We’ve been quiet lately – Here’s why. And other news
Posted: 19 Jan, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »Hi
Oh, we know we’ve been woefully out of touch on this blog. But not because we’re not doing stuff!
I’m writing a massive proposal for funding for Build For the World. Marc’s working on pulling together an early March event where we involve programmers in making exciting new tools for our projects and others. Preston’s about to spend a couple months in Boston but will be around for our events here. Leander’s in South America and we’re really hoping to be able to bring him back to Madison in Spring and Summer, to stay awhile and work with us on all this cool stuff.
Before he left in December, Leander finished up a lot of fine work (building on what Marc started earlier and continues to work on) on a Drupal 7 platform for Build For the World. It’s looking great so far but we have a few pieces left to add, which Marc is working on now when he’s not working on tons of stuff for the UW and beyond. This Build platform will be where community-problem-solving projects will tell the world what they’re doing, their goals and outcomes, share their tools and protocols and communicate with each other so we can learn from each other more. As soon as we add these couple pieces, which will include a survey that helps create some standard simple measures for evaluation and a repository where we can upload documents to share, I’ll populate it with all Dane County TimeBank’s great projects to see how it is to use. Then we’ll start inviting the world at large to join in, likely beginning with the timebanking community we’re already in touch with but working to branch out to include projects using other kinds of cooperative economic tools.
There are some other efforts out there we hope and plan to join up/cooperate with and we’ll keep you posted as those developments occur.
So – if you want to help, be in touch. We need projects’ stewards to sign up their projects and share resources; programmers; money; in-kind donations; introductions to people you know who are doing things that will work well with this; introductions to people/organizations who might want to fund us; offers to share relevant knowledge and ideas.
We plan to create a Builders’ timebank for those offers that don’t fit with our exact needs at the moment but can be shared among Build projects. We also will create Bank For the World as soon as we can get to it – this will catalog all the contributions of all kinds to the project so we can work toward finding new ways to exchange resources to meet a variety of needs.
Hope you’ll play with us!
Final installment, Up The Wall Tour: Update #4 – Detroit to home
Posted: 5 Nov, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »
In Detroit…
We stayed with Kim Hodge (in Lathrup Village), organizer extraordinaire and founder of the Michigan Alliance of TimeBanks, who hosted and co-facilitated the two days of trainings we did.
The trainings were in a great church in Detroit, the Lighthouse Community Church on Wyoming St., thanks to Joan and her son the pastor.
First day we focused on identifying and engaging stakeholders – the organizations, groups and individuals who can help each timebank meet its goals.
We went through how to identify your vision, mission and objectives and base your activities around those things. Once you’re clear on what your real vision and goals are it’s much easier to determine who needs to be involved to make those things happen and what messages might appeal to them.
We also discussed how to approach organizations with one need that timebank members could fill and one asset the organization can provide in return, in order to make it very clear and simple how timebank involvement can be mutually beneficial. And how to know whether an organization has someone internal or with a strong active connection who will be willing to do the work to make timebank participation flow well. I always advise that this is essential to success with each organization, or at least has been for us at the Dane County TimeBank.
In the afternoon we were joined by a few additional people, including some stakeholders that organizers are working to get involved. During this time we went through some nuts and bolts issues about liability, insurance, resources available for these things, policy decisions and more (TimeBanks USA, Michigan Alliance of TimeBanks, Dane County TimeBank among others).
Then we did a visioning exercise focused on how we could use timebanking to facilitate successful and healthy reintegration into the community for returning soldiers. We first determined who would need to be involved in order to create a robust circuit of assets and needs. Then we mapped how a variety of community members could participate, based on each ones’ own assets and needs, and create a web of resources that can support the returning soldier and everyone else in the neighborhood. This seemed to help participants to see how they could create similar networks in their own communities, tailored to meet their own goals.
We had some practice rounds and a lovely close led by Kim and contributed to by everyone.
