"Andrea* is a busy, working mother.  For her, time is not always in abundance.  Andrea loves her garden and had a last-minute improvement on her September to-do list: transplant her strawberries.  This year, she was not able to find the time to indulge in her hobby.  Instead, she called up Kurt and asked if he could give her a hand.   

Kurt lives 20 minutes away from Andrea, two towns over.  Kurt is not listed in the Yellow Pages for transplanting strawberries.  Yet he came down to Montpelier on a beautiful late-summer weekend to help Andrea out.  Both Andrea and Kurt are members of the Onion River Exchange (ORE), a time bank project in central Vermont.  Andrea compensated Kurt for his time, but not in U.S. dollars.  Not in two hours of labor at Kurt’s home either.  She gave him “Community Credits” – one for each hour he was working in her garden.       

In a time banking network like ORE, the cost of services and goods is based on time, and one hour equals one hour regardless of the value in dollars and cents.  A time bank benefits from an entire community’s services pooled together, as opposed to a typical barter exchange where two individuals trade services.  In an ORE exchange Kurt can earn Community Credits for transplanting strawberries for Andrea and he can spend them on plumbing, a massage, a ride to the airport, entertainment for a party, legal consultation, Spanish lessons, or website construction.  

A social system

Dr. Edgar Cahn introduced the idea of time banking in the 1980s after he was in a debilitating accident.  Cahn’s accident awoke him to how it felt being dependent on social services and charities. He knew that he was still capable of helping other people, and resented the limitations of the market economy.  He created a new form of currency, Time Dollars, which offers a new approach to addressing some of the problems our society faces.  He based his strategy on five core values: everyone has something to contribute, redefining the idea of work, helping works better when it is reciprocal, networks are stronger than individuals, and every human being matters.  

Time banking as a social system seeks to revitalize and strengthen a community’s fabric, be it a town, neighborhood, school, or senior activity center.  By connecting members of a community to each other through exchanges of valuable services, a time bank breaks down fences between neighbors one exchange at a time.  These networks ask that everyone in a community be involved, so people often meet individuals they would not meet otherwise.  In the Onion River Exchange a teenager might clean gutters for an elderly citizen, an electrician might receive a Reiki healing session, or a Montpelier resident might work at the LACE craft gallery in Barre.

Time bank programs have been started around the world.  From the United Kingdom to Jerusalem to Rio de Janeiro, time banks are being implemented to alleviate the isolation of being a minority, elderly, young, impoverished, or simply part of our increasingly disconnected society.  In the U.S. there are time banks from coast to coast, including three currently operating time banks in Vermont: the Burlington Time Bank, the Middlebury Time Bank, and the Onion River Exchange, central Vermont’s time bank. Each time bank was created in a different way and is designed to fulfill different needs in its community. Time banks are also being formed in the Barnard/Bethel area and in Brattleboro.
    
Time?  I don’t have any more time!

We can find time bank members to perform the chores and errands we are not able to do, do not like to do, or do not have time to do.  Time bank members spend their Community Credits to get chores done, and they save their time to spend doing the things they love.  When someone weeds your garden you have an extra hour or two to play with your kids, enjoy one of your hobbies, or just stop and take a breath.  If you have an open hour because a time bank member mowed your lawn, why not earn credit by doing one of your hobbies for someone else?  You earn time doing things you enjoy or which are easy for you; you spend time through other time bank members helping you do something you detest.  Imagine: “saving time” and “spending time” are redefined!

What can I offer?

Many people say that they have nothing they can offer, but that is never the case.  Many people, aside from members who offer their professional services, simply lend a hand to members who need it.  Can you fold fliers for a nonprofit?  Can you give someone a ride or provide advice for gardening, computers, or education? Can you prepare a dish for someone who hates cooking? These are all extremely valuable services; time banking values them in ways the market economy does not. Many people are already engaging in time bank-like exchanges with family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Time banks like ORE simply seek to strengthen those connections and create new ones.

The nuts and bolts

The Onion River Exchange, like many of the larger time banks, uses on-line software that allows each member to manage his or her own account, much like on-line banking.  The software has an on-line marketplace where a member can view the requests and offers of other members, like the Yellow Pages.  The software is useful, but all time bank members do not need to be computer users.  ORE, for example, offers an internet buddy system. In fact, many time banks use a paper ledger system!    

Members browse the service directory like the phone book, using categories to separate the various services offered.  Each member then contacts the service provider they are interested in “hiring” for Community Credits.  Once the exchange is complete, the provider of the service submits the hours that were exchanged.

Weaving social fabric

The web of relationships that form because of individual exchanges is one of the great things about a time bank.  In the Onion River Exchange, Paulette makes quilts – beautiful ones!  She made a quilt that took 40 hours for Eleanor.  Those 40 hours of Paulette’s were spent on fixing up her quilting room: Jane installed bright overhead lighting (13 hours) and Rachel raised her quilting table a few inches to make it more comfortable (two hours).  Rachel also earned hours from Paulette by laundering quilts in her own washer/dryer (six hours).  Rachel spent all those Community Credits she earned on a piano teacher giving her grandson piano lessons!
On another occasion, Kevin earned Community Credits as a member of a nonprofit board of directors.  This nonprofit is an organizational member of a time bank.  It encourages its members to be active in the time bank by offering them Community Credits for typical volunteer duties: posting fliers, bulk mailings, outreach, and even web design.  Kevin also increased his account balance by helping a local business throw a street party.  He earned Community Credits by helping to set up and selling ice cream sandwiches.  Kevin spent his Community Credits receiving complementary health consultations: a Thai yoga massage, a chiropractic analysis; he even had a quilt made from old T-shirts.  

Aside from all the cash that was saved, these time bank members formed relationships with the person with whom they have done the exchange.  It is this network of trust that is the groundwork for other complementary currencies.

The nonprofit organizations that are members attract new workers and participants. The Central Vermont Community Action Council spends Community Credits to find members to staff their craft gallery at the LACE storefront in Barre, and offers classes in business and finance to earn Community Credits.    

The Montpelier Parks Department used ORE members at its recent Enchanted Forest fund-raising event, as did Food Works at Two Rivers at the Garlic Festival.  The time bank encourages people to help at nonprofits, and it also gives nonprofits a way to compensate volunteers.    

These layers of city government, nonprofits and businesses, neighborhood and individuals, are all connected through the time bank.  Each exchange that occurs is another thread spun to strengthen our neighborhoods and our communities.

*All names have been changed to protect members’ identities.

Joanna Dillon and Monica Kimball are the former director and current director of the Onion River Exchange (ORE), a time bank project in central Vermont.