs that either prevented someone from creating a unit of affordable housing or made it prohibitively expensive to do so.

I don't expect miracles.

I do expect those who represent us to at least stop making things worse.

[Barry]

As much as I support the concept of this Time Bank, I find this statement by our city manager (if Cittaslow quoted him accurately and in context) to be deeply disturbing:

The quoted post above been used to start a new thread "Encouraging more affordable housing in Sebastopol". Please direct your comments about affordable housing there. Let's keep this thread about the Time Bank Pilot Study.