Streetbank "Street Creds" are now accepted as a currency -tradable for St Leonards Timebank Hours

And here is the link in red writing above about new ways of viewing the cost of living & the possible greater role of Local Council's in keeping those costs low/lowering them.

5,000 of these Community Loyalty Cards are due to be handed to people before the 2nd anniversary of the pier fire.

Report now out on the Freelending CIC year to November 2011

http://freelend.pbworks.com/w/page/28446443/Annual%20Reports#Year3toNovember30th2011

Freelender back at the Buddhafield Festival with a waterproof mission

Three years on from our visit to the 2009 Buddhafield Fetival as written about in "The Moneyless Man" (in 16 languages?), Freelender returned to the Festival to fulfil a new mission:

Jubillees; one in twenty-five year opportunities to rebuild connection with neighbours?

Don't wait another 25 years to build community again; build on the wish for it around the Jubilee & promote http://streetbank.com/ ; you know it makes sense!

streetbank presents "community" as a (quality of life enhancing) response to the over-consumption of resources

Is there a better time than NOW to join http://streetbank.com & to contact the team ("Lend-It-All Man", Mediation Support, Freelending CIC and St Leonards Sharing Consortium) about how to go from having a few streetbank members to having a community that really shares it's resources and resourcefulness thanks to the dedicated work of those joining a six-week drive to build those caring and sharing connections around you?
Contact us through the Mediation Support contact form, or phone/text Paul on 0780 7066202.

More background on the steps suggested to building a "more caring and sharing community around you": 1) Lend It All Man & the Moneyless Man 2) The Moneyless Man (Mark Boyle) & Freelender at Buddhafield Festival 3) Turning these ideas (& A FEW MORE RECENT INTERCONNECTED IDEAS) into, what within my (spiritual) community is called a "Team Based Right Livelihood":

Responding to a request to borrow the live-in vehicle "Anticipate Happiness" for a pilgrimage to Holy Island

Dear Ian (Copied to Steve and blind copied to Su, who has the other keys to the van -as an anniversary present) 

Steve has initiated you into the way of the freelender and I wonder how the journey will change you? 

I'd love it if you obtained a book on pilgrimage and shared it with me in some way eg YouTube -my channel is here (the book I nearly bought on Sunday about pilgrimage is this one by Rujumati - "Pilgrimage to Anywhere") 

In fact I'd love to here more about the spirit in which you wish to borrow a van in order to go on the pilgrimage. Have you given much thought to freelending yet and what are you going to freelend to which strangers? How will you test your boundaries in doing this, whilst still being a responsible custodian? 

When you rang, my woman and I were celebrating our anniversary by watching the film Shame -highly recommended and available from me and the Southwater Streetbank Depot. 

My calendar for availability of the van is on my additionalinfo.blogspot.co.uk hub site, and the calendar is specifically at: http://additionalinfo.blogspot.co.uk/p/paul-croslands-calendar.html 

Looking forward to hearing back from you and wishing you all the best with your dream cycle (Dream-Plan-Do-Review). Any thoughts yet as to how you might raise the £1,000 deposit on the van (Anticipate Happiness)?; Steve had £800 I believe.

Best wishes with your journey

Paul

Talking clothes and attempting recruitment into the "Walking Buddhas of SE England" "team-based right livelihood"

Having just met David Robert Clarke at Viramandala Community, London Buddhist Centre:

Gearing up for Buddhafield Festival 2012

Three foot high fridge magnets convey the freelender manifesto

These magnetic hoardings are to be put on the Freelender van -Anticipate Happiness. See below:

Having friends over or going camping etc?; borrow inflatable mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows etc if you are a freelender on streetbank dot com

 Become a streetbank freelender i.e. Step one of the great new world of sharing comes from offering to lend something (or everything -as "Lend-It-All Man" does!) for free to someone you don't yet know: http://streetbank.com

