Bay Area Community Exchange (BACE) Timebank

Tuesday Tip: New in Town? Try Timebanking! Have you just moved to the Bay Area, CA? The BACE Timebank can be a good way to build community. Make a request to have another timebanker help you acclimate to your new surroundings. Join the Pet Care group to get information about the best vets in the area or to find someone to pet sit. Join the Employment Resources Group for support in looking for work. Make an offer and share one of your skills or talents. Learn more at www.bace.org. #newintown #freeresources #peoplehelpingpeople #petcare #jobs

Tuesday Tip #Two: Get Timebanked for Reducing Housing Costs The Advocacy & Social Justice timebank group is gearing up to work on a three California-focused housing campaigns related to living in condominiums: 1) Dispute Mediation 2) Banning Excessive Late Fees on HOA Dues 3) Elevating Renters' Voices If these issues are important to you or you work on other campaigns and want to get paid in time currency for your (unpaid) volunteer/community work, please join the BACE Timebank--it's free. At your dashboard, add the Advocacy & Social Justice group to your account. You can even join if you live outside the Greater Bay Area, CA. #housing #socialjustice #advocate #advocacy #timecurrency

Tuesday Tip: A Thank-you is Nice, but You Can Do More! In addition to the verbal thank you, some organizations give their volunteers gift cards or free food and beverages, or points to be exchanged via a third-party volunteer perks program. Imagine showing gratitude by gifting time! When your organization and volunteers belong to a timebank, your organization can "return" volunteered time to the volunteer. Volunteers can then use those credit hours to purchase personal services and goods they want. Most timebanks are free to join and use. Also, purchases your volunteers make with their time credits are typically outside the purview of your organization or third-party perks program, which honors volunteer privacy and enhances the usefulness of the gift of time. A thank-you is expected. Returning time is not. Go ahead, be a vanguard. Be the first to make your volunteers whole. Join a timebank today! #nonprofits #philanthropy #volunteermanagement #volunteering #socialjustice

Tuesday Tip: How to Talk Up a Timebank Every prospective member I've met grew up on a diet of capitalism. They find it difficult, if not impossible, to consider that a non-monetary system of exchange (that is *not* barter!) exists, is effective, and builds community. They find it easier to complain about capitalism than to supplement it with some timebanking. I can't blame them. I mean, realistically, if I'm talking to a person with 40 years of capitalism experience, a good place to live, a nice car, and a 401(k) plan, they're pretty much hooked for good! I must rely on momentary boredom or inability to resist a challenge to nudge them toward trying timebanking. Thank goodness for those moments! If you're a timebank organizer seeking tailored advice peppered with some healthy cynicism, please reach out to BACE Timebank for guidance in exchange for time credit. Ask for Monica. #coordinator #socialcredit #time #capitalism

Tuesday Tip: Delegating is a Win-Win In the timebank world, one person's work is another person's relaxation. If household or garden tasks feel like a chore to you, it may be another person's joy. Maybe you don't care for washing dishes or tending to the garden, but you certainly appreciate a clear sink and a beautiful garden. By asking timebankers to do tasks they enjoy, you'll learn that delegating is a win-win. Don't do work you don't enjoy and give others a chance to do work they really enjoy (and earn time credit while doing it)--become a timebanker today! #redefinework #buildcommunity #socialcredit #support #winwin

Tuesday Tip: Five Ways to Make Ends Meet If you're on a fixed income or between jobs here are five free/low-cost resources to look for in your community: 1. Food bank 2. Dental school (for low/no cost dental care) 3. County hospital or neighborhood clinics 4. County employment resources 5. Local timebank Please add to the list. Good health is important as you interview and prepare to re-enter the workforce. The county offers various employment resources. Timebankers can help with motivation and accountability or resume review and interview role play. #freeresources #jobs #unemployment #healthcare #fixedincome

California Coastal Cleanup Day 2024 - September 21 If you are participating in Coastal Cleanup Day in the Bay Area as a registered volunteer of the event organized by the California Coastal Commission or unofficially by clearing waterways and storm drains of debris in your #neighborhood, you can earn hours for your service through BACE. Join BACE Timebank (it's free). Then add yourself to the Neighborhood Cleanup group. Shortly after the event, send a pic of the debris you removed and the number of hours of service. We'll deposit 1 hour of time credit into your account for every 1 hour of service you give your #community. #volunteering #coastalcleanupday #marine #ocean #water #environment

Tuesday Tip: Timebanking - Use as Intended When you buy a product there is usually some insert in 3-4 languages telling you how to use the product (and what not to do with the product). There is always some creative person somewhere who will try to use the product in a way it was not intended to be used. Timebanking is not much different. When well-intentioned people use timebanking in ways that it was not designed to be used, various problems occur. A community might hold a music event touting the impact of timebanking, but there is no mention of how many units of time were exchanged to bring the event to life. This lack of transparency may cause confusion about the source of "funding" for the event, how timebanking works, and whether timebanking is useful on an individual or community level. Timebanking is a powerful way to bring people together, but let's not forget organizers who sacrifice time away from their families, jobs, pets, sleep, and exercise to make it happen. Keep timebanking alive by being transparent about time costs for your events. And, keep timebanking simple. Be mindful of the five principles of timebanking and send workers units of time for their service. #volunteermanagement #transparency #funding #communitybuilding

Tuesday Tip: Timebanking Improves Vision In timebanking, when two strangers exchange time for services/goods more than once, perhaps several times, they may become friends. I recall interviewing one timebanker about this experience, and she said that even though they had know each other for years since that first time-service exchange, she still timebanks her friend today. However, the converse doesn't quite track the same way. If I were to ask an acquaintance/friend to join a timebank and start recording our time-service exchanges, she may be offended. Timebanking adds a level of accountability in a relationship that may feel uncomfortable, especially for the least reciprocal of the pair. When examining your friendships through the lens of timebanking principles, don't be surprised if your vision improves. #reciprocity #accountability #freeresources

I appreciate when people give media time to timebanking but less so when their guests try to rename it or use "barter" as though it is interchangeable with "time banking". It's concerning, but not unexpected, that guests on Freakonomics were discussing time banking from an economic lens without also mentioning that time banking is grounded in five (social) principles identified by Edgar Cahn. I name them the 5 R's of time banking for easy recall: recognizing that everyone is an asset to their community, redefining work, reciprocity, (re-)building community/networks, respect for the individual for where they're at not where you want them to be. Time banking is not solely an economic system. I don't believe it was meant to be a "scalable way to run a significant part of the economy." Edgar Cahn's principals of time banking indicate that the intention of time banking is to value human contribution in a way that is sometimes absent in economic systems.? Time banking is a socioeconomic system that can be used in conjunction with other economic systems. Let's keep learning about time banking, but let's explore the economic component of time banking within the context of the social component.