Is this statement true, or a truism...

I believe it is a bit of both and this is a good issue for a Time Bank to think through

Being true, then a time bank needs to be able to “save time” for its members. When a service in the everyday world in the everyday world is purchased the currency of exchange is money for time. Using the Time Bank system the currency of exchange is time for time. Purchasing a service is perceived as being convenient, so the Time Bank needs to be equally easy to utilize. A Time Bank can help its members save money, because we are not using any cash to purchase a service, working longer hours can be less necessary. The adage of “working smarter not harder” applies in the case of Time Bank. The Time Bank must be a place where we want to spend time.

As a truism, it is easy to imagine we have no time, being busy becomes an automatic response to a greeting, and a badge of personal identity that may not always be true. Living in a modern economy is participating in the hype and speed of the latest and greatest. It is easy to find ourselves running around trying to get everything done. Life = Busy. Occasionally it is constructive to audit our lives to see how much time we spend doing what we do. Can our busi-ness be more thoughtful and socially constructive? Time Bank challenges members to think differently about the time we use.

Time Bank offers a model of exchange that promotes a lifestyle of building cohesive communities. When we invite a Time Bank member to help with an activity, trust is established and our understanding of our community increases. We discover who can share in taking our kids to school in the morning. We get to know a trustworthy person to collect our mail and keep an eye on our home when we go on holiday. We get to offer skills we want to provide. In building communities in this way we become more self sufficient, potentially taking pressure off tax subsidized services.

Using a very simple economic equation, the Time Bank system can be as easy to utilize as money, our challenge is to find ways to realistically help members use the Time Bank well. On a larger scale the Time Bank needs to deliver on its promise of strengthening communities so that national agencies can measure the cost saving benefits.

At Project Port Lyttelton we believe Lyttelton is becoming a model for how communities can be personal and supportive places to live. Evidence of this was 'Imagine: Lyttelton and the Harbour basin a conversation with the future and the Harbour basin – a Conversation with the Future. 81 people living in the small Christchurch suburb of Lyttelton and its surrounds spent the whole day of a national holiday work-shopping together to build visions for our place. This is just one arrow in the quiver of community-building and the Lyttelton Time Bank is another. Our actions to rebuild community through sharing and participatory democracy are a key to mitigating the remote technocratic and impersonal corporatizing of our social landscape. To discover more about our approach visit us at http://www.lyttelton.net.nz