Notes from the last meeting

[Holly H]

Hello all,

Attached and included below are the notes from this week's meeting. Key discussions include dues, orientations vs. references, coming in with hours or not and what roles would need to be filled to keep the the timebank running smoothly. If you have any questions or thoughts, please share with the group!

In solidarity,

Holly

SD Timebank Planning Meeting – Tuesday August 16, 2011

EcoPark Review

• someone has to attend an orientation in order to apply

• once/month orientations at a library = always happening

• 2 references/person

References, Applications, Orientations

We had a long discussion about references, about whether we should have them, how we need to consider our liability, the safety of everyone, and how much work we want to give coordinators. Some discussion centered around:

• Seems like we are policing and we don't want to do that, this isn't a loan or something!

• Anti-reference: one more hoop to go through, we may need to verify certificates or licenses; the receiver could be asking for TB test for childcare, building license, etc. to take the burden off the group; in terms of a liability sense, we put ourselves in a grey area if we are saying we're going to be referencing

Applications – only useful for rejecting people? Or is it an introduction? We could route it more towards an orientation process, so we can have face-to-face introductions, and if they go against that, we have a reason to remove someone

After a long discussion about background checks, we decided that we will NOT require references, but that orientations will be required, and that transaction histories will be public and transparent so that people can see if someone has been recommended, used many times, etc. We also decided that we will put a warning/disclaimer on the website talking about being responsible for asking for references!

So, in essence, the language used during orientation can create necessary structure for people to choose when “hiring” people; so if you have key questions, address them with those people! Remember: this is like a regular transaction, just without money!

Roles

Do we want one main coordinator, or to subdivide tasks into a coordinating group?

We decided that we would prefer subdividing tasks as opposed to having a sole coordinator; it creates a support system and less reliance on a single person.

• manage googlelist

• website

• planning social events

• planning orientations

• outreach

  • responding to inquiries

• offline help (google number, printing out lists, etc.)

• online help

• handling disputes

• followup

• social media maven

• treasurer

We would like to invite people to take responsibility for these roles. If you are interested, let us know at the next meeting or send the group something to let us know!

Money/Dues

Dues: sliding scale vs. minimum fee or flat fee, suggested donation for your income bracket – people can respect it or not

$5-$40 sliding scale, open-ended, give what you can, $5 floor, explain what it goes towards

Coming in with hours?

There is always a balance of zero, where there is the same amount of people giving and receiving

--

Holly Hellerstedt
(951) 486.1613

CSSC, Website Director, Board Member
connecting students from across California to make our universities more sustainable
http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/

Citizens Climate Lobby
creating the political will for a sustainable climate
http://www.citizensclimatelobby.org/

[Raffi Aftandelian]

Holly, thanks so much for posting this! It is so helpful, I believe, for those who weren't there to have notes.

I just want to add a few things:

Present at the meeting:

Sally Tinker Smith, Jeff, Holly, Kayden (sp?), Andrea, and Raffi

And to clarify what is meant by "EcoPark Review":

This was a review of the Timebanking set-up that exists in Echo Park (Los Angeles).

One suggestion was to simply adopt the approach to TB that there is in Echo Park and spend less time, as a consequence, thinking all the different questions through.

And as an action step-as mentioned earlier- Andrea is inviting anyone who wishes to to join her in identifying alternative open source platforms for timebanking. We gave ourselves one month to make a final decision on the choice of timebank.

We still need to identify time/date and location of the next two TB meetings.

Prabha, you'd stepped forward with your place any alternative dates you'd like to offer for a meeting?

Other highlights: Andrea's kimchee  and Sally's spearmint iced tea...and just the wonderful house that sally and jeff have.

I think that's it.

appreciatively,
raffi
 

powered by ubuntu 10.4

---

From: Holly H <ecoh...@gmail.com>
To: sdtim...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 1:36 PM
Subject: [sdtimebank] Notes from the last meeting

--
This message was sent to subscribers of the "sdtimebank" Google group.
Only members only may post, but archives are public.
For more info, visit tat http://groups.google.com/group/sdtimebank?hl=en