Author: Grace Maselli

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The White Elephant in the Room

By Grace Maselli

Join TBT for our upcoming Third Tuesday monthly member-and-guest gathering. We’ll not only talk timebanking and exchanges, but amp-up the fun with our traditional, post holiday White Elephant—our homage to the Big Season, plus a book and CD swap. Come, join the fun. Bring your stuff to give away, leave with new goodies. Get to know people. Bring a light snack to share. It’s that easy!

Date Tuesday, January 21, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30+ PM
Address Life Enrichment Center
9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call Rita (608) 335-2382

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Onward, TBT Revitalization

By Grace Maselli

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           There’s no doubt we’ve got it going on in Florida with timebanking: building community, making connections with one another. We’re 546 members strong in Tampa and part of the ever-expanding timebanking communities in St. Pete’s and Spring Hill. Our service exchange “system” uses time as its currency. Instead of money, we exchange “person hours.” More and more people are signing up to do things they love for other members, offering what they enjoy within the service exchange framework and using our online system known as “Hour World” to collect and tally their exchanges. That means everything from scrapbooking and sweeping someone’s garage, to fixing stuff and tutoring. Professionals can get involved too through their organizations or as individuals to offer exchanges in the form of legal advice, tax prep, medical appointments, dental care, and the like. The really good news, every hour of time is valued equally, whether you’re taking someone’s trash out or offering dermatology services. Want more info? Call Rita, Tampa Coordinator, at 608.335.2382. Or join us at one of our Third Tuesday monthly meetings; the next one’s coming up on January 21, 2020, 6:30 PM, at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center. So head on over. Ask questions. Be part of our ongoing work and revitalization energy!

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Ring, ring. Hello? It’s the New Year Calling

By Grace Maselli

In 1850 English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (you know, Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during Queen Victoria’s reign) had something to say about the newfangled year and the one just left behind when he wrote Ring Out, Wild Bells. Here are two stanzas that summon attention:

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true…

The year is going, let him go…ring in the true.

Here here, to authenticity and setting free what’s gone. Over. Finito.

And of course, while it’s customary to make a plan, (the proverbial New Year’s Resolution) to bookend 12 months with decisive action—change a trait, slip into a cozy behavior modification, accomplish something, anything—it’s also chill to think about ringing in the true. Whatever that means for you.

Hmmm. Here’s what’s at the top of this writer’s list:

  • Spend more time with true blue friends
  • Be appreciative. You know, really take account of things that can easily be taken for granted
  • Spend as much time as possible in the here and now, the present moment; the vaporous past and future give me agita
  • Make art, dream about converting a room into a studio, or find a cheap studio
  • Go to art festivals
  • Go to parties
  • Spend more time in nature
  • Go back to St. Augustine
  • Do more TBT exchanges with groovy timebankers
  • Feel alive

So dear reader, what’s your deal? What’s your True North? How will you ring in the true in 2020?

 

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Oh, Joy!

By Grace Maselli

Ho ho ho’s, Festivals of Light, and Kwanzaa—Swahili for the “first” harvest’s premier fruits. At TBT, our hearts are open to all holiday traditions in their myriad and distinctive forms. To honor variety and community connection, please join us for this year’s Third Tuesday festive December gathering where we’ll come together to share food and make ornaments of all persuasions. Bring your favorite holiday dish to share—from pecan crusted green bean casseroles to turkey pot pies and everything in between—and toss any art supplies you’re comfortable gluing, taping, whittling, or whatnot in a bag and head to Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center. That’s where we’ll hang out, make stuff, and eat. And per our own time-honored tradition, we’ll expend some valuable energy talking about timebanking and the beauty of exchanges to enrich life across our subtropical landscapes. Make it merry, make it light, bring your friends and neighbors to celebrate and be bright with TBT!

 

 

 

 

 

Date Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30+ PM
Address Life Enrichment Center
9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call (215) 834-4567 and reference our 2019 Holiday potluck at LEC
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It Was a Holiday Hullabaloo

By Grace Maselli

 

That’s right. It was a commotion. A happy fuss. A bit of an uproar complete with panpoolers, pantookers, and drums. Well, drums and symbols and sound effects, to be sure, from folks blowing into glass bottles and making rhythms with clackers and castanets. TBT’s Thanksgiving Friendsgiving celebration last night at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center rattled the beautiful art on the walls just a tad when post-meal musical improv—complete with OM chanting and time for storytelling—made for lush community connection and singalong (sans the bonfire). The vibrations and reverberations, the cling clang and bing bong and laughs, stirred the soul with the energy to “bring about social change.” We were led by our fearless presenter and longstanding member, Karen Lowman, who got the notes flowing after she answered guests’ questions about timebanking, exchanges, and the ins and outs of how it all works. And of course there was food. Crock pots bubbled and veggies lay in wait to be snarfed. Bundtinis and pies, chocolate and treats, were shared by all.

Stay tuned for holiday festivities slated for our Third Tuesday in December on the 17th when we’ll make homemade ornaments at the Life Enrichment Center (Yippee Ki-Yay!) .

 

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Reminder: Tomorrow Is Tuesday Turkey Time!

