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Local Paper Currency
I came across a superb idea in my friend's Yes magazine. There was an article concerning
about local currencies across the country. Various communities issue their own money such as Berk Shares,
Ithaca Hours, Berkeley Bread and Detroit Cheers. Locally there is North Fork Shares which was started
about 2 months ago to help the depressed economy there. The town took a hit when the sawmill closed
in 1994. The major advantage to local money is that money stays in the local economy and is used as
barter. It's not like shopping at Walmart with the profits going to company headquarters in Ark. You can
go on abclocal.go.com to read more about Dale Yurong's report about North Fork Shares.
Another advantage is that new businesses starting from local currencies will replace
imported items with locally produced items. This in turn will be environmentally sustainable in that
these items will not have to be transported over long distances with fossil fuels.
Berk Shares are a local currency designed and issued for the Berkshire region of Mass-
achuetts. According to their website, residents purchase at 95 cents on the dollar from 5 local banks.
Over 370 businesses accept Berk Shares along with over 70 area nonprofits. There is an increasing
local economic multipilier effect as there is 2.2 million Berk Shares in circulation. The money was
launched on Sept. 29, 2006 with assistance from the E.F. Schumacher Society.
The Green Hope Veterans are currently looking for a volunteer with computer graphics experience to
design a local green currency, Lowell Warrior Bucks. For more info contact me @ 519-5751 or
e-mail me @ brazil8846@gmail.com.
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Comment by Rachel Carpenter on July 3, 2010 at 10:52pm -
Eugene,
This is done very commonly all over the world without paper money or script. It's known as Local Exchange Trading System, or LETS. Anyone can read up on it by checking wikipedia or googleing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Exchange_Trading_Systems
Rachel
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Comment by Steve Popenoe on July 17, 2010 at 6:53am -
I love the idea, Gene. I've been trying to dream up ways to encourage folks to keep our money local, too. Like developing a rating system for businesses to show how locally beneficial they are, based mostly on whether they spend their money locally. It would be difficult to audit companies to make sure they are sticking to their local commitments without some sort of local money system. I really like the idea of LETS also. I feel a little bit too ignorant to completely jump on board. Do we know anyone with experience in these local money systems who might make a presentation for some of us? I'd like to help start a local business that commits to using the local money or LETS exclusively, at least for purchases. Woohoo! Rock on!
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Comment by Lisa Walzem on July 18, 2010 at 1:18pm -
The Santa Cruz downtown merchants have something along those lines. A gift card bought in any of the participating members stores is good in any other member's store. A cool idea.
The is a Fresno independent business association in the works aka FRIBA. My husband is part of the group. Email him tom@ottocreative.com maybe that could be part of their plan.
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Comment by Victor Ramayrat on July 20, 2010 at 12:00pm -
Hello Eugene,
I hope all is well.
I've observed (and read up) on some business models about Local initiatives; in particular, BALLE, strikes me as the leading organization for such. Hoping to get something started, I registered the domain name LocalFirstFresno.com, while having a placeholder social networking site to gauge interest.
Socient, my web marketing business, is part of the Buy Local campaign here in the Central Valley, although it has a different approach to buying local. It is a successful marketing campaign as far as branding is concerned, but have yet to measure if there was consumer shift to spending locally.
I would like to participate in whatever capacity I can contribute to move your idea forward. I am willing to give up localfirstfresno.com/org domain names to the non-profit initiative that could get it going. I think that it will be great complement to "fresno shares" or "cv shares"...
My office conference room in downtown Fresno is open for any startup/feasibility meeting that you want to hold... Just let me know the date/time that is convenient for everyone that's interested so I could reserve it.
Cheers...
Victor
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