Funding a Better Future for Time Bank Entrepreneurs
Sarah McGowan Dear

Donate to the Community Revolving Loan Fund!

This fall the Community Revolving Loan Fund (CRLF) and Local Economy Incubator (LEI) launched, serving the Arroyo Seco Network of Time Banks (ASNTB). 

Intended to help our community of artisans, entrepreneurs, visionaries and worker-owned cooperatives gain access to resources that often come with a great price tag in the extractive economy, both new projects seek to educate, support and empower the ASNTB through micro-loans and access to professional development.

The CRLF is the first-ever loan fund of its kind to be created by a Time Bank! 

After receiving a development grant (that also capitalizes 50% of the fund) from the Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation led by artist and foundation director, Lauren Bon, we’re now in the process of raising $5,000 in matching funds from the community to begin lending in January 2014.

Time Bank members are enterprising, resourceful and creative. Many have already launched local businesses, restaurants and worker-owned cooperatives. More of us have developed handmade products such as jams, jewelry, clothing, botanicals and bread. Our fund provides low interest micro-loans to scale up production, upgrade equipment or purchase materials and supplies. 

Loan requests in the amount of $500-5,000 will be considered through a Time Bank developed application and panel review process. From the incredible support of our financial partner, the Santa Fe Permaculture Credit Union, we will retain full control of the review, management and closing process, offering our entrepreneurs access to truly community-supported small business loans that will further help them either improve or establish their credit.  

The fund is especially supportive of women and the economically distressed, ventures that promote environmental and/or community sustainability, ventures that show direct and positive impact on the ASNTB community and social entrepreneurs or cooperatives with a social mission. We hope to see today’s borrowers become tomorrow’s mentors and donors. 

Help us crowdfund this pioneering project! 

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to support our enterprising members! Click here to donate. 

And click here to learn more about the history of the ASECO Community Revolving Loan Fund and its eligibility requirements, our financial partner, the Santa Fe Permaculture Credit Union, the Local Economy Incubator, our timeline for launch and the ways you can get involved!

The Arroyo S.E.C.O. Network of Time Banks is proud to present the debut of the documentary Time as Money made by talented members Lenore and Mark Eklund! Made entirely with Time Credits. Get an insider's view of Time Banking in practice.

When: Sunday, September 29th. Potluck at 5PM Screening at 6PM
Where: Armory Center for the Arts 145 North Raymond Ave Pasadena, CA
91103
Details: Bring a dish to share and your own plate, cup and utensil. Everyone welcome. Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/750430184971601/

Tinkers, Tailors, Tour and Iced TeaNext Repair Café will be Saturday, August 17 from 6-9 pm in the Arroyo Food Co-op Store 494 No Wilson @Villa, Pasadena Tinkers and Tailors will be on hand.  You will have an opportunity to tour the little market and sip Iced Tea while you sit with your repairer.  The Really, Really Free Market will have a kitchen focus this time.Have a spare whisk or egg slicer or crock pot you want to pass on to a good home?All items welcome. Share your ideas on what you would like to see happening in the outside spaces of the market...bus stop bench? Food Cart? Plantings?  Hear the ideas others have. Mary will have very cute Repair Café aprons for sale.Bring a friend and escape the heat! 

In August I traveled to New York and visited the Community Connections TimeBank headquarters in mid-town Manhattan. Launched in December of 2006 the Community Connections TimeBank is sponsored by the Visiting Nurses Service of New York, the largest non-profit home care agency in the US. The TimeBank boast over 2000 members and has the most diverse membership than any other TimeBank in the country. All the members call in their exchanges and a coordinator records them in a database. They have a large staff including outreach coordinators who speak Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish. They cover several neighborhoods in Manhattan and the five boroughs and offer their members discounts at local business as a perk to membership. All of it is managed by Mashi Blech (middle, pictured fifth from the left) a pioneer in the TimeBanking movement and a very wise and knowledgeable woman... she also makes a mean chicken parmesan.  Her collaborator Ana Miyares was not there that day but she was missed. Ana spent many hours consulting our TimeBank back in 2008 and we owe her a debt of gratitude for her patience and kind advice. If you happen to visit New York, stop by and meet the Community Connections TimeBank. They are doing incredible work!  ~ Autumn Rooney

Los Feliz Time Bank hosts the August Member Potluck on Sunday, August 11th!! All neighborhoods are welcome.

We will be screening an amazing documentary called Shift Change about the power of Cooperatives. Stories of secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces.
View the trailer here, http://shiftchange.org/video-clips/

This film is relevant to our new Community Revolving Loan Fund http://www.asntb.com/revolving-loan-fund.html AND our Local Economy Incubator http://www.asntb.com/local-economy-incubator.html

Come if you want to learn more!
When: Sunday, Aug 11th potluck begins at 7:30PM Movie starts at 8:00PM
Where: Mulholland Fountain near Griffith Park at the intersection of Riverside Dr and Los Feliz Blvd. Look for the Echo Park Film Center Cinebus http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/filmmobile/filmmobile.html

Details: Earn a time credit for bringing a dish. Meet your fellow members and enjoy some delicious food. Bring your own cup, plate and utensil. zero waste.

