Mendo Time Bank Joins the MEC

From the Fall 2009 issue of The MEC Magazine:

In pursuit of our common goals of environmental steward-
ship, community building, and social justice, Mendo Time
Bank is partnering with the MEC and will eventually be part
of MEC’s new Transition Town Ukiah project.  We think a
Time Bank should be part of every local economy.

When times get tough, our most important asset is
a resilient and supportive community.  More secure than
money in the bank, and more long-lasting than storing food
and water—creating a more self sufficient community is the
smartest investment we can make now.

Time Banking was started in the 1980s by Edgar Cahn in
Washington, DC as a way to compensate for the cutback of
social services. It has become an international phenomenon,
and there are hundreds of Time Banks all over the United
States and the world. In general they are started to help local
communities meet unmet needs with untapped resources.
Whether based in inner-city schools, jails,  or rural commu-
nities, the effect is the same: they strengthen communities
by creating incentives and markets for people to help each
other. Each hour helping somebody in the network earns
the giver one Time Dollar that they can then spend on any
other service offered by members.

A Time Bank is both a system of quantifying community
credit, and a network of people that are ready to support each
other. Time Banking is a mutual credit system, as members
can earn credit anywhere in their community and spend the
credit on anything else.  Instead of a third party charging in-
terest on the credit, we extend credit to each other without
interest.

When the national economy contracts, the supply of
money coming in to the local economy decreases, and peo-
ple spend less money at local businesses. However, because
we live in a place with abundant natural resources and local
talent, it doesn’t make sense to be dependent on a relatively
scarce currency that is beyond our control.

Having a community credit system based on time avoids
the problem of scarcity, because value is created by members
as it is needed.  It is completely independent of our national
monetary system, making it the most useful for people who
are currently undercompensated financially. Furthermore, it
is not subject to the shocks and fluctuations of a national
currency. One hour always equals one Time Dollar, and our
skills and local resources back the value.

Currently there are over a hundred members of Mendo
Time Bank, offering each other everything from bread bak-
ing to graphic design, fruit tree pruning to babysitting. They
are helping each other do childcare, window washing and
flyer posting, all with no money involved. They are also creat-
ing the kind of community and economy that will support
them no matter what.   Join in the effort to make Ukiah a
model for what the future could look like.

For more information see www.mendotimebank.
com, www.timebanks.org, or write to mendotime@
gmail.com.

— Julia Frech, co-founder, Mendo Time Bank, and
Jessica Clark, Vice President, MEC—also known on KMEC
as Chipabelle.
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