Category: exchanges

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BJ and the Dragonfly!

* Hey peeps, let’s give it up for guest blogger and founder of the Spring Hill Timebank, Dr. Andy LePage, and his very own spotlight on St. Pete Timebank Coordinator, BJ Andryusky. The link to the Spring Hill Timebank also takes you directly to Andy’s original piece covering BJ. Let Andy know what you think! Thanks, Grace

By Andy LePage

How wonderful it is to find the hidden gold in another and then to celebrate it. Recently I found such hidden gold in BJ Andryusky, the Coordinator of St. Pete Time Bank. And what hidden gold it is!

BJ has given a huge amount of help to us in at Spring Hill Time Bank, in as far as we’re new and kind of “green” in understanding the finer points of moving around the website and in learning about the inner workings of Time Banking. Although she and I have had many conversations, it wasn’t until the end of last November that she mentioned she was having a guest exhibit at the Dali in early December.

Recently I spoke with her again about Time Banking and at the end of our conversation — a conversation that always includes her great computer instruction — I asked how her art show had gone. She was so excited. Although there wasn’t a formal judging of the new talent exhibitors that BJ was a part of, among the twelve exhibitors, she was in what would have been first place! Her work was so favorably received by the Dali staff, that she hopes to be able to exhibit there again, as well as have some of her art for sale in their gift store.

On her Facebook page, BJ writing about herself and her art states: “I am an artist with an exceptional skill for turning domestic items like vases, boxes, and jars into affordable metallic-looking art. I do this by working my magic with polymer clay; often in an industrial, steampunk or bohemian style. You will find each piece is handmade and one of a kind. A true conversation, collectible piece!”

In case anyone reading this piece thinks that BJ has an exaggerated sense of herself and her talent, please use one of the links at the end of this article to see her incredible ability and to know that she honestly speaks her truth.

One of BJ’s customers wrote this about her art: “I can’t begin to tell you how beautiful these pieces are. BJ is currently working on a custom piece for me, but I did purchase some ornaments from her for gifts, and both people I gave them to absolutely loved them. There is such attention to detail and creativity in each piece.”

Another said: “I can’t thank you enough BJ for creating the customized book ends for my Father-in-law’s 80th birthday gift! He absolutely loved them and everyone at the party was completely blown away by the craftsmanship and creativity of the pieces!”

We may never know about all the talent the great people whom we meet in Time Banking have. But as we get to know our fellow Time Bankers, we will find that many, like BJ, have their own form of hidden gold.

The name of BJ’s business is Dragonfly Antics. Readers may know that the dragonfly is a strong-bodied, non-stinging insect which helps to keep the mosquito population down and has wings that stay outstretched rather than folded when at rest. This is great symbology for how BJ watches over all of us in the Time Bank. Even at rest, she has her great wings outstretched ready at a moment’s notice to help someone, to encourage us to be our best, and to hold other coordinator’s hands (mine and many others’!) as they try to navigate the inner workings of Time Banking. She is as skillful in helping us find answers to our questions as she is in nimbly crafting magnificent pieces of art from a tattered jewelry box or a broken vase. We are fortunate she is in our midst! Check out this gifted lady’s website at dragonflyantics.com  and at facebook.com/pg/dragonflyantics/about/

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A Metaphoric Barn Raising (aka, a Community’s Collective Action)

By Grace Maselli

It’s all about getting it done. Together. Pretend it’s 1900 in Indiana. It’ll be mighty cold soon, and your barn, well, it needs a raisin’. Through collective community effort, your neighbors come together with lots of up-front prep work done. Lumber, hammers, and nails are at the ready for able-bodied builders—others bring food to sustain the collective. Before you know it, in one to two days, with dozens of people on the job, the structure is up. Later, there’s a party inside where it’s warm, with a fiddle or three and a dance. Next up, Jeremiah and Annabell’s place seven miles down the road.

The point? Interdependent social frameworks—neighborly and family bondedness, mean there are people who can be there when you need it most. And to whom you can return the favor. This is the very essence of Dr. Edgar Cahn’s vision 30 years ago or so when he conceived the timebank model of service exchange sans money. By connecting through local Tampa Bay Area’s timebanks, members and potential members stand to expand the help they give and receive through the barn-raising archetype. Whether it’s assistance you need moving your pile of stuff into storage, a leg up with cooking, yoga lessons to jump start your fitness goals, job coaching, or a ride to a doctor’s appointment, timebanking can get you there without money because in our world, time is the currency required. It’s free to join. And when you do, your modern day equivalent of Willis and Bertha, neighbors down the road—or, maybe, even across the Howard Franklin Bridge, just might be the folks in your life to lay a strong foundation. Click here to get your application to TBT rolling!

