Category: exchanges

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The Feast of Saint Valentine, Pagan Potluck

By Grace Maselli

Check this out from the History Channel: “While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘Christianize’ the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.”

So, in honor of paganalia and crop production, they’re’ll be a TBT Valentine’s Potluck on Sunday, February 16 from 3 to 6 PM. Wear your heart on your sleeve or on a special V-Day T-shirt! Bring your So-Easy Coq au Vin to share or other Vintage Valentine’s Day classics: Salmon Mousse Canapes, Baked Oysters with Tasso Cream (whatever Tasso Cream is), Crown Roast with Apricot Dressing, or luscious Fudge Tort. Or if it’s easier, bring Mac ‘n Cheese and black olives on all of your fingers and thumbs. They’ll go well with the paper plates and plasticware.

And while it’s true that the potluckaroo is five weeks and five days away from this writing, time flies. So mark your calendar for some conviviality and the making of a holiday in your image of what it means! Bring your favorite love poem or ballad to read aloud. Bring a haiku or an ode. A quatrain or free verse. We’re open to Roman gods, creative expression, and food.

Date Sunday, February 16, 2019
Time 3 to 6 PM
Address 2128 Park Crescent Drive
Land O Lakes, FL 34639
Questions? Contact Grace at (215) 834.4567 and reference the Valentine’s Potluck
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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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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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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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Gathering with A Purpose

By Grace Maselli

Timebanking and Dr. Chris Gray are two peas in a simpatico pod. On September 15 our affiliated Florida timebanks got a big, happy boost when more than 30 people came together in Pinellas County to participate in Dr. Gray’s interactive workshop titled, Gathering with a Purpose. A 20-year advocate and Timebanks USA Board Member advancing the “sharing economy”—the neighbor-helping-neighbor defining the ethos and driving the event, Dr. Gray traveled from the Washington, D.C. home she shares with spouse and timebanks founder, Dr. Edgar Cahn.

In a nutshell, Dr. Gray explained timebanking as a service exchange system that uses time as its currency. Instead of greenbacks, timebank members exchange “person hours” doing stuff they love to do: From re-potting someone’s plants to giving her a ride to the doctor, it’s all part of people coming together to help and connect and exchange “services.” Professionals can participate too through their organizations or as individuals to offer exchanges in the form of legal advice, tax prep, medical appointments, dental care, and more. People exchange service credit hours and record them in an online system to keep track.

Born in the U.K. and educated at UCLA, Dr. Gray’s Meeting Map took us from these timebanking basics through to action steps—the proverbial “how-to” of hosting a Gathering with a Purpose event in your own neighborhood. Everything from organizing materials and distributing fliers ahead of time to room set-up and tech support. With equal sincerity and verve she dove into the issues of community sustenance and “relational needs,” otherwise known as the good feeling vibes that come from being a human helping another human, and sometimes even the spiritual buzz that such connections may bring. She discussed the vital interplay between giving and receiving. “When we can allow ourselves to receive as well as give, we do our part to keep the channels of abundance open for ourselves and others,” according to the work of author Madisyn Taylor shared by Dr. Gray at the event. Dr. Gray’s own doctoral thesis was written on the subject of Native Americans, Tribal Matters: The Journey of American Indian Tribes in American Political Development.

To learn even more, check out a conversation between thought leaders Dr. Chris and hubby Edgar and the Timebanks USA “chief focus,” which is “to seek out and work with individuals, associations, and organizations…to achieve more just, more sustainable communities.” Explore Gathering with a Purpose by contacting coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call 608.335.2382.

 

 

 

The Five Core Values of Timebanking

In his book No More Throw-Away People, Edgar Cahn listed four values that stand at the heart of successful timebanking and have stood the test of time.  Later, he added a fifth.

Asset?– Every one of us has something of value to share with someone else.

Redefining Work – There are some forms of work that money will not easily pay for, like building strong families, revitalizing neighborhoods, making democracy work, advancing social justice. Time credits were designed to reward, recognize and honor that work.

Reciprocity – The question: “How can I help you?” needs to change so we ask: “Will you help someone too?”  Paying it forward ensures that, together, we help each other build the world we all will live in.

Community/Social Networks – Helping each other, we reweave communities of support, strength & trust. Community is built by sinking roots, building trust, creating networks.

Respect – The heart and soul of democracy lies in respect for others. We strive to respect where people are in the moment, not where we hope they will be at some future point.

 

 

 

 

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Phew, It’s Been A While

By Grace Maselli

Related imageHowdy. Some time’s passed since this blogger shimmied on over to WordPress for a post. (Chalk it up to the day job, out-of-state travel, and kid stuff that leapfrogged to the front of the Must Do line.) Excuses aside, I’m pumped to be here and report that the Tuesday, June 18 jewelry get-together—our Third Tuesday of Every Month member-and-guest meeting and orientation—was a whole strand full of bauble-y fun!  We had our way with swapped and shared jewelry. We woman (and man-) handled it all: Chunky necklaces and delicate charms. Pipe cleaners and copper wire. We took stuff apart and rearranged it. We glue-gunned and fastened. Considered and chatted, as we noshed on food. We let our imaginations run wild.

All at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center (LEC). Our Third Tuesdays home and part of TBT’s revitalization initiative to dispatch our efforts further into the community.

And, with tech support from member Karen Lowman, our TBT Coordinator Rita Cobbs demoed the new volunteer-created Florida-wide timebanks website. The new site is a trove of information from core values to the nitty gritty of how to sign up and get involved in timebanking. Building the new website was a labor of love with some elbow grease tossed in for good measure. The result is a timebank jewel that guides members and visitors to vital content.

Yuppers. Last month LEC was abuzz in bangles and glass beads, in trinkets and treasures, and super useful information about our growing Florida-based timebank movement.

Get ready for next month’s Third Tuesday event. Come and learn more about timebank exchanges galore. Share what you love to do while you make friends and build community.

 

Gearing Up for Third Tuesdays July Shindig, Too!

Date Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30 PM
Address LEC: 9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call 608.335.2382

 

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Rings and Blingy Things, Plus Tools

By Grace Maselli

It’s jewelry time. Bring yer stuff. Swap some rings, bracelets, necklaces, baubles. Brooches, gems, treasures, charms.  Join us soon on Tuesday, June 18—our Third Tuesday of Every Month member-and-guest meeting and orientation.  We hang out at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center (LEC). Our Third Tuesdays are part of TBT’s revitalization initiative to dispatch our efforts further into the community.

And, sure, this Third Tuesday, we’ll be a little preoccupied with costume jewelry—and even take a crack at some jewelry repair with our needle-nosed pliers and tiny hammers and such. So bring what you have and pitch in. Swap some shiny trinkets. And for the menfolk (and women who are into it), bring your big old corn knife and hay cutter machete. Bring yer fruit scissors and pruning loppers and toss in some stories about how you lopped and carved and ate fruit. Or just bring some pliers to potentially trade. It’s all about connection and fun. And per our prime directive: This month, as always, we’re dedicated to education around our mission—exchanges, as explained here in our flyer!

 

Date Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30 PM
Address LEC: 9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call 608.335.2382