Visions of Hastings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifydXMVaXd4
PLEASE SHARE YOUR VISION FOR OUR TOWN
THIS IS WHY I ASK.
Because:
I'm a Community development activist (promoting timebanking in particular as part of a transition economy). I'm a mediator, a Social Media Consultant (eg for Timebanking UK and the Centre for Peaceful Solutions), and an artist via over forty blogs & a thriving YouTube Channel. I'm also an Ambedkarite Buddhist who is in good communication with my teacher, Urgyen Sangharakshita and who has asked for ordination in the Triratna movement.
Where I am a Community Development activist is in Hastings & (especially) St Leonards, in Nagpur (central city of Nagpur -http://nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com/) & aspiringly in an area around Bodh Gaya and for the citizenship rights of the Chakma people in India. I'm also a carer for my terminally ill mum & for my dad.)
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2012/02/themes-of-my-work.html

GiftFlow is another organisation claiming to be a freecycle evolution

And see if something in this video inspires your next step in getting stuff used more sustainably. A pity that GiftFlow doesn't appear to tackle the challenge of simultaneous consumption (ie sharing) and is just about sequential ownership. Still, if flow starts with gifting, the connections might get more creative in terms of freelending and fractional ownership:

Anticipate Happiness and Happiness is yours

The van going on http://freelender.org & http://streetbank.com this week:

Available with many accessories: family tent, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, chairs, inflatable canoe, bicycle(s), cuddly toy etc
Available for up to 6 months at a time. (Here's the link for the Anticipate Happiness Van in St Leonards, Hastings on Streetbank)

I'd like to live in a moneyless village, she said.

I'm a friend of "The Moneyless Man", Mark Boyle, who has now lived for over two years without money.

I've just replied (on Facebook) to someone who said that she wanted to live in the moneyless village that Mark Boyle is establishing (alegedely).
This is what I wrote in reply:
I've reduced my wages (for a 30 hour week) to just £1/day. As I live in a welfare state country, am a company director and know how the system works and how to protest against bureaucracy, the state pays me a "Basic Income" & most of my housing costs. Others in the world aren't so lucky, but they are fired-up with the mission of "Annihilation of Caste", to quote one of Dr Ambedkar's most famous challenges to Mr Gandhi: http://doctorambedkar.blogspot.com I can offer no moneyless village, though it isn't hard to find nearly moneyless villages in India; especially in Bihar. The social revolution that I'd like to engage people in is with friends in India who are getting dignity and education and building massive social change for just £1/day cost to support them in their studies & empowerment. Here is one such story:
http://nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com/2010/12/bishnus-vision.htm

Free Monet Day? No Free Money day!

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-02-29/sharing-common-cents-free-money-day-experience

by Donnie Maclurcan
On September 15, 2011, at over 60 locations worldwide, people handed out their own money to complete strangers, two coins or notes at a time, asking recipients to pass half on to someone else. Here are our reflections on the event, including why and how it happened.

Life Beyond Economic Growth

Most of the world's transactions do not involve finance. From parenting, caregiving, growing and sharing food, volunteering, and borrowing library items to doing household chores and exchanging ideas on the Internet, aspects of the informal economy are familiar to us all.

A brief historical look also reminds us that our current monetary systems aren't all we've ever known. In fact, even now, there are numerous alternatives currently in play. For instance, thousands of people around the world are engaged in bartering and gift economies which have persisted since 'pre-money' times. Others are developing and using alternative currencies, such as Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) and TimeDollars or Time Banking. There are also groups working on 'open-source' currencies, and families who are choosing to spend less money, buy less stuff, and live more simply.

Often drawing on these alternatives, an increasing number of organized initiatives are deliberately fostering sustainable economic and political systems. Think here of Transition Towns, the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, the Post Carbon Institute, Via Campesina, the New Economics Foundation, Community Economies, and Occupy movements.

Photo used courtesy of Nudzejma Avdic.

