{"id":44443,"key":"Community_Currencies_Workshop","title":"Community Currencies Workshop","latest":{"id":1209687,"timestamp":"2025-11-28T02:59:52Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"== How to put on a \"Design your own Currency\" Workshop ==\n\nThis page and its companion [[Community Currencies]] were compiled (originally) by Bruno Vernier as part of the Permaculture Diploma process to learn about 'permaculture of money'. Contact: bruno.vernier at gmail.com\n\n== Learning Objectives ==\n\n* participants will totally get that the heart of community currency is 'community building' and 'relationship building'\n* 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\n* participants will feel enthousiastic about the growing field of community currencies while realizing it is still very experimental\n* 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\n\n== Prepare before the workshop ==\n\n* samples of all the various types of community currencies (and some proxy yang currencies)\n* prepare Yin and Yang attribute cards (ed note: insert content of the cards here or in a separate wiki page)\n* form a semi-circle so everyone can see the center of the circle\n* Ask participants to throw whatever currency they have on themselves into the middle of the circle (throw your own collection in)\n** only one example of each currency, otherwise it can take a long time to setup and cleanup\n* lay down the Yin and Yang attribute cards (might be better to do that while waiting for session to start as a stimulant)\n* quickly explain the spectrum and ask participants to help you justify where the various currencies fit on the spectrum (place them)\n\n== Table of Contents ==\n\n* The Permaculture of Money: observe the flow of currency, find ways to capture and retain it, aim for inputs=outputs, share surplus\n** explain that currency always goes in the opposite direction of goods and services\n** national currencies tend to pool around the 1%, creating treasure chests and stimulating long distance trading\n** successful CC tend to build community, stimulating local, ethical and ecologically-friendly trading\n** bilateral barter is only useful for the two parties involved; currencies involve the entire community\n* Ying Yang spectrum\n** 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\n** 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)\n* archetypes: Da Vinci Tai Chi move altogether (make sure to reverse the moves when in front of the group):\n** warrior, engineer, nurturer, lover, and integrator: upshot: we need them all; we need yang and yin currencies\n* 4 stories: High Middle Ages, Ancient Egypt, Municipal Scrip 1933, Argentina, (and mention the 1000s experiments going on now)\n* Make Money exercise: Offers/Requests on postits; write out IOU cheque vouchers, circulate for a bit, debrief\n* Detailed explanations: Gift Circles, Timebank, Seedstock, National Currency, Left/Right Chiralkine Quantum Money\n** 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\n** 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\n** Seedstock (or other proxy currency): simulate how it works using participants as actors (businesses, Non-profits, government, supporters/volunteers, and matchmaker/catalog keeper)\n* 4 components of CC success (to avoid the 80% failure rate since 1983):\n** Constant Catalog Updates\n** Active Matchmaker,\n** Transparent Accounting (and appropriate medium: digital, paper vouchers, relationship to national currency)\n** Respect Gifts (do not monetize remaining gift economies, and allow natural transition of CC to gift economy)\n* Real live example of CC design using a participant's project\n\n== Stories ==\n\n* anecdotes about Bernard Lietaer the co-designer of the Euro, Michael Linton the local and global pioneer\n* the story of the High Middle Ages\n* the story of Ancient Egypt\n* the story of King Midas (everything he touches turns to Gold = monetization of the commons = gift economy)\n* the story of stamp scrip in USA and Austria\n* the story of Argentina 2002\n* the story of Brazil's municipal-based CC (govt study shows CC does not harm national currency; solves problems nat'l currency can't)\n* the story of LETS and Timebanking\n* the story of Seedstock and Transition Towns currencies\n* optionally: the story of chiralkine (quantum) money\n\n== Possible Extensions ==\n\n* If time and interest allow, discuss Yang Money Reform from the last 2 decades:\n** crowdfunding, microlending, deSoto's people capitalism, ethical mutual funds, fair trade, triple bottom line, etc\n** compare and contrast with community currencies and pure gift economies\n* invite participants to take an online course in Community Currencies\n\n== Feedback ==\n\n* always ask for feedback at the end: what worked, what can be improved in the presentation ? (take a good 5 minutes)\n* verify that everyone really got that the heart of yin money is 'community building' and 'relationship building'\n\n== references ==\n\n* [[Community Currencies]]\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n}}\n\n[[Category:Permaculture]]\n[[Category:Local currency]]\n[[Category:Finance]]\n[[Category:Economics]]"}