TimeBanking Best Practices02 Apr
What works and what doesn’t when running a TimeBank? Panelists including Diane Brown, Silbia Esparza, Kristine Flones, Philippe Granger and Linda Hogan will open the door to a conversation about best practices. Topics will include financial sustainability, partnering with local organizations, building ownership and trust among the membership, and the importance of creating a culture of inclusiveness.
Add your voice now! What best practices would you share at the conference?
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Madison is a great place to visit!
Successes in building a strong geographic cluster with it’s own advisory committee. Providing leadership training from an organizational partner to build the skills to enable them to become strong and move toward sustainaibility. We are working on a second geographical cluster in a rural area… Another best practice we just completed was to use a more comprehensive enrollment intake form which closely resembles the Community Weaver marketplace which then makes the Service Providers Guide a much better tool for self member matching. Third would be providing and training more members to take on leadership roles such as orientation leaders, member matching, ambassadors to speak to public entities to promote the program, thus saving vital staff time.
This is “Theory” and it is our Plan. This is a third model for TimeBanks, referred to as “Institution-Facilitated, Member-Led”. It involves a Regional Network of TimeBanks where individual members will grow to be a member of an average of three TimeBanks based on each individual’s natural communities of interest. It is also based on bottom-up, community organizing principles. References include “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Empowering the Poor” by Robert Linthicum. Community organizing principles include 1.) Individuals will not participate in personal relationships with groups larger than 150, the “Magic Number 150, and, 2.) Mentally Healthy Individuals can affiliate with seven groupings, the “Magic Number 7. The most basic three communities of interest could be 1.) Neighborhood-Block, 2.) School-Classroom, and, 3.) Church-Ministry. For Houston, this translates to 20,000 Time Banks, or less than 20% of our potential before going beyond Neighborhood, Schools, and Faith Groups.