How to put on a "Design your own Currency" Workshop
Learning Objectives
- participants will be able to identify, differentiate and determine the appropriate uses of a gift currency, a time currency, an unredeemable token currency, a redeemable proxy currency and a tax-collection currency
- participants will feel enthousiastic about the growing field of community currencies while realizing it is still very experimental
- participants with a design background (PDC?) will be able to design a currency as a component of wholistically solving a real problem they are familiar with
Prepare before the workshop
- samples of all the various types of community currencies (and some proxy yang currencies)
- prepare Yin and Yang attribute cards (ed note: insert content of the cards here or in a separate wiki page)
Introduction
- form a semi-circle so everyone can see the center of the circle
- Ask participants to throw whatever currency they have on themselves into the middle of the circle (throw your own collection in)
- only one example of each currency, otherwise it can take a long time to setup and cleanup
- lay down the Yin and Yang attribute cards (might be better to do that while waiting for session to start as a stimulant)
- quickly explain the spectrum and ask participants to help you justify where the various currencies fit on the spectrum (place them)
Table of Contents
- The Permaculture of Money: observe the flow of currency, find ways to capture and retain it, aim for inputs=outputs, share surplus
- explain that currency always goes in the opposite direction of goods and services
- national currencies tend to pool around the 1%, creating treasure chests and stimulating long distance trading
- successful CC tend to build community, stimulating local, ethical and ecologically-friendly trading
- bilateral barter is only useful for the two parties involved; currencies involve the entire community
- Ying Yang spectrum
- 12 Yang: tax collection, competition, debt-based, quick profit, fear-based, interest (musical chairs), scarcity-requiring, efficient, treasure-hoarding, idealistic, exponential-curve pattern, long-distance trading for 10,000 years
- 12 Yin: gift circles, cooperation, mutual-credit, long-term planning, trust-based, demuragge (negative interest rate), abundance, community-building, appropriate, realistic, sine-curve pattern, star trek (all imagined technologies are now real except moneyless economy)
- 5 archetypes: Da Vinci Tai Chi move altogether (make sure to reverse the moves when in front of the group):
- warrior, engineer, nurturer, lover, and integrator : upshot: we need them all; we need yang and yin currencies
- 4 stories: High Middle Ages, Ancient Egypt, Municipal Scrip 1933, Argentina, (and mention the 1000s experiments going on now)
- 4-part Make Money exercise: Catalog on cards for all to see; write out IOU cheque vouchers, circulate for a bit, debrief
- 4 Detailed explanations: Gift Circles, Timebank, Seedstock (and if time allows, explain how national money works in comparison)
- Gift Economies: jungle tribes, potlach, Burning Man, Seedy Saturdays, freecycle, opensource, scientific knowledge, mathematics, language, wikipedia, blood donations, homeless, monasteries/convents, nature, hundreds of sharing websites
- TimeBank/LETS exercise: ask everyone to write down 3 offers; then ask them to write 3 requests (usually much harder to do); have them present to the group (point out how effortless the community-building feels like) ; ask them for homework to enter these into their nearest timebank website or equivalent
- Seedstock (or other proxy currency): simulate how it works using participants as actors (businesses, Non-profits, government, supporters/volunteers, and matchmaker/catalog keeper)
- 4 components of CC success (to avoid the 80% failure rate since 1983):
- Constant Catalog Updates
- Active Matchmaker,
- Transparent Accounting (and appropriate medium: digital, paper vouchers, relationship to national currency)
- Respect Gifts (do not monetize remaining gift economies, and allow natural transition of CC to gift economy)
- Real live example of CC design using a participant's project
Stories
- anecdotes about Bernard Lietaer the co-designer of the Euro, Michael Linton the local and global pioneer
- the story of the High Middle Ages
- the story of Ancient Egypt
- the story of stamp scrip in USA and Austria
- the story of Argentina 2002
- the story of LETS and Timebanking
- the story of Seedstock and Transition Towns currencies
- optionally: the story of chiralkine (quantum) money
Possible Extensions
- If time and interest allow, discuss Yang Money Reform from the last 2 decades:
- crowdfunding, microlending, deSoto's people capitalism, ethical mutual funds, fair trade, triple bottom line, etc
- compare and contrast with community currencies and pure gift economies
- invite participants to take an online course in Community Currencies
Feedback
- always ask for feedback at the end: what worked , what can be improved in the presentation ? (take a good 5 minutes)