Facebook invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/341846045947679/

Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity into Prosperity
In this visionary new book, Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne explore the origins of our current monetary system—built on bank debt and scarcity—revealing the surprising and sometimes shocking ways its unconscious limitations give rise to so many serious problems. But there is hope. The authors present stories of ordinary people and their communities using new money, working in cooperation with national currencies, to strengthen local economies, create work, beautify cities, and provide education—and so much more is possible. These real-world examples are just the tip of the iceberg—over 4,000 cooperative currencies are already in existence.
-Maya Gingery

What: Time Bank Training
Where: Fais Do Do, 5257 W. Adams Blvd, Los Angeles 90016
When: Sunday, July 28, 2013 from 10am to 2pm

More information:

Learn about:

+ Starting and coordinating a Time Bank
+ Recruiting leadership
+ Engaging stakeholders
+ Engaging organizations as partners
+ Community justice and Time Banking
+ Time Banking and other complementary currencies

About Dane County Time Bank: The Dane County Time Bank, established in 2005, is a network with over 2000 individuals and organizations who exchange time in order to build community, build capacity, and come together to help each other to build a better world.

More info on Dane County Time Bank here: http://danecountytimebank.org/home

About Stephanie Rearick: Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Stephanie Rearick is founder and Co-Director of the Dane County TimeBank and Project Coordinator of Time For the World. In addition to her work in timebanking and promoting ground-up economic and community regeneration, Stephanie is co-owner of Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse. She worked for Greenpeace for six years during her youth, helped launch Madison Hours, a local currency in 1995 and served for several years on the steering committee of independent local political party Progressive Dane.

You can learn more about Stephanie at these sites

Stephanie Rearick brings her "Junior" show to LA for one night only. She loops casio keyboard, trumpet and vocals to create beautifully textured music. Stephanie is the founder and director of the Dane County Time bank in Madison WI. Come show some Time Bank love. Her music is amazing!
Here her music here, http://stephanierearick.com/

Fri, July 26th at 7PM
At Pop-Hop 5002 York Blvd. L.A. CA 90042

Free admission but donations are welcome!

Come to her time bank training on July 28th

Learn all about Seed Saving from new member, George Patton. George is a resident at the L.A. Eco Village. He hosted the Gardening Naturally radio show on KCRW from 1980 to 1981. He volunteers with the Biodynamic Assoc of Southern CA. Focused on food security, composting, growing and using herbs.

Saturday, June 29th from 10AM-1PM potluck lunch at the L.A. Eco Village Courtyard 117 Bimini Place L.A., CA 90004. Off the Beverly/Vermont red line.

Please bring a dish to share and your own plate cup and utensil (zero waste).

Everyone welcome!

Maybe this can lead to a Time Bank seed library. :)

Two Green City Awards were received by projects near and dear to Time Bankers' hearts at this year's Earth and Arts Festival.  Congrats to us! Repair Cafe, awarded for Waste Reduction, has hosted eight events this past year which have rescued nearly 300 items from becoming landfill, moving our city closer to its goal of Zero Waste by 2040.  The Repair Cafe was in full swing at the festival and utilized 25 volunteers, most of whom are Time Bankers.  Conversations with curious passersby covered topics from zero waste to localizing our economy, time banking, sharing skills, to neighborhood fruit picking and the Transition Movement's cheerful approach to divesting from unsustainable fossil fuels to heal this planet.  Save the date! Next Repair Cafe Saturday June1, 10-1 Throop Hall will include the Really Really Free Market, Potluck on the Patio and more!

Throop Learning Garden took the second award for Urban Nature.  Nearly 200 volunteers including many Time Bankers have contributed to this public garden over the last two years.  It is a blooming success for drawing attention to urban food growing, creating habitat for creatures small to large and demonstrating the change that adding nature to a busy urban setting can bring to its workers, its passersby, its local community.   The next goal for the garden is designation as Certified Wildlife Habitat by National Wildlife Federation in hopes of spreading this awareness as well.  It is worth looking into if your backyard has  become attractive to more birds, bees, bats, bugs and other creatures.  Only four components are required.  http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Certify-Your-Wildlife-Garden.aspx?campaignid=WH09ASLP   Lets make a nature habitat corridor through the Arroyo!   Thanks to all who have helped attract the city's attention to these timely projects. You deserve to feel proud.  Tell someone how your contribution to your community has had a huge rippling effect for healing the environment.
-Maya Gingery