Next day was on funding and sustainability. Again, we focused on how to use your mission, vision and objectives to identify what resources you’ll need, best adapted to meeting your goals. We also did a lot of need and asset mapping and identification of non-monetary resources that can be brought in, then went through sources for monetary resources and what they tend to be necessary for. Sources identified were member fees, organizational member fees, contracts, grants, services provided, and various fundraising strategies. We explored some of these options in greater depth and then did individual need and asset mapping to begin picturing what sustainability would mean for each project. And I learned that Edge from Lansing will be making a documentary on timebanking and will be creating some pieces of what we’ve been looking for from a video production intern, and we’ll be looking to work together a bit. Very exciting! 
After the session and a potluck, we got a little rest before I went to play at an art reception at Mercado art gallery in Mexicantown, Southwest Detroit. The gallery was beautiful! Big glass walls, boxy white rooms with a great art show inside. I found my new favorite artist, Susan Aaron Taylor (or at least from the three pieces she had there). Spaceband played first and were great as always. I really enjoy playing in a boxy echoey space with good sound and lighting so I had a great time. Read the rest of this entry »
Up The Wall Tour update #3 – Ohio – Montreal
Posted: 27 Oct, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »After spending the night of 10/18 with my parents we drove 7 ½ hours from Ohio to New York City, where I met up with my friend Sabrina and her husband Lewis and had a grand time starting to catch up. I never get to see Sabrina and she’s just wonderful so this was a happy time. They have a cute and really funny 2-year-old, Augie who I started to get to know pretty quickly.
October 20 was the 
Contact conference at a very cool building in the lower east side, called Angel Oresanz. Lent itself to the kind of creativity the organizers were hoping to catalyze. I led a teach-in on timebanking applied to community problem solving and made some good new connections, especially with Community Tools and Guillaume from Bernal Bucks in San Francisco. I hope we can collaborate in the future to help timebanking connect with other human-scaled systems to make a better economy.
A few projects were selected to move forward from the Contact conference. One is about making connections for better local food production and distribution. I attended the session on next steps and proposed timebanking as a tool for cataloging assets and needs and facilitating tracking and increased collaboration. I’ll continue to participate in that discussion online. Check it out here.
Next day began the Metacurrency Collabathon. Unfortunately, the beginning session coincided with my show at Sidewalk Cafe so I couldn’t attend. I had a show to play! Which was really fun, by the way, even though a small portion of the crowd was noisy enough to make up for all the other people who were quiet and attentive. I love the Sidewalk Cafe.
Leander gave rave reviews of the Friday evening gathering and Saturday and Sunday were very rewarding. Lots of great people with great insights, values and motivation were gathered in a brilliantly facilitated open space format and came up with wonderful ideas that will be followed up on. This is a motivated group with great track records of thinking up cool ideas and moving them forward. My favorite topic (just reflecting my personal bias) of the weekend: starting a travel and culture exchange that works toward creating an economy where people can make a living by being creative and following their passion. We’ll make it happen!
a scene from Stations Lost
We had to leave the collabathon early on Sunday to get to New Hampshire for a gathering of leaders of the new timebank in Durham. The drive was a little longer than we’d thought but lovely with fall leaves.
We arrived at 8pm and had a really nice meal with about eight timebank organizers. They were a great group with lots of insights. All women, several of whom are involved in peace and culture exchange organizations, one who’s studying public health and looking for documentation of timebanking/public health outcomes. Delicious food, good conversation.
Robin offered us a place to stay in her lovely home in a beautiful wooded neighborhood by the bay. She also gave me a trumpet! Her son played it in 4th grade and didn’t continue. This gift seemed too good to be true – I love my trumpet, which was my Dad’s when he was a kid. But it’s completely deteriorating (its second owner never took good care of it :( ) so I’m thrilled to have one in better shape so Dad’s can retire peacefully.
