Edinburgh Local Pound meeting: 27th August 2.30-4.30

Calling community councils, local action groups, Transition groups, Development Trusts, tenants and residents associations, local traders associations, voluntary organisations, housing associations...

Come and help introduce a local currency in Edinburgh!
27th August 2.30-4.30
Portobello Old Parish Church
Bellfield Street, Portobello EH15 2BP

After a successful public engagement event we are now ready to work in several local areas to lay the ground for the introduction of the currency. We produced an article on this for the Evening News with Steve Burgess, and the council have agreed to develop a strategy to support community groups in their efforts to establish an Edinburgh pound. We want to stress that the council are not providing any funding to this initiative of Transition Edinburgh, PEDAL Portobello, Transition Edinburgh South, SEED, Greener Leith and Bridgend.

The proposal is for a 'Euro style' currency which would have standard 'Edinburgh Pound' features on one side, and a local variant on the other e.g. A Portobello pound, or a Morningside pound... Local pounds from different areas will be useable in any participating shops around the city, but would also retain a sense of local distinctiveness.

Next steps:
1. Work with local action groups and organisations who would like to take part in the scheme to set a strategy for engaging our local shopkeepers, tradespeople, key organisations and the wider public.

2. Research how best to implement the scheme by contacting and learning from other local currencies. Including asking them:

(i) Whether traders offered a 5% discount to users of the local currency and what impact that had?
(ii) How much leakage there was (i.e. how many pounds were taken as souvenirs, effectively putting 'free' money into the system)?
(iii) How they managed to protect their currency from being copied?
(iv) Whether and how they involved their local authority or other large local players? (e.g. Bristol is aiming to enable Traders to be able to pay their Business rates with the Bristol Pound)

If you are willing to contact other local currencies and research some of these questions before the August meeting, let us know!

3. Explore the possibility of introducing a parallel electronic currency for easy payments (Bristol are planning on a sim based mobile phonecurrency).

4. Examine whether there are local issues which could be used to help a local currency to take off in particular parts of Edinburgh.

For example, in Morningside shoppers and traders are very concerned about the possibility of a new Sainsbury's and so using a local currency could be a way of helping build support for the local economy. Meanwhile in Portobello, the fact that the Local 'Porty Shopper' bags - 'Think Global, Shop Local' - were snapped up so fast demonstrates that people are clearly wanting to identify with and support local traders.


Hope to see you there!

Cheers!

Eva and Justin (for the Edinburgh Pound project)

eva@transitionscotland.org
justinkenrick@yahoo.co.uk

Further resources:
Edinburgh Pound - http://edinburgh-pound.blogspot.com/
Brixton Pound - http://brixtonpound.org/
Bristol Pound - http://www.bristolpound.org/
Time Article - 'Tough times lead to local currencies' - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1908421,00.html
Worgl experience in Austria in the 1930s - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency
BerkShares in Massachusetts since 2006 - http://www.berkshares.org/
Local Money - How to make it happen - http://www.transitionbooks.net/local-money-how-to-make-it-happen-in-your-community-by-peter-north/

Edinburgh Local Economy Day - Programme

When: Saturday 9th April 10.00 – 16.30

Where: Riddles Court, 322 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh, EH1 2PG


View Larger Map

Lunch: Indoor picnic, bring food to share

Cost: Free!
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Booking

Please book your place via this link

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R5JLK7Q.
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Programme

0930 – 1000 Arrival and tea and coffee
1000 – 1015 Welcomes and formalities
Chair - Justin Kenrick (PEDAL)
_______________________
1015 – 1130 What does money mean to you?
Group workshop with Roland Playle (Transition Edinburgh South)
________________________
BREAK
________________________
1140 – 1230 Localisation and Local Economies
Jonathan Dawson (Findhorn Foundation)
________________________
LUNCH
- indoor picnic, bring food to share -
________________________
1330 – 1400 Local currencies and the Hawick Pound
Andy Maybury (Greener Hawick)

1400 – 1430 Alternative Currency Models in Edinburgh
1 - Greener Leith bag to go city-wide
Alastair Tibbit (Greener Leith)
2 - TimeBanking in Edinburgh
Milind Kolhatkar (EVOC)
3 - Edinburgh Local Exchange Trading Scheme (LETS)
Benny Freiling (LETS)

1430 – 1435 Freeconomy film
1435 – 1450 Q&A
________________________
1450 – 1505 Open Space explanation and set up
________________________
BREAK
________________________
1515 – 1600 Open Space Session
1600 – 1630 Open Space feedback and summary of next steps
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Background Reading/Info

Here are the websites of the organisations involved:

Transition Edinburgh http://transitionedinburgh.org.uk/

PEDAL http://pedal-porty.org.uk/

SEED http://www.transitionedinburghsouth.org.uk/node/363

Bridgend Inspiring Growth http://bridgendfarmhse.blogspot.com/2010/10/bridgend-inspiring-growth.html

Local currencies http://edinburgh-pound.blogspot.com/

Greener Leith Bag http://www.greenerleith.org/greener-leith-news/2010/12/23/bonus-bag-to-go-city-wide.html

TimeBanking http://www.edinburghtimebank.org.uk/

LETS http://www.edinburghlets.org.uk/

Freeconomy http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/

Urban Environmental Management - Localizing Agenda 21

Local Agenda 21 is a local-government-led, community-wide, and participatory effort to establish a comprehensive action strategy for environmental protection, economic prosperity and community well-being in the local jurisdiction or area.

