29 September 2009
Nelson Complimentary Currency Meeting
A few hardy souls braved the September day with the highest daily rainfall - 37.6mm - on the 29th at five for a two hour brainstorm session that resolved several thorny issues, and gave impetus for active development of the new Nelson Complementary Currency TWINZ.
Present were Dorothy-Rose Pallesen, Jace Hobbs, Ted Howard, Willow Sands, and your scribe, Zack Domike.
"Membership"
For the initial phase, we shall remain small, and grow by word-of-mouth - and email announcements - among the Transition Nelson (TN) members for these reasons:
1.) we need to learn about the ces.org.za software;
2.) we need time to develop our new system, finding the interests and strengths of TN members and business partners;
3,) we want to emphasize that TWINZ is local and friendly, so a 15% response from the TN membership would be sufficient; and
4.) we need time to develop appropriate marketing materials for the wider community.
"Staff"
We were advised to search to involve some outstanding members of the former Green Dollar system started twenty years ago, like Davey Jones, and Bob and Barbara Walker. (Zack missed noting a few names here, so please complete!) Some members can eventually be developed among the BU-WT, and secondary school graduates.
Having the ces.org.za website gratis means that the administration of TWINZ is largely automatic. Other systems have staff to promote economic activity, paid with their local currency. We are far from affording a staff, so all the work will fall to this committee.
"Bills and Terminology"
We might want to avoid using the term "Currency" since we are planning to trade only electronically for an extended period. At some point in the future we expect to launch printed bills to circulate, and serve for small transactions, and to advertise the system. We hope to exploit the fact that similar systems have gained substantial national currency income through the sale of bills. We have some examples of glossy colorful bills from Wairarapa WAIS that were funded by the NZ Lottery Community Facilities Fund; other local institutions and businesses will be identified.
"Market Day"
The Green Dollar Market Day was a great community event, especially when held at the Fairfield House. Sunday, 14 December is the H.A.N.D.S. Summer Market from 3-7 pm at Tui Community, Wainui Bay. TWINZ is far from ready to produce such an elaborate event, but we are ambitious to anticipate one day. In the meantime, we hope to be able to take our promotional material to the markets produced by associated Transition Nelson committees, such as"Nelson Growables" 15 November, Founder's Heritage Park.
"IRD and Tax Regulation"
NZ is quite advance in the use of complementary Currencies (as exemplified by the 24 NZ systems listed in the ces.org.za site) especially since the tax issues are quite clearly defined. To repeat, any transaction in your primary profession is taxable, but any as a hobbyist is NOT taxable. In the case of unemployment benefits or a pensioner benefits, there is a monetary limit above which benefits might be curtailed as TWINZ activity increases. We will look for this info on other systems' web resources to make it easier to present this challenging topic.
"Basket Valuation"
We hope to expand our system in future by demonstrating that the value maintains value relative to the inflation expected in the Kiwi$. At present, we plan to tie to a present (30 Sept. 2009) value relative to the KIWI$ of a few items with differing weights - like 50% Consumer Price Index; 10% Petrol, 10% Internet, 10% Council Rates, 10% Gold, and 10% Labour Minimum Wage. We postponed wrestling with the challenge of the proposals to join the KIWI$ and Aus$. It will be important to show how our local currencies retain value compared to the flood of inflation pending.
"Next Meeting"
We hope to develop more marketing information and concise emails to TN members. A physical meeting is tentatively set for 4 weeks ahead, but Willow will not be available Tuesdays. So, watch for announcements.