Next day we walked with Noel by the bay, then on a gorgeous mountain just across the Maine border. Finished up our conversation that we’d started the night before, then hit the road for Maine.
Next stop was in Augusta Maine at Stacey Jacobsohn’s house, timebank organizer extraordinaire. She fed us and we prepared for our gathering in Madison, Maine where the goal was to plant seeds for more development of the mid-Maine TimeBank in Madison, new territory for them.
We got to Madison Maine and were introduced to the sweet, tiny union hall where the gathering would be held, and to Pete, a Vet for Peace in his 60′s, a classic Mainer with a great accent and very winning personality! He gave me a gift I really treasure – a little box he’d run across that day while picking up supplies for the event. It says “Somewhere someone is looking for exactly what you have to offer.” He felt that running across it then was serendipitous and I agree.
This gathering was one of my favorites of the whole trip. There were about 10 people there, more men than women, more older than not. Stacey gave me one of the most moving and sweet introductions I’ve ever gotten and then the whole group engaged in a really fascinating conversation about our economy, how it got the way it is, how it can be different, and how they’ll go about getting timebanking going to meet their goals of boosting people’s economic standing and reweaving their community to better include everyone. It was really cool.
Afterward we went to Carol Dyar-Eaton’s house for a bonfire and more great discussion. Carol has really cool ideas about involving young people and homecomers in building beautiful, artful solar chargers for laptops and cell phones. The plan involves a really thorough process, facilitated with timebanking, of community members providing education to the youth and the homecomers about electricity, woodworking, glass-working, sustainability and teamwork. Non-violent communication training and principles will be threaded throughout and homecomers will mentor the youth. They’ll learn a lot, build skills, connections and teamwork while creating beautiful and useful products. She’s already been gathering partners and making prototypes and they truly are lovely works of art. Very exciting project!
Next to Montreal where I played a great show with some fantastic musicians – Elgin Skye McLaren, Open Arms Fast Hands and Athena Holmes. A very attentive and respectful audience and just a fantastic time. My old friend from Madison, Ivan Klipstein, connected me with these folks and put us up. That was just great. Got to see some of his fantastic artwork he was working on and he gave us a disc of a recent radio appearance to listen to also (your cover’s blown, Ghosty!) which was hilarious.
Today we drove all day to Detroit where I’m finishing writing this so I can go to bed and get up early for our 2-day workshops with area timebankers, and shows on Sat. and Sunday. The home stretch!
Up The Wall Tour post #2 – Oct. 3 – 18, LA – Ohio
Posted: 21 Oct, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boise, electrogals, Heather Perkins, LA, Lacey Sinn, Mountain View, new economy, Ohio, Ori Hoffer, Park City TV, Sheryl Walton, timebanking, training 7 Comments »Blog post #2: Oct. 3 – Oct. 17:: LA to Chicago
Well, a lot has happened since last I wrote!
The LA show was fun, at a cool venue called Lot 1. With good music all around that night.
The downside was a near-miss of an auto accident, with a semi truck careening directly into the cement barrier between its eastbound lane and our westbound lane, sending my life flashing before my eyes and chunks of concrete flying into the car. Miraculously, noone was hurt. The car was, though, and has so far cost more than $800 to fix with more to come. Oh well, we’re OK and the car is driveable.
From there, on to San Francisco where we met with Mira Luna and Rick Simon from Bay Area Community Exchange, Michele Magar whom we met at the TimeBanks USA conference back in August, Sheryl Walton of Sobrante Park Timebank and TimeBanks USA, and Natalie, a friend of Michele’s with great relevant experience in counseling and in running a program to improve acces to technology for seniors. We learned about the many exciting partnerships and projects being developed by BACE and discussed ways the other participants could help in starting new initiatives and outreach efforts to increase the robustness of resources, exchanges, and the ability of timebanking to improve upon service accessibility and fairness for diverse populations, especially those with physical or mental health challenges.
