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July 10, 2008Jenny Millar, from Melbourne’s Diamond Valley LETS – Local Energy Transfer System – has written to say she’s glad they were able to help Maureen when she broke her leg.
Jenny gives us an explanation of the LETS system – essentially a volunteer-run network of self-help groups who, through barter, share skills and community support.
LETS Started In Canada In The 1980s
When his BC town faced major unemployment, Michael Linton started a ‘local currency’ of ‘credits’, to help the town survive. There are now over 2500 known groups in about 150 countries.
The system runs on the premise that every person has something to offer society, even though it may not valued commercially – cash wise. Each group is autonomous and modifies the rules to suit itself.
The groups agree to exchange individual members’ skills/talents/services for ‘credits’ or points instead of cash. You can exchange ‘credits’ with anyone in your group as well as with members of other LETS groups.
There is a minimal use of dollars. Each group has a different name for these credits- beans, diamonds, shells, melbas, echos, quolls etc.
How Does LETS Work?
- You ask for what you want, and help others with what you are offering in exchange. Joining fees and annual subscriptions are minimal, between $20 – $30to join and $12 – $25 pa depending on the group’s rules
- Each group produces a directory of skills or services being offered
- Members select the service they want from this directory, phone the person offering it, negotiate a ‘price’ in credits, and set a date suitable to both parties
- Once the transaction has taken place, different groups have different recording systems – some don’t have central records. Jenny’s group uses a transaction record book, rather like a cheque book, signed by both parties and this piece of paper is sent into the central office and recorded on a computer
- There is a wide range of skills offered: hairdressing, gardening, cooking, household help, tutoring – primary and secondary education, languages, arts and crafts, computer skills, self defence, swimming, home maintenance, locksmithing, massage, counselling, naturopathy, Reiki and a wide range of other alternative therapies
- LETS members can access most other groups in Australia through a system called InterLETS. There is also a booklet called LETS Travel Australia that sets out accommodation throughout Australia for minimal cash and LETS credits; members can travel this way, even worldwide
- Most groups do not worry if there is a debit balance on an account as this is an indication that at some later date, there is a commitment to provide a service for another member or to the group as a whole, by helping out with the general administration
- The trading is not limited to skills and services. Goods, usually secondhand are available as well. In Jenny’s group these are available through their newsletter ads page, or through an e-group that acts as an Internet notice board. These goods range from books, fruit and vegetables, clothes, all sorts of electrical goods, furniture, tools, all sorts of arts and crafts, baby goods, some car parts, plants and seedlings, whatever…
For Example
Mary bakes a cake for Jim and earns 10 credits. Then Mary gets her hair cut by Betty for 20 credits, while Jim might do some home maintenance for Peter for 10 credits.
Betty can use the 20 credits she earned doing Mary’s hair, by getting some babysitting, and so on. Money is usually only exchanged when materials are bought or used.
When baking a cake for Jim, Mary would charge $$s only for the ingredients she used and diamonds for the labour. Mary’s haircut would be diamonds only. Jim’s home maintenance might involve buying wood and nails; Peter would pay for these in cash and diamonds for Jim’s time and effort.
What’s The Catch?
You do have to contribute to the group in some way! You may have a hobby like leadlighting, or love baking cakes, or knitting beanies or be a qualified bookkeeper.
If you offer some thing exotic like translating into Swahili, then it is advisable to also offer driving or something slightly more practical, so that you can trade both credit wise and debit wise. You may have excellent secretarial skills so you could become the group secretary…
For further info you can contact Jenny: email diamondvalley_northernsuburbslets@hotmail.com.
2 Comments
Hey Jenny, Havn’t talked to you in many years. Here is the new LETS…CES. Its fabulous…check it out
Caught in the money trap? Break free by joining or starting a local Community Exchange System: CES ‘currency’ is created by its users so it can never be in short supply. So long as you can offer something of value you can have from the community skills and services of like value. Join the growing community who have discovered a new way of ‘doing’ money, a healthy currency that will create a healthy society. Join CES FREE at http://www.community-exchange.org e: info@community-exchange.org
Good to see the barter system becoming more widely recognised.
Money evolved as a medium to facilitate such exchanges.
However, money is also subject to a range of volatile interferences that are outside of our control.
As an architect managing projects traditionally valued in the millions of dollars, I would like to hear from others how such professional services are valued and can be included.