OFFERS & REQUESTS
WHAT TO OFFER
A simple task for you may be another person’s laborious chore. Consider offering services that you enjoy that come easily to you. What are your skills and gifts? If there are costs for materials or ingredients, these are paid by the recipient.
WHAT TO REQUEST
Consider requesting services that you need help with, cannot do, or want to learn. What are you curious about? Be as specific as possible about what you need. Include the location, the amount of time required, if there is a deadline, whether or not you can help, and if you have the materials and tools needed.
As the recipient of the exchange, you will provide any materials needed for your Request.
Keeping Track of Credits and Exchanges
The Spring Hill Timebank software website (hourworld.org/bank/?hw=2008) is the place to keep track of transactions. If you are an offline member, someone will work with you to record your exchanges on the website.
Reporting Hours: It is the responsibility of the provider of the service to log in the service given to another member. All services need to be reported as soon as possible, preferably within a week of the date of service. We prefer that you report online, but you may also ask the receiver to post the hours, or you can phone them in to the Coordinator to log on your behalf.
Members need to confirm the number of hours exchanged with one another, prior to reporting. For fractions of hours, round up to the nearest quarter hour. (For example, 52 minutes of service earns 1 time credit. 1 hour and 10 minutes of service equals 1.25 time credits). You may arrange exchanges with members you already know without posting a specific request or offer. However, be sure to log in the hours so accurate records can be kept and people will get the credits they earn.
Negative balances are fine: Members do not need to maintain a positive balance of hours.
Multi-way exchanges: A Coordinator may record an exchange involving multiple parties.
In the Hourworld Time and Talents software, the providers and receivers of the service exchange the actual number of hours of their participation. For example, if a member does an hour of preparation and then teaches a one-hour class to four other members, the four students will each give one hour and the teacher will receive two hours. The other two hours are a gift to the community and the time bank’s general fund.
On the other hand, if the teacher does five hours of preparation for the one hour class, the teacher will receive six hours and the four students will each give one hour. The other two hours are a gift from the general fund.
Money and exchanges: Only hours may be exchanged in the Spring Hill Timebank. Any transaction performed for any amount of money is done outside of the time bank. Time credits are not redeemable for cash.
Donation of hours: A member may give earned credit hours to another member or to the time bank’s general fund. The time bank’s general fund allows us to reimburse members who complete work on behalf of the time bank in time credits and allows the Advisory Committee to transfer time credits to members who are in need.
Exchange of goods: Members may offer or request goods to be exchanged for hours. The receiver (not the giver) of the goods will determine the number of hours for the exchange.
Timebanking Fosters Connectedness
The Timebank works by connecting untapped resources with unmet needs while it helps its members focus on sharing and cooperating. We need each other and we recognize that Timebanking’s Five Core Values are firmly rooted in spiritual soil.
Although Timebanking is not a religious undertaking, many people in Timebanking make stronger connections than do people in religion. In the spirit of cooperation people in Timebanking are motivated by the give back principle, relalizing that in giving back they are really paying rent to the Creation!
Five Core Values Guide Our Participation And Decision Making
1. Assets: Everyone is an asset; we all have something to give.
2. Redefining Work: We redefine work to value whatever it takes to raise healthy children, build strong families, care for elders, revitalize neighborhoods, make democracy work, advance social justice, and make the planet sustainable.
3. Reciprocity: Helping works better as a two-way street.
4. Community: We need each other; networks are stronger than individuals. When people help each other, communities thrive.
5. Respect: Every human being matters. Respect for all means accountability to all.
Here’s the Nature Coast Community Services Foundation’s need right now:
1. Volunteer drivers to take a homeless person to the doctor.
2. Drivers to take a homeless person to the DMV to get an ID. Once the person has an ID they can get a job!
3. Volunteers to pick up food that helps feed the people living in the woods.
4. Helpers to cook food which volunteers will pick up to take to the woods.
To learn more about the Foundation, visit their website:
http://naturecoastcommunityservices.org/
To volunteer, call Andy 727-517-1148.