October 7 I met with Sheryl Walton to discuss how we can best work to develop training capacity among timebankers in each region. Sheryl’s a great trainer and has been taking the lead on TimeBanks USA training for several years, drawing upon her excellent experience with Oakland’s Sobrante Park TimeBank. She’ll be helping to train trainers and hone the curriculum. Exciting work. We met at BrainWash, a laundromat, cafe, bar and music venue in San Francisco – where I had a show that night. The show was a lot of fun even though the sound was a challenge. They give free laundry to performers, which was a major plus in the middle of such a long tour!
Left after the show to get closer to the redwoods so we’d be able to spend most of the day there on the way up to Seattle.
And of course the redwoods are spectacular!
On to Seattle: October 9 we pulled into Seattle to Cindy Jayne’s house, where we talked about ways to enhance the trainings provided by TimeBanks USA, and how we might proceed in training trainers. I had a sparsely attended show that night with GREAT sound in a lovely old fashioned cabaret-type space, with a good opening act Jeremy Serwer. I really enjoyed it even though there were only a handful of people there for the show. They were all really cool, attentive during the show and fun to hang out with after.
The morning of October 10 Cindy Jayne hosted a timebank organizers’ meeting at her house over breakfast. We discussed ways the Eastside Seattle TimeBank might approach expanding into new geographic areas and identifying and implementing more community projects through timebanking. They have a really solid leadership group there and there are lots of possibilities.
Then we drove to Portland OR where we enjoyed a nice meal with a friend before my Electrogals performance.
Electrogals was a great new experience for me. I integrated a timebanking/new economic thinking workshop with a music performance – the title was “Dragging the Economy into the 21st Century: It’s Women’s Work!”. I’ll post the video when I have a chance so you can see more what it was like. But I really enjoyed it. Since the theme of the festival was ‘gals gone wired’ I did a timebanking simulation game with wire. People had the assignment to make a figure that represents their dream for their community, however they want to define it. Later in the workshop we turned those into a lovely little mobile
Electrogals TimeBanking Mobile - with organizer Heather Perkins in background
Some GREAT old friends came to the show and out afterward, too, including a college friend I haven’t seen since 1992. Awesome. One of the very best parts of a tour like this…
Had to leave right after the short hang-out with Portland friends after the show in order to get to Boise by 2pm the next day. Boise’s 7 ½ hours from Portland and we also lose an hour in the time zone change. But the reason we needed to get there was great – Lacey, Courtney and Gina of TimeBank Idaho were hosting a meeting with human service professionals from around the state, including Richard Armstrong, Director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. They are exploring how timebanking and co-production can help improve the effectiveness of public services.
Next day we drove to Park City Utah where I appeared on Mountain Views, a show on Park City TV. This was cool. I played 3 songs and also talked about the tour, timebanking, economic self-sufficiency on live television. A good way to reach a new audience.
Afterward we drove to Dinosaur Monument National Park and camped on the soft sandy beach of the Green River, which sounds idyllic until you realize that it was in the ’30s and we woke up with ice on our sleeping bags. But what a beautiful place to wake up! And hike around before driving on to Boulder…
Where I played a show at the Laughing Goat which was a really good time, just as it was on my last tour.
Then on to Iowa City (with a stop in Des Moines to see my friend Becky which was great) for the best show of the tour, largely because I played with fabulous Iowa City bands – especially Utopia Park, my new favorite.
After that, Chicago for a day of seeing great friends and fixing the car for a lot of money. Then playing at Prop Theater with Stroller and Paleo, another good show. More audience members would have been nice but those who were there were wonderful, including more good friends who I don’t see enough.
