Hi. One of the members of Cowork Frederick brought TimeBanks <https://timebanks.org/> to my attention. I'm wondering if anyone has used it or something like it for their coworking communities.
At first I was super-excited about the concept, especially the aspects of everyone having something of value to offer, the non-monetary economics of every hour of work having the same value (one hour), and the changing of “How can I help you?” to: “Will you help someone too?”. I immediately wanted to do something like this for our coworking community. Then I began to have reservations that putting such an exchange in place would lead people to start thinking of everything as a trade, a transaction, instead of freely giving. I grew concerned that people would expect something in return (eventually) and if they never got it would be resentful. Then again, some of our members have already come to me and mentioned that they spent time helping another member, time they would normally get paid for, and they wished there was some way of recognizing that. And, I suspect we have "takers" in our community, people who get a lot from others and rarely give back. Creating a structure would let them know they are expected to help others when they are helped. while providing a way people with little money reciprocate. A person who gets an hour of consultation from an attorney might give back by spending an hour cleaning the break room. So, that brings me back to my question: In past GCUC's, there was talk of "Pay It Forward Walls" and the like. I don't hear much about it anymore. Has anyone in this group tried something like TimeBanks or any other way of provide a structure for giving of our time and skills? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Julia Cowork Frederick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