Life-supporting economic principles are already evident in many worker-run cooperatives and businesses, sliding scale payment options, participatory budgeting approaches, social justice movements, Fair Trade efforts, Community Land Trusts, credit unions, barter clubs, family and clan-based production methods, collective housing arrangements, job-sharing arrangements, and other forms of the solidarity economy. Meanwhile, ecological economics provide a helpful alternative framework for thinking about bigger picture economic and environmental questions. Clearly, there is good cause to feel hopeful about the plausibility of providing for ourselves and communities without growth-based money systems at the center of activity.

In this light, the proposition that we can thrive without a growth model economy becomes increasingly believable. Indeed, it can be understood as more likely to serve us than the alternative: the endless pursuit of growth on a finite planet.

Given the relentlessness of growth messages from our media, governments, and each other, how might we collectively recognize the greater prosperity that can accompany shifts away from economic growth? How can we understand the relationships among existing sharing practices, new systems developments, and potentials for post-growth futures? How can conversations – about the meanings we give to money, the ways we use it, and alternatives to our reliance upon it – be nurtured in public spaces?

Free Money Day

Inspired by these questions and being big believers in the value of exploring the lighter side of grave challenges, we at the Post Growth Institute decided to conduct a social experiment: Free Money Day. Encouraging creative approaches, we challenged the peoples of the world to take to the streets to give away their own money. Signed-up participants committed to give two small coins or banknotes to strangers, asking these strangers to pass one of them on to someone else – as a symbolic gesture, not a donation.

Quirky? Yes. Likely to elicit questions and dialogue? We hoped so. The idea was for this simple exercise to act as an interruption to our trained response to the prospect of 'free money'. Curiosity was embraced as a conversation starter.

We created a website and invited participants to share what they did through photos, footage, or reflections they wanted to pass along to the wider world. The site included a world map, so people could find their closest event and observe the experiment's reach.

We scheduled activities to happen on September 15, 2011, purposefully coinciding with the anniversary of the 2008 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers. One of the world's largest investment banks at that time, Lehman Brothers' collapse triggered a series of events which contributed to global financial mayhem, the repercussions of which are still being felt.

Video used courtesy of Billy Huang.

Why Focus on Money?

As a medium for exchange, money helps keep many economies running. A certain level of income is vital for people within such systems to be able to meet their basic needs. However, research consistently suggests that, beyond a certain point, having more money does not increase an individual's well-being. This obsession with making more money as individuals is mirrored by our societal addiction to unending economic growth.

The pursuit of these fixations is seriously impacting people's employment situations, livelihoods, ability to access food, and even the stability of the climate. The money systems in which we are currently enmeshed are fundamentally unstable – they create bubbles, and a destructive boom-bust cycle, which result in loss of jobs, homes, health, and even lives.

The U.S. government's repeated debt ceiling hikes may temporarily delay further economic upheaval, but an overarching problem remains: We cannot grow on like this! The world's formal financial systems, which are based on exponential growth, are fundamentally incompatible with a world that has limits to the availability of certain resources.

The Gift of Giving

As it turns out, there are plenty of people eager to liberate themselves from the entrenched relationships we so often have with money and, therein, growth. At the first global Free Money Day, there were 64 events registered in 44 cities, across 19 countries. The equivalent of approximately $3,000 (US) was given away to complete strangers. In addition, to their great surprise, some participants were handed money by strangers!

Participants took seriously the invitation to get creative: One person drew pictures, attached them to coins (with instructions), and left them in public places; one participant engaged 'virtually' as a way of overcoming material barriers to her participation in public; another participated via post. Several handed out money on the streets to passersby (on trains, in town squares, and even at the top of a snow-covered mountain).

Based on participant feedback, the predominant responses from the public were a mixture of confusion and amazement. Once people realized there was no catch, they were happy to chat in greater depth. One woman reportedly broke down in tears. She had just lost her job to corporate downsizing and said that whilst a dollar obviously wasn't going to change her situation, she was comforted to know people genuinely cared. Another person, deeply moved by the gift, said it was the first time they had ever been given something without any expectations in return.

