Fwd: How has the CES helped you? (Levies to be charged)
Chris Caston
From: Community Exchange Network <ad...@community-exchange.org>
Date: Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 10:32 PM
Subject: How has the CES helped you? (Levies to be charged)
To: pc...@community-exchange.org
| Community Exchange Network Update |
| 10 August 2010 |
|
This Update is an occasional letter from the Administrator of the Community Exchange Network |
Dear Perth Community Exchange,
How has the CES helped you?
Dear administrators and users of the exchange,
Just over 6 years ago a friend introduced me to the Talent Exchange and I went along to my first market bearing herb cuttings from my garden. I was impressed by the expected honesty in the hall. Everyones' wares laid out, a trading sheet on the table and you just wandered up, filled in your account number and a description of the goods you had helped yourself to. It felt free and easy and happy, lots of love and laughter, a brand new way of doing money.
Since then I have become the biggest earner and spender on the exchange. I make it work for me. I have a disability, so shopping and getting out and about have been difficult. I can still drive, so now I can shop with real people from my car or at a market day. I can pay people to help me rather than having to take advantage of my friends. I have made a huge new circle of friends. I have become exceedingly generous, as CES credits are so easy to earn and have to be spent. I no longer have to listen to my father's voice in my head talking about 'hard-earned money' and 'save for a rainy day', and 'money doesn't grow on trees'. This is heart money. The more you give the more you get back in return.
When I needed a wheelchair, one came on offer on the exchange. When I needed an electric disability scooter, one came on offer on the exchange. When I got my new service dog and wanted to reward my trainers and the staff at the training centre (they were not allowed to accept money) I gave them gift vouchers for a treatment at the local spa, which accepts CES credits. The Community exchange has enriched my life, has led me into the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich areas and everywhere in between.
I have subsequently become a board member of the CES, I am the steward of the Cape Town exchange and administrator of most of the South African exchanges. I have now become aware of the vast amount of resources that have been put into this system by a very few individuals. I really do feel it is time that everyone contributes.
In order to maintain the system, monthly expenditures and large once off expenses still need to be paid for. We have ongoing expenses in the form of banking fees, internet bandwidth, web-hosting and we need to raise money for a new computer server. In South Africa a portion of our levies goes to the central exchange GLOG0000. This has up to now been on a donation basis. There is a donation button on the front page of the web site. A huge thank you to those individuals and exchanges that have been contributing.
It was decided a while back, in January 2009, that all exchanges around the world should contribute via levies. This is now finally going to be implemented from the end of September 2010. 1% of your trade will need to be paid over to the CES. This can either be paid in your local currency (CES credits) from levies or, if you do not have levies, in your fiat (national) currency, or you may elect to do a mixture of the two.
Should you decide to make payment in fiat (national) currency you will need to do so physically at a bank and make a foreign exchange payment to:
Branch: Rondebosch
Branch address:
Branch tel no: +27 21 658 4160
Branch code: 10480911
Swift code: NEDSZAJJ
Account number: 1048086712
Type: Nedbank Current Account
The Directors
Community Exchange Systems
B8 Linden Park
Liesbeek Road
Rosebank
7700
South Africa
Let's enrich our own lives and the lives of everyone around us through our use and maintenance of 'heart' money.
Sincerely,
Dawn Pilatowicz
Board Member - Community Exchange Systems
da...@ces.org.za
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Community Exchange Network Administration
Email: ad...@community-exchange.org
Web: www.community-exchange.org
This web service is provided by the Community Exchange System (CES)
ne...@mail.org
Ted Russ
"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"
angie lyndon
| Are you sure it is not from NIgeria?? I think all Lets type systems should be autonomous and not have financial ties to anywhere else Not necessary or customary ange --- On Thu, 12/8/10, ne...@mail.org <ne...@mail.org> wrote: |
Chris Caston
Trevor Holland
NOW I remember how much your efforts as our system administrator are appreciated.
I've been delaying my reply as I prepared a suggestion to go for an open source alternative and have struggled to find one. At first glance, the CCLite system of Chris's latest message looks good.
In the short term we probably don't need to make the switch .... our trading value is quite low at the moment so the 1% levy of that is virtually nothing.
Longer term, I have difficulty with any closed source system because their ideal start-up ethos tends to get corrupted over time. Open source systems have the BIG advantage that if corruption does show up, members (users) are always able to "fork the code" and begin anew without needing to start from scratch. Very quickly one sees that the most ethically and justly administered systems attract the most trading, and those who have "lost their way" tend to wither and die, but the movement goes on and the zeitgeist remains.
The best thing seems to be to stay focused on the key asset of the trust level that we build with each other rather than worry too much about which accounting system is being used, but steadily move toward the one that works best with this group's core values. To that end, the core of ANY currency system (alternate OR legacy) is trust or credit-worthiness. That gets built quicker with lots of trading, but it can also happen via these frank and open discussions right here.
CES were supposed to be going Open Source but as they chase revenue streams then an Open Source version will get much lower priority, even being seen as a financial threat probably. I for one will be watching closely, happy in the knowledge that we can move to Open Source for our subset of CES when and if we need to.
I'm glad to be part of this group!
best regards
Trev
Trev Holland
+61 403 078 661
www.hypertrike.org
LoGo "Courier" # US-051
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Ted Russ
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"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"
Chris Caston
Chris Caston
angie lyndon
| the old freo system ran on a programme specially developed by one of the members called unnat [spiritual name] and it was fine i have not got his number but i can get it it worked well for a long time - just they could not get anyone to do the admin when the last person got tired of it............... i was living interstate when it closed- it used to have regular meetings where people got to see and trust each other or not which kept it going ange --- On Fri, 13/8/10, Ted Russ <teddl...@gmail.com> wrote: |
Timothy White
I would happily run something on my VPS colocated in Perth (same as
one of PLUG's server). As long as it's not a memory hog or anything.
My preference for software on my VPS is PHP based software, as then I
don't need to install anything extra. As long as I can run cclite
through an Apache Vhost, then I've got not problems hosting it.
Even though I've now "left" the Perth CEX, I still wish to be involved
in it in what ever way I can (those not part of PLUG, I have moved to
QLD).
I also don't agree with the fee's being talked about.
Thanks Chris for your hard work.
Tim