Saturday, April 1, 2023 – 10:30am to 1pm
The Village Church
121 Cobble Hill Road – Swanzey, NH
COST: Donation
With the “Great Reset” coming, let’s learn to barter.
Space is limited, pre-registration is required!
Please RSVP right away to Elena:
artemis718@gmail.com
LETS is a useful way to barter between members of a group. It solves the “I don’t have anything you want, so we can’t barter” problem. Come try it out!
For this first barter, we will keep things inexpensive. So bring three to five items or services to trade worth around $100 in total. Below are examples of great things to bring:
Homemade food of all kinds to sell, especially since the event is at lunch time. Bring paper plates if needed for your food.
Sandwiches
Breakfast Bars
Cookies
Pie slices
Vegetables
Household goods
Tools
Working electronics
Costume jewelry
Things you’ve made
Or trade for services:
Snow cleaning
House cleaning
Yard work
Driving service
Hair cut
Babysitting
Food prep
Light sewing and repair
Other services
We are looking for 30 people to start a barter group
We need a group of about 30 people willing to experiment with a community barter system called LETS for about three months. (Check out the cartoon below to see how this system works.) If we like how it works, we will continue past three months and invite more people to join us. Our first meeting is April 1st in Swanzey. Our second group barter event will be May 6 in Keene, and our third one TBD, likely early June.
Like the Amish, we can help each other improve our lives. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to call on friends for help with the yard, house or other services like sewing, driving, babysitting, packing, or any of a number of small chores? Or trade items like food, eggs, vegetables, baked goods, handmade things, herbs, potions, soap, and like-new items that we don’t use?
When the economy takes its next big hit, such a community could make all the difference.
Space is limited so please register right away. For more information or to register, email Elena at: artemis718@gmail.com
How LETS works: A simple explanation
Direct barter depends on both people having something the other wants, and so unless the immediate needs line up perfectly, bartering doesn’t work. LETS (Local Exchange Trading Systems) allow one to trade with a group by using something to represent the value of the thing wanted and making a trade. In the cartoon below, a piece of paper with 10 on it represents the value of the items wanted. By trading around the piece of paper, everyone gets what they need. At the end of the day, the piece of paper isn’t needed anymore.
Another way to look at it is that one is trading with a group rather than with an individual.
Our Local Experiment
In our experiment, we will keep a ledger of credits (the value of things you trade to others) and debits (the value of what others trade to you) that each person accrues, either at our regular LETS meetups or in between as folks trade one-on-one. You can then “spend’ your favors (credits) with others in our local LETS community (or if you have no remaining credits, accrue debits when others trade you their goods or services), or trade more of your products and services to others and thus accrue more credits.
Precisely how many credits and debits members will be allowed to carry forward will be decided by the group that forms to experiment with this for the minimum 3-month period. Our aim will be to have each of us zero out our balance by the end of the 3 month period.
For our April 1st event and subsequent meetups, you are encouraged to bring flyers or brochures to share, listing your regularly offered products and services. This way, our LETS community can get to know you and how we might trade with each each other both during and outside of our formal meetups.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Kristen at kreynolds3000 [at] gmail [dot] com.