Photo used courtesy of Amelia Bryne.

A common response was: "Give it to someone who actually needs it." However, the apprehensiveness of these passersby to accept the money often dissipated once they knew they could also give some of it away. And they did: In Sydney, where it took four hours to give away $1,000 outside the town hall, journalists came up to cover the story. When asked how they learned about the event, they said that their interest had been prompted when someone randomly gave them a dollar a few streets away!

Perhaps the greatest insights came from the people who were on the streets that day. Here is what some of them (givers and receivers) had to say:

"Those are the moments in life that I'm PASSIONATE about. Moments that challenge common conceptions, touch people in a different way that might actually make a shift in paradigm, generate debate and bring back LOVE to our lives." – Axel

"[The day] inspired me to become more pro-active about the things I value and believe could improve the standard of living of others." – Nudzejma

"I think about [money] all the time. I have a family, I want to look after them the best I can. So, obviously amassing as much as I can gives them the lifestyle that I want to give them. This concept of … having someone give it back to you throws everything on its head, gives me a chance to reflect … It never is enough. You just tend to spend as much as you make." – Ted

"I'm a homeless man and I often get confronted by beggars coming up to me in the street, cutting me off, confrontational, and asking for spare change. Now, the awareness of this today is so cool because if everyone went around giving, no one would be asking … and the world would be such a better place." – Joe

Free Money Day, 2012

Fueled by the energy and passion of last year's participants, Free Money Day 2012 will again take place on September 15 all around the world. This year we're partnering with debt relief groups to include 'forgiving' informal debts amongst friends and formal debts between countries and companies. If you would like more information or are interested in participating, please visit the Free Money Day website or join the conversation through Twitter with the hashtag #freemoneyday, and Facebook.

Then again, no need to wait until September to try it out – sharing money is always common cents!

###

Authored by Donnie Maclurcan and Janet Newbury with thanks to Axel Gutierrez for assistance in researching this article.

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See http://southwatercentre.blogspot.com/2012/02/st-leonards-community-planning-event-on.html?m=1

[Default email template:]

Cheers
Paul

http://additionalinfo. blogspot.com/2012/02/themes-of-my-work.html
How does this strike you?
Or if you want to go deeper:
1) What's new?
2) What's left unresolved from the past?
and/or 3) What's most important now?

Do let me know please if this email has been clear/helpful or not & what you would really like. Is that OK with you?

Tel 0780 70 66 202 for more connection than an e-mail; I'll probably have the spare minutes to call back.

Community Engagement and Community Development in Hastings and St Leonards:
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2012/01/ community-engagement-and-community.html
& http://ethicaloutings.blogspot.com/p/links.html

Thank you for your time reading the whole email and following up what you were moved to do.

Mind-blown & impressed by what Google have been doing with all the data in our gmail accounts; underwhelmed with how they obtained (Informed?) Consent. This is soon to be an issue for http://ethicaloutings.blogspot.com

Mind-blown & impressed by what Google have been doing with all the data in our gmail accounts; underwhelmed with how they obtained (Informed?) Consent. This is soon to be an issue for http://ethicaloutings.blogspot.com
#google #privacy @BBC @Radio4 Listen 2 News at 1 after going to #iPlayer for Google Privacy interview on 1st March leading up to 8.22am #nvc

See http://southwatercentre.blogspot.com/2012/02/st-leonards-community-planning-event-on.html?m=1

[Default email template:]

Cheers
Paul

http://additionalinfo. blogspot.com/2012/02/themes-of-my-work.html
How does this strike you?
Or if you want to go deeper:
1) What's new?
2) What's left unresolved from the past?
and/or 3) What's most important now?

Do let me know please if this email has been clear/helpful or not & what you would really like. Is that OK with you?

Tel 0780 70 66 202 for more connection than an e-mail; I'll probably have the spare minutes to call back.

