Introduction time?

[Jim Barton]

Is it appropriate, now that there are 16 members on this list; for
folks to introduce themselves and, more to the point, their projects?

I'm Jim Barton. I've been in Asheville, NC since June 2005, and
started the Asheville Currency Project in September 2005. It was
dormant from May 2006 until May 2009, when it was revived by & handed
over to Julie Schanz. I was with the group until November 2009, and am
now a Friend of the Asheville Currency Project.

I'll write up a longer version of this and put it on the Pages
section. The ACP had an awesome timeline retreat on July 28th, 2009 in
which we created an ambitious 14 month plan to launch a local
currency. I'll let one of the others say more about that. We are pre-
launch.

[Jim Barton]

I put my hometown & full name in my GoogleGroups profile-- I'd
encourage others to do the same. Unfortunately, the info flows over to
your profile for other GoogleGroups (I created this email address--
jim.avlcp -- solely for Currency use, so this is not a problem for
me).

If you are comfortable doing so, I'd encourage you to put your full
name, hometown and local currency website in your profile.

[Julie Schantz Schantz]

hello everyone. thanks for taking the lead, jim.

i heard of alt currencies about 7 years ago and felt that asheville
would be the perfect candidate for one but never did anything about
it. finally, in early 2009 i got inspired and started searching
online and talking to people in town and created a list of about 10
folks who might be as interested as i was in seeing this through. i
didn't personally know any of them but a handful responded, so in may
2009 we started meeting and planning and researching and are still
trying to learn the ins and outs, but have come a long way. i am very
proud of this project.

we were very fortunate to co-host a thomas greco event last
september. he really brought our understanding of the big picture to
a new level. we also have bob leroy, accountant for ithaca hours,
helping us with tough tax questions. he actually lives in asheville
most of the year. hooray for us!

we have about 10 advisory committee members who are there for us if/
when we need their advice . this committee consists of respected
business owners, lawyers, accountants, and other wise community members.

there are now 4 coordinating committee members, including myself, who
deal with pretty much everything. last fall we also had 3 hard-
working interns from UNCA, and while we have a long list of
volunteers, only a few have helped out thus far. we are optimistic
though. we plan on adding 1 or 2 more people to the coordinating
committee as well.

tonight at midnight, voting ends for the contest we held to name the
currency. this is very exciting, of course. we asked the community
to nominate names (we received over 70) and *friends of the ACP* were
able to vote for the winner. *friends of the ACP*, for a lack of
better description, is our democratic, decision-making body. for only
$5 or 10 LETS (www.ashevillelets.org), or one hour of volunteer time,
anyone can become a *friend of the ACP* and have voting rights on
certain decisions.

in 2 weeks, 3 of the 4 coordinators, will begin an 8 week business
course so we can create an actual business plan and hopefully form the
best business structure for our purpose. this has been one of our
biggest hurdles; trying to figure out our structure.

i would love to hear from others what has worked/not worked, in
regards to the business structure. LLC, or non-profit? and if you
are an LLC (or other for-profit), where is your revenue coming from?
in the beginning were you fiscally sponsored by a non-profit?

i really look forward to hearing from others.

wishing you well,

Julie Schantz
Asheville Currency Project Coordinator
www.AVLcurrency.com
Mural Painter/Henna Tattoo Artist
828.216.2123
jool...@gmail.com

[Blue Ridge Mountain Exchange]

Thank you Jim. My name is Richard Cook. I am the founder of the Blue Ridge Mountain Exchange of Roanoke VA where we hope to start an alternative local currency. Our website is www.ournokies.org. I keep in touch with Tom Greco and strongly support his concept of mutual credit exchanges as the way to go with local currency systems.