Six Key Elements of a Local Agenda 21

Tools and strategies for preparing a LA21 Plan
Data Collection
Planning and Development
Plan Management
Monitoring and Evaluation

- Involve the widest community: police, business, citizens groups, housing associations.
- Meet local needs: ask people what they want, what are their expectations of LA21.
- Work within the resources of the community.
- Use existing networks.
- Make LA21 a priority for all departments at the municipal offices.
- Allow time - its a long process.
- Make sure there is trust among the stakeholders in the LA21 process before going public.
- MAKE IT FUN!

by Chris Church.


LINKS
Urban Environmental Management
Introduction: Urban Environmental Management
Localizing Agenda 21
THE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTER

37 Ways to Join the Gift Economy - Yes! Magazine

You don't have to participate in a local currency or service exchange to be part of the cooperative gift economy. Any time you do a favor for a family member, neighbor, colleague, or stranger you're part of it. Here are some ways you can spend time in the gift economy, where you'll find fun, freedom, and connection.

1. Start a dinner co-op. Rotate among the homes of friends and neighbors for weekly or monthly potlucks.
2. Help a local farmer with the harvest in exchange for some of the crop.
3. Put up a traveler.
.
.
.

LINK

Moffat CAN and GROW ALLOT - Your city CAN too!

Moffat CAN is a community-owned company and charity. Our aims are environmental protection, relief of poverty and, especially, carbon reduction. CAN stands for Carbon approaching Neutral.

CAN's project is GROW ALLOT. Greatly Reduce/Re-use/Recycle Our Waste and Lead Local Organic Trade, Grow Allot, is a holistic project which sees us launch an organic community garden, allotments, and establish a recycling service, while restoring a church in the process. From 2011 onwards we will be continuing to develop as a social enterprise creating green jobs, work experience and training.

And it has a very nice website: LINK

Top Ten Reasons - To Buy Local

 

Poster from Sustainable South Sound

Community through Collective Productive Activity

Above all, he sees human beings as creatures who have a fundamental need to express and develop themselves through labour or productive activity; as essentially communal creatures who seek to produce collectively; and as rational creatures who ideally should be able to organize their collective productive activity for themselves. So our real interests lie in collectively controlling our labouring activity. This picture is in fact a descendant of Kant's vision of freedom. ...vision of collective liberation, the ideal of collectively organizing our social existence for ourselves.

From the book:

Philosophy goes to the movies: an introduction to philosophy

Next Meeting

(post sticks at top till due)

The next Edinburgh local currency working group meeting will be on Tuesday 22nd February from 1900-2100 at the Edinburgh Uni Library Cafe.
(directions at About)

Agenda
Report back on Roland and Benny’s trip to the local economy day at the Findhorn Foundation
Report back from Eva and Adam from the meeting with the Council
Possibly play Emma’s local currency film
Try to agree date/venue for the event
Try to film up programme and speakers

Presentations from the Local Economy Day in Findhorn

Minutes from last meeting

Reimagining Money - RSF Social Finance

RSF believes that inquiry and dialogue are essential tools for transforming the way we work with money. We are committed to creating frequent opportunities for our community to engage in exploring the role of money and finance in our lives.

We have hosted events focused on exploring the personal and social dimensions of money and financial relationships. For many years, RSF led an informal network for these events called the Transforming Money Collaborative, which held a series of gatherings on Money & Spirit, Money, Race, and Class, Money & Intuition, and other related subjects.

Inquiry and Dialogue examples
Reimagine Money Blog

An online conversation about the nature of money.

Towards a 21st Century Banking and Monetary System

Submission to the Independent Commission on Banking (39 Pages)

nef and Positive Money show why systematic reform of the banking and monetary system is urgently needed.

In collaboration with:
Centre for Banking, Finance and Sustainable Development
University of Southampton, School of Management
(Professor Richard A. Werner)

Short insight:

This submission outlines a proposal for full-reserve banking, where the transactional function of banking (the payments system) is separated from the lending function. This system would be stable than under the current business model, which is often labeled ‘fractional reserve banking’

HIGHLIGHT - Positive Money

Demanding a banking system that works for society and not against it!

This year the government will decide what to do to fix the banks. We have to make sure they make the right choice.

The Solution (30 second overview):

High-street banks have been creating up to £200bn of new money every year, causing massive inflation (especially in housing) and saddling the public with debt. We can't trust profit-seeking bankers or vote-seeking politicians to create money, as the temptation will always be for them to create too much. So instead we need an independent, transparent and accountable body that is responsible for creating money and keeping inflation low. We suggest that the Monetary Policy Committee should have this task.

Have a look at the very well developed website, loaded with tons of information including a complete proposal for a new national wide currency system. LINK

Alternative to public austere: One Good Cut

Cut Benefits to Bankers, Not Public Services

George Osborne says that we all must pay more taxes and receive fewer public services. According to the chancellor there is no Plan B for the UK economy - but he's utterly wrong.

We could make one simple spending cut that could make all others unnecessary.

Here's Plan B: cut the benefits to bankers!

SIGN THE PETITION

Complementary Currency Magazine

This magazine exists to serve the whole community of innovators, implementers and users of complementary currencies. Contributions of stories and material support are invited.

The new issue Februar 2011 is just out and free to download.

Website of the CC Magazine with the last 12 issues full accessible.

More on - CC Open Source Software

 First one:
CommunityForge.net
Tools for localisation

Our hosted website makes building and managing your community easier, and it's...

* free
* simple to set up
* adaptable
* scalable
* customisable

Second one:
Open Source Currency
Example: austin time exchange network 

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Insoshi is a social networking platform in Ruby on Rails. You can use Insoshi to make custom social networks; see the Insoshi demo site for an example. For support, join the Insoshi Google group.

UK Crash Course - Chris Martenson