Community Engagement and Community Development in Hastings and St Leonards:
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2012/01/ community-engagement-and-community.html
& http://ethicaloutings.blogspot.com/p/links.html

Thank you for your time reading the whole email and following up what you were moved to do.

Collaborative Consumption event on 16th March at NESTA

In registering with Eventbrite for a Collaborative Consumption event on 16th March at NESTA, I was asked to express my interest in the area.
Thus, I wrote (as Co-director and Timebanking Social Media Developer, Freelending CIC)

For four and a half years I've co-designed tools for the "sharing and gift economy" as recognised by Forum For The Future, a section in the book The Moneyless Man, The Guardian etc. Despite arranging networks of developers I've yet to see the serious wish to collaborate transcend the greed of ego, or anyone take sustainability seriously or start negotiating with the really big players (eg Facebook linked to Amazon linked to a database of all we own) who could theoretically network to replace much consumption with sharing.

Time Banking Explained

TimeBanking Explained in 53 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GpyQNsoipE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

More information and support for timebanking at:
http://stleonardssharing.info

& http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com

The idling time of your possessions

I'd really like to trust that it's not just lip service being paid to sustainability and transition and localisation and neighbourliness and caring & sharing. Please tell me what you did last week (or will do next week) to enable others to benefit from the idling time of your possessions (& so build social connectivity/social capital)? My intention is to put a minibus on http://streetbank.com & http://freelender.org so that it is available to the community or for family holidays etc - family sized tent & other camping equipment/ inflatable canoe included.

See http://southwatercentre.blogspot.com/2012/02/st-leonards-community-planning-event-on.html?m=1

[Default email template:]

Cheers
Paul

http://additionalinfo. blogspot.com/2012/02/themes-of-my-work.html
How does this strike you?
Or if you want to go deeper:
1) What's new?
2) What's left unresolved from the past?
and/or 3) What's most important now?

Do let me know please if this email has been clear/helpful or not & what you would really like. Is that OK with you?

Tel 0780 70 66 202 for more connection than an e-mail; I'll probably have the spare minutes to call back.

Community Engagement and Community Development in Hastings and St Leonards:
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2012/01/ community-engagement-and-community.html
& http://ethicaloutings.blogspot.com/p/links.html

Thank you for your time reading the whole email and following up what you were moved to do.

Awaiting news of UK AWARE 2012 as I usually organise a gathering of "sharing & gift economy developers" alongside this event; this will be year 3 for that and I hope that THE MONEYLESS MAN (Mark Boyle) will be there this time rather than in Portugal and on http://ted.com (More news to follow on http://Freelenders.blogspot.com)

Awaiting news of UK AWARE 2012 (sadly delayed from its usual April slot this year). Freelending Community Interest Company usually organise a gathering of "sharing & gift economy developers" alongside this event; this will be year 3 for that and I hope that THE MONEYLESS MAN (Mark Boyle) will be there this time rather than in Portugal and on http://ted.com, which was his 'excuse' last year for not being there.
(More news to follow on http://Freelenders.blogspot.com)

See http://southwatercentre.blogspot.com/2012/02/st-leonards-community-planning-event-on.html?m=1

[Default email template:]

Cheers
Paul

http://additionalinfo. blogspot.com/2012/02/themes-of-my-work.html
How does this strike you?
Or if you want to go deeper:
1) What's new?
2) What's left unresolved from the past?
and/or 3) What's most important now?

Do let me know please if this email has been clear/helpful or not & what you would really like. Is that OK with you?

Tel 0780 70 66 202 for more connection than an e-mail; I'll probably have the spare minutes to call back.

Community Engagement and Community Development in Hastings and St Leonards:
http://additionalinfo.blogspot.com/2012/01/ community-engagement-and-community.html
& http://ethicaloutings.blogspot.com/p/links.html

Thank you for your time reading the whole email and following up what you were moved to do.