Today we got up early and drove to Toledo Ohio where Leander and I both presented to a group of very engaged and interested Toledoans, from lots of organizations and communities that can really engage with timebanking. There were City Council members, County officials, Juvenile Justice professionals, United Way staff, a Green Party candidate, urban gardeners and project leaders, faculty and students from University of Toledo, and more. We talked about lots of complementary currency models and how they might be applied there and invited people to attend the upcoming trainings in Detroit. We expect to see at least a few there. And got the question I like best, “how do we start?” The meeting was followed by a lovely reception at a restaurant/bar called Mano’s, which was fun. After all that we drove 2 hours to my parents’ house in Akron, Ohio where I’m writing this now and am about to hit the sack. It’s been a long few days! Nice to be home with my wonderful parents.
Update from the tour – New Orleans! California conference!
Posted: 3 Oct, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: California, New Orleans, timebanking 1 Comment »Hello
I’m writing from Pasadena CA where we just finished the great CA Federation of TimeBanks Conference. The Federation did a wonderful job of organizing and we got to meet lots of CA-area timebankers and hear from Edgar Cahn, outgoing TimeBanks USA CEO Chris Gray Cahn, incoming TimeBanks USA CEO Lisa Conlan, and many more luminaries. I was on yesterday’s panel and did a 2-hour timebanking training with Sheryl Walton. Today I’ll do a Learning Facilitation training to help develop more training and support capacity in the area. Tomorrow Leander and I will do a Build for the World workshop and enlist some partner projects. We’ll be able to show our Build profile site, which Preston is busy finishing up now.
And New Orleans was fantastic! In addition to a great show and seeing lots of what makes New Orleans a truly unique and fascinating place, I had the honor of being part of the birth of the new NOLA Timebank!
About 35 people came to a potluck at the Himalayan Association community room and decided on the spot to get started on a timebank. By the next day they had a facebook page up with 60 friends and they’re moving fast on organizing. New Orleans is such a perfect place for this kind of organizing and I’m really impressed with how well people are doing and how thoughtful they’re being about how they move forward, focusing on being sure to pull in people from lots of different backgrounds and demographics.
A woman who learned of the timebank potluck at my show, Victoria, came and brought lots of organizing background and skills. The woman who spearheaded the organizing of the potluck, Marcela, is an old friend of Autumn Rooney from the Echo Park timebank and CA Federation. Autumn also referred a former Echo Park steering team member who’d recently moved to NOLA. We also had folks referred by Edgar Cahn, and Bev Bell and Lauren Elliot of Other Worlds are Possible. A great group to start with.
After LA we’ll be heading to San Francisco where we’ll meet with current and future timebankers and discuss in-depth how to approach timebanking as a way to improve life for elders and people with disabilities. Then Seattle, Portland, Boise and onward.. I’ll write as we go.
Thanks for reading!
–Stephanie
On the road and other exciting news
Posted: 24 Sep, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 Comments »I’m in Jackson Mississippi between my first two stops on the Up The Wall tour (Up The Wall is the name of the CD I’m touring with) and exciting new opportunities keep arising. Played in St. Louis last night and met with timebanking pioneers Renee Betty Marver and Linda Hogan, and more recent timebank organizers Terry, Johanna and Ruffina. Wonderful people and great conversation with lots of potential for future cool developments. Tomorrow I play New Orleans, Monday we meet with potential new timebankers there. Watch for an updated schedule in the next days.
Leander will join on the west coast just a few stops into the tour, helping with trainings, documenting what we learn and what is created, and helping to design systems to support this kind of decentralized work with lots of contributors. Preston and Marc will stay in Madison and help get those systems built.
Part of what we’ll do is talk with the many timebankers and organizers we’ll be meeting about doing Build For the World projects, where people in varying locations use timebanking or related methods to solve community problems – actively sharing their tools, methods, and learning with each other in order to support each other. Read more about it in our new and improved proposal.
And we now have a way for you to donate support this effort. No amount is too small or too big! This will go toward paying our travel expenses, keeping all four of the project partners fed, clothed and housed, and building tools to support this work – including teaching materials, code for project facilitation tools, communication tools like video and other media, and related.
