I made an autocratic decision… (actually that is an exaggeration, but I like to be provocative.) Last year, the volunteer committee decided that we would ask everyone to change their user names to their real names, rather than a coded name. The reason for this? It is very hard to find people in the Timebank when you know their name is James, but their user name is “deathstar1000” … it is VERY hard for certain coordinators to give timedollars to people, or to renew accounts after membership dues have been paid under these circumstances as well. In fact, with the Timebank membership hovering around the 200 member mark, it has become impossible to remember all of these idiosyncratic names. I asked people twice last year to make this change to their account on their own, but few did. Last week, I went in and made the change myself. But what does this mean for you? It means that when you log-in, you should use either your real name as your “username” OR your email address (that works too.) Your password has been left unchanged. If you have any trouble at all, please don’t hesitate to email me and I will help you get back into your account. [email protected]
And you should log-in! Why? Because a new feature has been added to the Timebank software that will radically alter your ability to get your needs met within the Timebank. Yellow Pages have been added. What is that? It is a feature that allows you to search the talents of the entire Timebank community for skills. For instance, say you need help with a sewing task, but no one has an offer on the Timebank for sewing. Instead of paying a tailor for the service in the money economy, you can now search the Timebank community for someone with sewing skills through the Yellow Pages feature, and email them directly and ask if they would like to do this work for you for timedollars. See how great that feature is? But the Yellow Pages success, however, is only as good as the number of people who put in skills, so please do so. It is really important. Take a moment and go to this link to fill in your Yellow Pages listing.
The January Volunteer Meeting has been confirmed and will take place on January 31st in the Parlor Room at the Community Center from 6 pm – 7 pm (directly before the Transition Book Club gathering, which of course you are invited to attend.) I will be holding the Seven Stones drop in social on Wednesdays at Seven Stones up until that week, and then this meeting on Friday will replace the Timebank weekly gathering and the Seven Stones meetings will be discontinued. I know a few people are gathering tomorrow night (Wednesday the 15th) at Seven Stones at 7 pm. If you’d like to meet some fellow timebankers or just have a coffee with me and chat for awhile, please feel free to join me there.
And finally…this just in — Timebanking will be featured on ABC News with Diane Sawyer next Wednesday at 6:30 pm (EST). There will be faces you recognize in the piece (Stephanie Rearick and Edgar Cahn among them.)
In gratitude,
Marie
The abundant heart does not consider service a punishment or sharing a burden. Rather, it sees the unmet needs of the community as if they were those of a loved one and acts to meet them. –Stephen Shirk
Leave a Reply