In mid-July the Lyttelton Timebank held its first party. 25 members gathered at my family home to enjoy a meal of sushi rolling and tiramasu. It was the first time we gathered and enjoyed each others company. Margaret Jefferies, our inspiration for our timebank and Chair of Project Port Lyttelton facilitated a discussion around trading. This blog explores the promise of a timebank and our biggest challenge – TRADING.

Our timebank has been growing organically and most weeks a couple of members have been joining. Our vivacious member coordinator has introduced another 15 members since our party and there are now 45 signed up for the timebank. Trading has been growing too, but here we have realized trading does not often happen all by itself in the early stages of development. So we are employing a timebank buddy.

Taking a step back, it is important to note that our original members we enlisted are from the first generation of Lyttelton timebankers and also from the volunteers who delivered a local newspaper, the Lyttelton News. From the start two explicit purposes have inspired members to join – those who joined to trade time and those who wished to record their volunteer hours in the community. So our aim is explicitly twofold, not only are we building a true blue timebank but we are also aiming to record and analyze the number of volunteer hours across community groups in Lyttelton.

So when I pull off the data from our Timebank database using the tools that the Community Weaver software offers I can show that there have been 5000 hours of trading....4900 are volunteer hours at Project Port Lyttelton and the Lyttelton Info Trust....100hrs are members engaging in timebank trades. This dual focus is complimentary, engaging and recording volunteer activity has also helped boost the timebank, clearly some community volunteers have participated in timebank trades. Another important outcome of using the timebank in this way is to begin formalizing a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) to demonstrate the importance of community involvement in the core economy.Although recording and developing social accounting for our community is important the focus still remains on the Timebank and how to foster and encourage members to share their time with each other.

Another challenge is that many new members have consistently been excited at the prospect of someone coming over to garden or clean. From 35 service requests 12 are for cleaning or gardening. Now that we have a good pool of members, it is time to face this reality and find out how the timebank can be involved in helping our members to get their homes clean and their gardens weed free. The next step we have taken is to employ a timebank buddy, this member will actively join in to get people together and participate in trades. It is a small step, however now that much of the nuts and bolts of the our timebank are in place it is time to focus on the needs and wants of our members.

In mid-September we held a film night at a local school, almost 60 people turned out to watch “La Double Face De La Monnaie” an excellent documentary about complimentary currencies, Timebank featured prominently. The event was a combined gathering of the Lyttelton Timebank, Canterbury Community Dollars, the Banks Peninsula Greens and Living Economies. There is definitely an interest in how we understand and use money, for anyone interested in purchasing this video here is the link;

http://mareauxcanards.ouvaton.org/films.php?choix_film=31&&affiche=synop...

Chris Twemlow - Lyttelton Timebank Coordinator