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weave - cc - hey, guy - r&v - designs - allplay - connects - next - toc - (revisions)

roles and values


the individual interest

As I see it, normal money comes and goes - sometimes it's around and easy to get, and often it's not. But this money stays in the network, circulating in the community - it's always around and easy to get. And whenever I can use it, I do - it keeps the normal money in my pocket. Whoever you are, whatever your job, you have to like a money that comes back when you spend it. If I cover the risks there's no way to lose. Makes a whole lot of sense for me.



poverty - unemployment - local economy

It's a disgrace that people have no work, no income, no way to support themselves and their families. In a civilised society people should have meaningful, paid work, and the security to plan their future. A responsible community would make sure that everyone can participate. People don't want charity, they want to be useful, they want to play their part. After all, there's no shortage of work to be done, and our economy certainly needs something to get it going.

We should create our own community money systems so there's work for everyone who wants it.




people change .....

Every month I change about $200, generally. I know I can spend cc$200 in a few weeks, so it's no cost to me.

I get most of my cc by putting cash into my children's school programs, but I also change $20 a month with my neighbour's son who's working through college. Sometimes I change for local charities, and I also like to support 3rd world projects - famine relief, reforestation, that sort of thing. In my husband's office, they all agreed to change at least $100 a month.

At the school last month, we raised and changed $10,000 for computer equipment. This month we're going for the sports, then it's theatre and music programs.



community development

There's so much we can do to improve our communities, support the arts and culture, provide better education for all, and encourage sport and recreation.

We can move quickly to resolve the causes of social problems and heal the wounds. We must do a better job of caring for the elderly and providing good childcare.

We don't have to wait for government money to open a women's shelter, create a park, or build a new school.

We can begin all this, right now, with community money.




local business contributes .......

We have several small stores and restaurants in malls around town and we're always being asked for donations and contributions. Now it's easy, we give "cc" - much more than we ever could in cash or goods - and watch it come back. We find we can use it in all sorts of ways - rent, purchasing, renovations - and our advertising budget is way up. We started a staff bonus program, sharing out 30% of the month's cc$ income - that's very popular.

Even our suppliers like it, they get larger orders, and repeat business - the best sort there is.

We take 50% cc$ in our restaurants, 25% cc$ in our retail stores and get great response. It's the best loyalty system we've ever used.



food security -

We just don't know where our food comes from anymore, or what goes into it. In this market we have fewer and fewer choices for healthy, unadulterated food. Industrial farming degrades our farmland and environment with machine cultivation, pesticides, fertilizers, processing, packaging and transportation. Agribusiness drives people off the land and into the cities.

With energy costs rising and supply diminishing, we can't expect to keep getting "cheap" food from all over the world. In fact, we shouldn't assume we can get food from anywhere. To get quality food from local farmers, we must give them strong and steady markets to ensure food security for all.

We are designing cc that link people who want good food with local organic farmers.




big business invests ......

As a national company, we need to find our place in every local community we serve. We take a long view and mainly make contributions to community based capital projects. We consider this program one of our best investments - it has certainly made us popular in the local commmunity. It also makes our products and services more attractive to local business, so it all generates sales for us.

We started the Natural Step program last year and we now find that cc provide the means to do it naturally.

We are now reviewing the application of community currency systems in all our national and international marketing strategies. We have always been concerned about our impact on the local economy and environment and now find that cc enable us to be better corporate citizens. We spend more money in the community, we donate more to local projects, and we reduce our waste and pollution.



health - society and environment

We know poverty is the greatest cause of ill health and disease. It means inadequate food and shelter, and the constant stress of looking for work and money. It breaks families, fosters social conflict and generates crime.

We need better hospitals and community services for all, not just the rich - and that takes money.

Above all we need a healthy environment. We can't continue to waste and pollute as if there's another world to move to. We absolutely have to turn this around. That means doing more to protect, conserve, and restore - and that takes money.

We must have moneys that work for the health of our communities and environment.




government in the loop

Sure, we accept cc for payments of licence fees, traffic and library fines, and various other services. Why not? It's money we can use and it means local businesses can compete on an equal basis for our contracts.

We do much more local purchasing now than ever before. We also give our non-profits and various civic projects a lot more support by buying cw$ from them. The taxpayers' money gets to work twice.

We helped finance the cc development project in the beginning by pre-buying the cw$ they they would earn from business registration fees and smart card equipment sales.

We spend a lot of the cw$ hiring summer students for various civic projects and the best child and elder care programs in the state. The students get a lot of their cw$ exchanged by their families and they can pay college tuition and other fees with the cw$ they earn.

Many other cities are looking at our success and some have started their own cc projects. There is growing support for our lobbying of central government to explore the benefits and begin working with us on the bigger issues facing society. Big change passes through city hall and even bigger change through the capital.



our global responsibilities

What about our neighbours - what are we, with our way of life, doing to the rest of the world? What are we taking from it? And what are we giving? Is this a good deal? What is our impact on forests, fisheries, land, water and air in other parts of the world? How do people in other countries work for us? How big is our "footprint" on the earth? What damage are we doing?

All of us, in every community, have global responsibilities - these are the big issues now for our society - climate change and our "economic" responsibility for the mess we are making.

We need money that helps us live more lightly on the land, that lets us give something back, locally, regionally, globally.




community emerges -

Since our non profit started getting cw$ donations and exchanging them with our supporters, our whole organization has changed. We spend much less time chasing scarce government and foundation money in competition with other non profits. Our relationships with other organizations in the region have improved tremendously.

We collaborated on a web-site where anyone can buy cw$ from any of the non profits and projects. Each organization posts a brief description of the work they are doing and the money they need so that businesses can contribute cw$ and people can choose the group they want to support.

Whenever we come together to deal with a new crisis or to plan joint projects, the discussion is no longer primarily about fundraising, because we know how easy it is now with cc. It's about getting the job done.


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