By Grace Maselli

Hard to believe it’s Turkey Time again! Here’s a quick reminder of tomorrow’s festivities: Members and friends, join us at a shared, sure-to-be-DEE-lish pre-Thanksgiving potluck table. It’s a place where young and old alike (and everything in between) are whole-heartedly and timebank-style welcome. We’d love to see you in Tampa for this year’s “Friendsgiving” where we’ll be serving up goodies and gratitude. So bring a fun dish to share! Here’s the down-low on the not-so-skinny holiday:

Date Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30+ PM
Address Life Enrichment Center
9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call (215) 834-4567 and reference our Thanksgiving potluck at LEC

 

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How to Save Money: Can You Say “Lend a Hand” and “Timebank?” Plus Some Other Random Tips

By Grace Maselli

One big, big way to save money is to be active with TBT timebank members. Our service exchange “system” uses time as its currency. Instead of money, we exchange “person hours.” You sign up to exchange what you love to offer, and avail yourself of offerings members enjoy delivering. This could mean everything from grocery shopping and raking leaves, to giving someone a ride to a doctor’s office—or sharing the meeting notes you took with a member who couldn’t get to an event. Our TBT printable flyer gives the quick story line on timebank exchanges.

There are other ways to save money. Here’s a random list of this and that:

• Make your own laundry detergent;
• Eat leftovers;
• Ask a fellow timebanker to borrow her hose (colander, evening dress, wrench) for the weekend instead of buying one new;
• Get stuff at thrift stores;
• Comparison shop. Before you take out your wallet, do some pricing research and find the most cost-effective buy for immersion blenders, stilettos, bagpipes. You name it;
• Write a list before you go food shopping and stick to it;
• Drink more water;
• Turn lights off;
• Make homemade holiday gifts;
• Avoid the mall.

Got ideas to add? Send them to coordinator@tampabaytime.org.

 

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Shake Yer Pots, Rattle Some Pans

By Grace Maselli

 

This year’s TBT pre-Turkey celebration will include improv music: ad-libbed and noteworthy notes as spontaneous accompaniment to yumilicious food! So join us for our November 2019 Third Tuesday Turkey and don’t forget your paper plate banjo and rattle drums—yer do-it-yourself tambourine and some knee-jerk symbols. Hop the holiday bandwagon in Tampa for this year’s “Friendsgiving,” when we’ll share Thanksgiving goodies and gratitude.  Bring a fun dish! If you need food ideas check out this list of classics. Here are the essential details on the not-so-skinny holiday:

Date Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30+ PM
Address Life Enrichment Center
9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call (215) 834-4567 and reference our Thanksgiving potluck at LEC

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Community, It’s a Choice

By Grace Maselli
Community is a lot more than a physical neighborhood, town, city, or state.
Of course, that physicality matters. (It’s easier to pull weeds or dust a timebanker’s ceiling fan in an exchange if that person lives in your proverbial backyard.) But community is also about something arguably even more intimate: identity. Longstanding TBT member Christina Bellamy’s personalized presentation at last month’s Third Tuesday gathering on October 15 opened a dialogue about all this and more. Using timebanking’s “Gathering with a Purpose” model, Christina stirred interactive conversation; she opened up a casual discourse with emphasis on the warmth and connection that characterizes timebanking’s priority, people and their collective and individual value as community members—or as writer Megan Garber wrote a couple of years ago in The Atlantic, “Community…is not merely something that one fits into; it is also something one chooses for oneself, through a process of self-discovery.” 

 

Christina’s  October 15 talk took a deeper dive—a spelunking exploration into what timebank vibe means to the whole and, to cite Megan Garber again, what it means as part of a journey toward self-discovery. There’s a wealth of motivation to explain why people get involved. Some reasons have are economic. Others have nothing to do with dollars and cents. Because in timebanking, “currency” is measured—earned and spent—in timebank hours. And for those on a budget, or with limited and fixed incomes, this can be an exceedingly helpful advantage because we can still get our needs met and also help others in the same way, even when we can’t afford it in greenbacks. For others, there’s motivation to widen the circle of good friends, enriching an experience of community along the way. And for others still, a non-material, spiritual (metaphysical, ineffable, sometimes sacred) energy compels involvement. Sometimes it’s all of the above: a desire to support others, be supported, and know intrinsically that timebanking’s ethos is real and can be felt when we all have a chance to feel valued and offer something in return.

Before the October 15 meeting concluded the group put together a timeline, a visualization depicting how long—from a few weeks to close to a decade—that each participant was connected to TBT. People took stock of their identities as a growing part of the TBT tribe, an ever-widening kindred connection. If you’re inspired to Gather with a Purpose, download “Gathering Welcome & Introduction” to get rolling and keep the community energy flowing!
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Celebrate 40 Years of Peace *and* Get Your Groove Thing on with WMNF Community Conscious Radio and Living Playback Theater

By Grace Maselli

Wanna joint TBT in supporting the local Tampa community? No better way than to bring it on down to “Celebrate 40 years of peace, love, and music on 88.5 FM” and let art and music rule the night on Saturday, November 9. Here’s what the WMNF Community Conscious Radio and Living Mirror Playback Theater have to say about it all:

“In 1979, WMNF  took to the airwaves after volunteers knocked on doors seeking support and talking with people about the dream of a unique radio station: A community radio station featuring music and public affairs not offered on mainstream radio. Forty  years later, that dream is still a reality. We’ve made many friends along the way and have a lot of stories to share.  We will celebrate the stories of those dreamers and all the friends they have made over the past 40 years with the help of Tampa’s own Living Mirror Playback Theater.” One of our very own longstanding TBT members and high-velocity community activists Christina Bellamy is an improvisational theater performer with Playback, a troupe that travels the Tampa Bay area engaging audiences in impromptu storytelling directly from participants’ lives, with audience members watching Playback enact quick tales on the spot.”

Come share YOUR story about your connection with WMNF, what it’s meant to you, and enjoy the playback performance! Here are all the vital stats you need:
 

Date:

 

Saturday, November 9, 2019
Where: Tampa Friends Meeting House
1502 W Sligh Ave, Tampa, Fl 33604
When: 6:00pm-8:00pm
Cost: $10 advance, $15 day of show requested donation
RSVP: 813-238-8001 and talk to Miss Julie to reserve your seat; space is limited