 

 

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Exchange-a-Palooza

By Grace Maselli

 

Tampa Bay Timebank’s Third Tuesday membership meeting this January 15 was spirited and industrious. It brought with it 12 attendees and White Elephant fun. Debuting during the latter activity was a red octopus “carousel” for drying your most delicate hand washables! Check it out right here as members who joined the meeting at Tampa’s Life Enrichment Center (LEC) displayed their giftiness. Candles, potpourri, sachet (Do you notice a coincidental theme?), jewelry, chocolate, and hybrid pens-book markers also made their way into the gift swap.

The evening was also notably marked by strong emphasis on timebank exchanging—where one member’s hour of a “service” offering, anything from running an errand or editing a research paper, to washing another person’s car or painting her living room walls, without money involved (except in some cases where the cost of gas and some supplies may be warranted) in the transaction—is equal to every other person’s hour of service. Exchanging is the lifeblood, the heart and soul, of timebanking and core to the TBT Revitalization Project.

Amped-Up to Grow

As such, our cheerful leadership’s sustained focus is on getting timebank exchanges amped-up to grow community connections. Among these broader Tampa Bay Area leaders are Dr. Andy LePage, founder of the Spring Hill Timebank, pictured here holding the ever-lovely plastic octopus and surrounded by members. The esteemed Marie Nelson who founded TBT, Rita Cobbs, our current and venerable coordinator—and Nancy Wolf, Kelley Curtis, Karen Lowman, and Vikki Sinclair, are all longstanding, invaluable members who play leadership roles, among other pivotal supporter-members otherwise known as ardent advocates of the timebank way.

We Hustled and Bustled, Moved this Way and That

Livening things up and driving the point home, Andy led an exchange exercise that went like this:

• He handed out paper copies of his “Love to Do’s” list of approximately 45 timebank activities/services and asked everyone to circle the options they were most drawn to. The stuff they liked best, from art and pet care to home repair and language interpretation—and a gaggle of things in between.
• We were directed to circle three to five of our faves.
• Next, Andy handed out Post-it Notes and pens.
• For each darling activity/service that a participant selected, he or she filled out one Post-it with the specific activity indicated and his or her name included on each sticky note.
• We stuck the Post-its on three walls.
• We were invited to walk around the room to see who shares similar interests.
• So we hustled and bustled with springs in our steps, this way and that, through the room, to gaze upon Post-its and see what was what.
• Then we gathered in a cozy community circle where we had an open conversation and grouped people with like interests.
• Immediately, some exchanges were set up!
Voila!

The moral of the story: Timebanking works beautifully when people get to help each other and themselves and self-express, all at the same time. Andy’s taken his exchange exercise on the road to various timebank area meetings to cheers and whoop-whoops of acceptance.

Join us in February for our monthly member-and-guest meeting and orientation and let us know what exchanges you’re interested in! Here are the details:

Date Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Time 6:30-8:30 PM
Address 9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or leave a blog post here

 

 

 

 

 

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There’s Soon to Be an Elephant in the Room

By Grace Maselli

Happy New Year! Join TBT at its regular Third Tuesday of the month member and friends meeting at the Tampa Life Enrichment Center. We’ll be talking timebanking, of course, and also doing a White Elephant Gift Exchange. Bring something you, uh, er, might not be in love with—or something you’re just not in the mood to keep for whatever reason. (It’s too big, too tight, you already have three, your least favorite 2nd cousin gave you the same gift four years in a row and you don’t need the extra inventory…)  We’ll be swapping post-holiday this-and-that for a few laughs and maybe a couple of, “Oh, I can’t live without this!” moments. Who knows? Bring your funky gift wrapped in either newsprint or brown paper for concealment and get revved to participate; toss in a light snack to share if you’re able! Here are the details:

Date Tuesday, January 15, 2018
Time 6:30-8:30 PM
Address 9704 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612; phone: 813.932.0241
Questions? Contact coordinator@tampabaytime.org or call (215) 834-4567 and reference our White Elephant and monthly meeting event at LEC!
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“The Rising Stock of Human Equity”

By Grace Maselli

Earlier this year in June, Smithsonian.com put a spotlight on timebanking in its article, “‘Time Banking’ Is Catching On In the Digital World; Apps that allow users to pay for services in redeemable credits instead of cash are helping to build communities“. Now that’s some off-the-chain positive exposure in our world of flipside currency; a world where we jettison cash in exchange for service hours of multiple kinds for our community members, from washing someone’s hair to ironing their doilies .