Donate through Paypal
Every dollar you donate up to $15,000 will be matched dollar for dollar with a challenge grant. Even more exciting, we just received word of a $15,000 donation that will free the first $15K of the same challenge grant. Thanks so much to our generous donors, we’re enormously grateful and excited about the work you’re empowering us to do.
And thanks to all of you for paying attention! We look forward to working with you more.
–Stephanie
On the road for/towards Time For The World
Posted: 13 Sep, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments OffTime For The World, soon coming to a community near you!
In August, on the way to and from the TimeBankingUSA conference in Providence, RI, we had Stephanie Rearick and Leander Bindewald visiting and connecting timebanking and community currency projects in several location along the route.
In Philadelphia, Detroit and Toronto we connected the dots with representatives of community building initiatives to map out routes of co-learning and collaboration in the their respective locations. Each of these existing and newly inspired projects constitute part of the rich network of local experimentation and implementations that we want to curate and activate with our first TimeFTW learning platform, called Build For The World (for details and how it will work, see our latest TimeFTW project-description).
At the end of September and all of October, Stephanie and Leander will be on the road again, giving presentations, convening timebanking meetings and trainings all over the USA. Not all meetings are confirmed yet, but if you live “en route” get in touch to get the latest updates or ask for a meet-up:
September:
23th: St. Louis. MO (Grace Hill)
25th: New Orleans, LA (Other Worlds)
28th: Austin, TX
30th: Tucson, AZ
October:
1st-5th: Los Angeles, CA (amongst others: Conference of California Federation of Timebanks )
6th: San Francisco, CA
9th: Seattle, WA
10th: Portland, OR (Electrogals Frestival)
11-12th: Boise, ID (Lacey Sinn)
13th: Boulder, CO
14th: Des Moines, IA
15th: Iowa City, IA
17th: Chicago, IL
18th: Toledo, OH (Toledo Grows)
20-23th: NYC (Contact Conference and MetaCurrency Collabathon)
24th: Madison, ME
25-27th: Ontario (possibly Montreal, Toronto, London, tba)
28-29th: Detroit, MI (TimeBanking Training and Confab)
On well sounding parallel note: during the same trip Stephanie Rearick will launch her new solo album in many locations along the way, see her music-website for the dates.
Time For the World proposal version 2
Posted: 5 Aug, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »Our most recent funding proposal offers the current best expression of our direction and goals for the Time For the World project. We want to share it with you to let you know what all we’re up to and for help and outreach as we seek out the resources that can help us complete it. Please take a look, tell us what you think, and pass it around. We can’t do this without you.
Thanks.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1gUUdwijG1I7RuDXNIAEzHnGcQyvMXB5iiXPtf8A5cu4
TimeBanking recognized as public safety resource
Posted: 9 Jun, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments OffThis article on Dane County TimeBank’s (our home timebank and fiscal sponsor) Youth Court demonstrates how timebanking’s pooling of resources and catalyzing and rewarding exchange can rebuild the community capacities that really help our kids in the long run.
TimeBanks USA Conference coming up! Great opportunity for connecting.
Posted: 2 Jun, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Comments OffHello
More on this later but the TimeBanks USA Conference is starting to take shape and promises many ways to connect with people working on similar efforts. We’ll (TimeBanks USA – I say ‘we’ as a Board member and interim Co-Director) be rolling out our new open source Community Weaver 2.0 software and the Action Hub set of online learning tools, which will feature some active affinity groups working on juvenile justice, health/wellness, and family support. Plus much more that you can help create!
There’s currently a call for proposals for workshops so please share your ideas. We hope and plan to have the whole Time For The World team there and will be making plans – with anyone who wants to participate – for starting project-based experiments (Build For The World) in diverse communities, working more toward the International Timebanking Alliance, and more. Your participation is more than welcome!
Hope to see you in August.
