Fern Lampron and Faith Minton signed me up. It took me a while to figure out that this wasn\'t about barter.
As an old dog I don’t learn new tricks easily or without growsing. And so it was with the Time Bank trick. If I give you an hour of my video production time in exchange for an hour of your window washing time, since when is THAT an equal exchange? It took me a while to get it, but when I did, I signed right up. It’s a revelation when you realize that even if you are a barely-scraping-by freelancer not every hour in your life oughta be monetized.
Here’s my Time Bank epiphany: Got a spare hour? Give it. Need an extra hour? Get it.
Joan, my lovely bride of lo these 40 years, was a Warner time banker from the beginning, and as soon as Fern Lampron got the Warner Time Bank up and running last month (timebanks.org charges a fee for local groups to use its online software) Joan signed up. She offered her services as a mushroom hunter, and quickly earned 7 hours in the time bank by taking people out into the woods. And then she began claiming her hours back.
Faith Minton showed up for a couple of hours to help wash windows, thereby adding two hours to her time bank account. And Joan delivered a broken chair to another member, cashing in another of her hours to get the chair (that I had been claiming for six months that I would fix) fixed. Just like that.
The Time Bank site is actually pretty well done...you can browse the list of offers, as well as the list of what people need.
I began to get it. I scratch your back. You scratch somebody else’s. They scratch yet another’s…and eventually I’m going to want to ask yet even some other person to return the favor that may have moved all around the community. My hour is your hour. Mi hora es tu hora. And when I need it, your hour is mine. (Ok, Ok. So yes, I posted a video blog back in April about the Warner Time Bank when it was just starting, and yes, it took me this long to sign up.)
Maybe some Warner time bankers will put share some of their stories via comments on this blog. And if you want to join the Warner bank, or see if there’s one in your town, click here.