In addition to the classic “Hourworld” listed in the article (and the not-mentioned “Timebanks USA“), the Smithsonian piece dives into a newer digital environment for tracking exchange hours known as “Ying”. Part of Ying’s self-identify proclamation is, “We believe in the rising stock of human equity. We implore the laws of abundance and stoke the fire of continuous reciprocity…At YING, your self worth will always come before your net worth.” Wow! Edgar Cahn’s *got* to be proud…

The article also offers a caveat about how to elicit longevity within the timebanking paradigm. According to Ed Collom, co-author of Equal Time, Equal Value: Community Currencies and Time Banking in the US,  “the most successful time banks have official hosts and infrastructure; grassroots movements with no leadership tend to peter out.” Another reason why our TBT Revitalization Project is so meaningful as we pump it up leading into 2019!

 

 

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Timebanks Come through in an Emergency

By Grace Maselli

Gratitude. I aim to be mindful of it not just at obvious times, not only at positive turning points, but daily. But I have to admit, some days this mindfulness works more fluidly than other days. This past Saturday I rushed my 19-year-old son to the ER after a two-hour drive north from Tampa to Orlando where he was in final exams week for his first semester of college. He contracted an off-the-charts case of mononucleosis that otherwise “self-resolves,” docs were saying. When we got to the ER my son’s fever was 103.5 and his heart rate was 133, both high, but the latter especially so for someone only 19 years old. More technically, his hemoglobin levels were tanking as his liver enzymes climbed, which meant both levels were moving in the wrong direction. “You just got unlucky,” one physician was quick to point out as my son was hooked up to IV fluids and “broad spectrum” IV antibiotics while umpteen blood-related tests were being run. The antibiotics were for a co-occurring bacterial infection noted by white blood cells in his body where they ought not to have been. My son went from a bed in the ER to outpatient “observation” to full in-patient treatment over a five-day period.

From the start members of the Tampa Bay and Spring Hill, not to mention people from the St. Petersburg Timebank, had my back. At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday I sent the first email notifying members in Spring Hill that I had to cancel my participation later that morning as a volunteer for two hours with a yard sale, and a two-hour stint later in the afternoon with another member assisting with her home organization project. This tipped my member-friends to the unfolding situation and the support was forthcoming from there.

I received routine check-ins from TBT and Spring Hill through text messaging and email and across the entire arc of the experience. Within a day I had a no-cost place to stay in Orlando if I needed it. (As it turned out, the hospital generously let me bunk in the empty double-occupancy bed next to my son once he moved into in-patient care. Another beautiful and unexpected gift. Not mention the fact that my manager gave me the time away from work needed to be with my son.) I was immediately put in contact with other timebank members, including those from Pinellas, who have expert information on how to rebuild the immune system. I have an ongoing timebank-driven consult for my son on the best dietary choices as he moves to rebuild his “organic” immunity through his long period of convalescence. I even now have timebanking hours I can use for life coaching as we head into 2019 that comes directly out of this intense experience.

A Reminder to Keep a Look-Out for the Gifts,
No Matter Their Size

My intention is to fortify my daily practice of taking account with even greater presence of mind those things large and small that fill me with gratitude. From the gorgeous, nostalgic smell of crushed leaves wafting toward my nostrils as my bike ambles over them, to the news that my child’s fever and heart rate are beginning to normalize, and everything in between. I am equally fortified to return the favor, and have deeper compassion for my timbank posse. And to the physician who said to my son, “You just got unlucky,” I gently, meaningfully say to him through the finite, revisionist dialogue in my head, “‘Dear sir, au contraire.'”

 

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What’s Real Wealth Anyway? Philosophy Plus Edgar Cahn in a 2018 Forbes’ Podcast Lend Insight

By Grace Maselli

 

In the words of British-American philosopher Alan Watts, “Thoughts and words are conventions…and it is fatal to take conventions too seriously.” He used money as a case in point in his 1951 book, The Wisdom of Insecurity, A Message for an Age of Anxiety. “Money gets rid of the inconveniences of barter,” Watts offers. “But it is absurd to take money too seriously, to confuse it with real wealth, because it will do you no good to eat it or wear it for clothing. Money is more or less static, for gold, silver, strong paper, or a bank balance can ‘stay put’ for a long time. But real wealth, such as food, is perishable. Thus a community may possess all the gold in the world, but if it does not farm its crops it will starve.” A relatable point. And the last time I tried to make stew out of $5 bills, it was lousy.

