For several months now, a local currency has been in operation on the coast. You can pay part or all of the cost of products or services with money that has been printed right here in Mendocino County!
You can also pick up a copy of the SEED newsletter in many stores as well. This newsletter explains how the local currency works and contains a directory of individuals and businesses offering products and services for partial or full payment in the SEED currency.
A recent SEED potluck in Mendocino on August 7 was attended by over a hundred enthusiastic people, who were either signing up, learning more about how SEED works, or arranging trades using SEED money.
You can contact SEED at seed@mcn.org, or call Zo at 937-4412, or Susan at 937-4077 for general information.
Although a few months behind the coast folks, a local currency called Ukiah HOURS is being organized for the inland Ukiah Valley area, and will go into operation before the end of the year. HOURS currency is intended to be used by individuals and businesses in the region of Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Potter Valley, Hopland or Anderson Valley.
While the information below is applicable to both currencies, the remainder of this article focuses on the Ukiah HOURS project.
First, lets get the legality issue out of the way. A community printing its own money is completely legal. The only requirements of the government are that the money doesn't look like federal money, and income is declared in your tax return.
You might think of Ukiah HOURS as a well-organized barter system, which uses paper money as the exchange medium. You use HOURS currency just like money with anyone willing to accept it.
You don't have to be a member to use HOURS. But by becoming an HOURS member at $5 or more, you will get 4 HOURS of local currency, with each HOUR bill equivalent to $10. You will also be able to put a listing of one or two services in the directory to be printed in the quarterly HOUR TOWN newsletter and on the HOURS web site.
HOURS currency will be available in several denominations: 2 HOUR, 1 HOUR, 1/2 HOUR, 1/4 HOUR. Getting HOURS for joining is how the currency gets into circulation in the community.
For your listings you can use your current work or products you are willing to trade for partial or full HOURS. Or you may want to list a skill or a hobby that you've always wanted to try as a business. You might like baking pies or making cookies, or tutoring people on the computer, or doing something with the massage training you took last year but weren't ever going to make a "business" out of. Use your imagination. Here is your chance to share one of your "unknown" skills with your community.
As well as individuals being listed, businesses willing to accept partial or all HOURS in sales transactions will also be listed in the print and web directories. Businesses will be able to put advertising in the print newsletter as well.
The HOURS web site includes background information about local currency, the people behind HOURS, and the current status of the project as it nears completion. You can read about the many advantages a local currency has for a community over federal money. The web site includes a membership form, which means that you can go there right now and sign up (you will have to send your membership fee separately). You can also view the most up-to-date listing of member services being offered and requested. You will find only a few people and services listed at present, because we have not yet begun our promotion campaign. These people have found out about HOURS by word of mouth, or from reading previous MEC newsletter articles about HOURS.
We are now finishing the design of the money and looking for a printer. We are also completing the design of a brochure which will contain a membership form. We are gearing up for our promotion campaign and brochures should start appearing on racks around the Ukiah Valley area in the near future. We are hoping to get HOURS started before the end of the year, at what will be a well-announced potluck dinner event in Ukiah. At that time the HOUR Town newsletter will be available, HOURS money will be distributed, and HOURS currency can start being used inland just like the SEED folks are already doing on the coast!
We need all the help we can get as we start into the promotion phase of this great community project. If you are as excited as we are about the idea of local currency, you can email us via the web site, or call 462-4543.
And don't forget the Ukiah Hours web site:
www.greenmac.com/hours
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited