The TimeBanks USA Conference, co-hosted by Dane Co. Timebank and UW-Madison, is taking place here in Madison Thur. June 25 - Sat. June 27 at the Concourse Hotel.
The conference is $189, $95 each for groups of 4 or more, or $99/day. There will be a lab on Tools for Building the Local Economy, featuring Madison Hours Board President Jon Hain, Dane Co. Timebank Director Stephanie Rearick, and Dane Buy Local founding member Rick Brooks, and a plenary session on Local Economies: The Big Picture.
At our membership meeting on Monday, the LETS Proposal submitted by Erin Schneider and myself, passed unanimously. The small group of six members exactly met the quorum requirements of our by-laws and we had a good conversation about the proposal. It was suggested that the plan be amended to set a credit limit for LETS accounts and to require an annual review of the credit limit by the Board of Directors.
Our by-laws now require a 30 day waiting period before the proposal takes affect. Members have the right, during this period to organize another meeting to oppose or modify the plan. Assuming no one does, we will aim to roll our or new website with the LETS system, the new membership rules and the ability to pay membership dues on-line.
PROPOSAL TITLE: Adding a LETS system to Madison Hours and a few changes to our membership structure.
DATE: February 28, 2009
SPONSOR: Jon Hain and Erin Schneider
SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL: By adding a LETS system to the Madison Hours currency system we will expand usability of our trading network. Doing so in the manner proposed will also create a new mechanism to grow the supply of Hours circulating in our local economy. To deliver on the promise of increasing local trade we're also proposing a couple changes to our membership policy. Some of the changes have as their goal to make membership and use of our system easier for businesses and non-profits. The rest are to make it easier to keep track of and administer memberships.
"Not Ready for Prime Time"
By MIKE WHITNEY
This week was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's coming out party. He was supposed to outline Obama's Financial Stability Plan to the Senate Banking Committee. Wall Street was looking for clarity, but it didn't get it. Instead, they got 25 minutes of political posturing and blather. The markets went into freefall. By the end of the day, the Dow was down 382 points. It was a complete fiasco.
Geithner is a smart man. He knows what Wall Street wants. They want a plan and they want the details. They don't want more gibberish. He knew that he'd get hammered if he didn't produce a workable scheme for fixing the banks, but he went ahead anyway figuring he could dazzle his audience with his brilliance. It didn't work. The markets plummeted and the pundits wrote him off as "not ready for prime time". Now his credibility is shattered just three weeks into the new administration. Why did he do it?
Thanks everyone who came to or vended at the Holiday Trade Fair last weekend.
The High Noon, as always, was a great space with more people hanging out and socializing than in past years. They also became the first bar in Madison to accept Madison Hours. They were accepting 1/4 Hour towards any Ale Asylum beer.
Most vendors reported decent to good sales. We tried a new process for "renting" vendor space. Instead of set fees per space, we asked everyone to pay at the end based on what it was worth to them. It averaged out to just about exactly what it had been in past years but without as much effort on our end. It also allowed a couple vendors who had slow sales to pay less than they would've had to otherwise. A couple of vendors were surprised at their sales and paid far more than we've ever charged.
. . . $7.76 trillion . . .
That is what Bloomberg reports has been committed on behalf of the American taxpayer to bailout America’s finance system. This includes spending by the Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC.
The amount is equal to half the value of everything produced in the United States last year.
It is $24,000 for every man, woman and child in America.
It's nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is enough money to pay off more than half the country's mortgages.
We do not even know where all of those funds have gone. The taxpayer is putting up a King's ransom and not being told who is receiving it. We guarantee the debts of banks and are not being told what collateral is provided or who is receiving the funds. Fed Chairman Bernanke says that such transparency would be "counterproductive." Before receiving the bailout funds, Treasury Secretary Paulsen promised transparency.