Watts’ caveats beg additional questions:

• Have you ever known anyone who takes money too seriously?
• Have you yourself been anxious about money?
• Have you thought about this recently, as we immerse ourselves in the holiday season and dreams of a magnetic floating bed for $1.6 million? (Yes, it’s true. Such a thing exists.)
• What is real wealth anyway?
• Is it more than moolah?
• Has your view of it changed over the past 10 years?
• The past 20?
• How do you think about children, teenagers, mothers, and seniors in the context of money-making and “wealth?”
• Do you have wealth in health? In a support system? As a way in which you express and exchange usefulness in society, and in your local community?

A Baby Gets Birthed at the London School of Economics

Edgar Cahn, Timebank founder who is now 82 years old, was interviewed earlier this year by Forbes magazine and has long thought outside the polyhedron when it comes to the issue of money and its power, if left unchecked, to define worth. “All sorts of things don’t get valued in our current economic system, despite having tremendous value. Notably, the unpaid work of mothers to care for, educate, and otherwise support their children.” A podcast with Edgar and Forbes’ Devin Thorpe explores timebanking, an economic model that Edgar initially took to the London School of Economics for feedback and legitimacy (read: a reality check) when he was first birthing his brainchild.

These days the baby is all grown up. “There are over 500 timebanks in the U.S. and at least an equal number spread out over 38 countries,” Edgar says in the podcast. “In Wales, [timebanking] is recognized formally by the national government. Scotland just had a two-week celebration of timebanking and ‘co-production’,” he adds.

Three things undergird timebanking, Edgar says:

  1. Core Economy: There’s an economy we undervalue and take for granted known as “unpaid labor”: This economy raises children, makes strong families, makes neighborhoods safe, makes Democracy work, and keeps the planet sustainable. It’s the ecosystem that’s as basic as the ozone layer we took for granted,” he adds. “We need this ecosystem as human beings,” and, “There is a larger economic system than that which is driven and counted by money.”
  2. Currency: “Money does some good things and some strange things,” Edgar says. “Money defines value by price. So if it’s scarce, it’s valuable [think a magnetic floating bed]. If it’s more abundant…it’s dirt cheap or worthless. [This translates to mean] that being a human being is worthless,” given the abundance of humans on the planet, he says. When we “listen to each other, care for each other, come to each other’s rescue, stand up for what is right, oppose what is wrong,” we are coming together as the social animals we are, and timebanking is a system that honors and values—assigns worth to all this. And therefore assigns worth to all people by designing a different type of currency where one skill hour is worth exactly the same as another skill hour and gets exchanged equally within the timebank system. In other words, an hour of childcare is worth the same as an hour of work on an architectural plan.
  3. Co-Production: “We must enlist the persons whom we’re trying to help as our partners or we can’t succeed,” says Edgar about a core timebanking principle. Timebanking is based on this give-and-take, a partnership of skills exchanges to benefit everyone who’s bought into (no pun intended) the model. People in timebanks have partnered with others to help them in their life “processes.” This can extend to health recovery, lowered rates of recidivism in drug addiction and mental illness relapse, creation of civic patrols in neighborhoods to help make them safer, among countless other examples. Timebanks can be used to “build and meld” community, Edgar says, “and as a stream to generate specific programs.”

Listen to the podcast and keep an ear open for “homecomers.” Consider what it might mean in the context of real wealth, and if you believe there are some things that exist beyond quantification in dollars and cents. The takeaway from Edgar: “We have what we need if we use what we have.”

 

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Save the Date for Show & Tell on Sunday, December 2; Curtain Call Is 3PM

By Grace Maselli

Our plan is hatched. It’s a Show & Tell potluck, straight from the pantheon of classroom classics. But this one’s for big kids. So whether you want to bring the rutabaga you grew from seed, a lace doily tatted  lovingly from scratch, miniature doll furniture made of walnut shells and tree sap, or the photo of Clark Gable’s Cadillac you snagged at the Clark Gable Birthplace Museum in Cadiz, OH, then cool! Come to Show & Tell and share memories, dreams, losses and gains. Tell us why you picked what you picked. What about  it speaks to you? We want to know. Because no matter your age, connecting, communicating, sharing ideas and objects—can pique curiosity, give license to expression, and open doors to audience interests. Bring some grub and a friend too who may be interested in learning more about timebanking as we move into the future with our TBT revitalization efforts. Here are the particulars:

Date Sunday, December 2, 2018
Time 3 to 6 PM
Address 2128 Park Crescent Drive
Land O Lakes, FL 34639
(Between Livingston Ave and Collier Parkway immediately off SR 54)
Questions? Call (215) 834-4567 and reference Show & Tell!

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A Groovy Time Was Had by All 18 Potluck Attendees (Really, they Each Said So!)

By Grace Maselli

Yes sirree. There were 18 of us today and a LOT of food and bonhomie to go around. Member Andy LePage hosted at his place and made a fact sheet about timebanking, home-brewed decaf iced tea, and a turkey to boot.  Some of his fact sheet’s highlights: What is a timebank and how does it work? It’s a community of members who exchange what they love to do with other TBT members, engaging their skills and abilities—and members who understand the value of asking for help when they need it. It’s a system where your hour is equal to every other person’s hour; the rich don’t get richer and the poor don’t get poorer! And it’s a community where we extend trust and reciprocity across social, economic, ethnic and linguistic lines, weaving community one hour at a time!

The event’s smorgasbord of foodstuff filled stomachs and set the stage for fun and dialogue—information-sharing about timebanking. Seems TBT may have sent off an auspicious satellite to the north, with the murmurings of a new timebank spearheaded by Andy in Spring Hill getting louder. Part of our dialogue also helped us get things rolling with a group icebreaker, where everyone shared from the following six quick writing prompts.”Tell Us”:

…something about yesterday
…something you do well
…something about  your childhood
…something you learned last week
…something you can’t live without
…something you watch/listen to

The overall conversation about timebanking was also salted and peppered with meaningful commentary including, “We see human beings as assets,” and “Timebanking is a series of social acts of organized benevolence.” So put that bee in yer bonnet and join the community!

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A Good Head of Hair: “Putting Timebanking into Practice”

By Grace Maselli

I went to a friend’s house recently to wash her hair. She’d just had shoulder surgery and needed help with something I take for granted—the ability to easily execute self-care. Bandaged and still in the early phase of recovery, “Pamela” cared about hygiene. Truth be told, it was a hairy situation for me at first. I hadn’t washed another person’s head of hair since my children were small enough to fit inside a kitchen sink. (On my worry list: unintended re-injury of Pam’s shoulder, soap in her eyes…) Happily, it went well and my friend smelled fresh as a daisy on a sunshine-y morning. I even played full-on hairdresser and combed her hair, added product, including a spray to spike her hair–do just the way she likes. Heretofore, Pamela didn’t know from timebanking…so I pitched away. “But what can I offer?” she asked in earnest. “Just about anything you might need or like to have a helping hand with yourself: car rides, organization,  sorting storage boxes,  gardening, reading to a house-bound person who could use some human contact.”

My plan as of this writing is to pick Pam up and drive her to the TBT August monthly meeting to get more than her head wet, but her feet too. Then I took to Page 34 of a long-ago written but still relevant missive published by “TimeBanks USA” in their, “Guidebook 1: Exploring the Big Ideas of TimeBanking, Transforming Time, Reweaving Community”. Page 34 offers the following suggestions for ways to contribute and receive timebanking tasks that map to many of our own TBT offerings:

Accompaniment
Adult literacy
Advocacy
Befriending
Car care
Child care
Clerical support
Computer assistance
Computer literacy
Consumer support
Cooking
Craft lessonsErrands
Entertainment
Financial advice
Group Activities
Gardening		 Haircuts
Heavy lifting
Home Repair
House watching
Information sharing
Jewelry makingLegal assistance
Light housekeepingMassage
Meal preparation
Medical monitoring
Music lessons
Personal grooming
Pet CareReading
Resource sharingSewing/Mending
ShoppingTutoring
Translation services

 

I reckon I engaged in two activities with Pam that appear on this wonderful list: “Personal grooming” and “Befriending.” You’ll notice too that “haircuts” is colorized and bolded. It’ll be a long time before I ever take scissors to head again, now that my children are teens and the days of unprofessional trims with craft scissors are behind us. But I think I may add hair washing to a potentially ever-expanding list of TBT skills I could offer right here on the peninsula in Tampa Bay.