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Timebanking

Time banking - experiment with a different kind of money

WHAT IS A TIME BANK?
A timebank is an online time exchange system, where people are rewarded with time credits for each hour volunteered to their local community group, or neighbour. People can then spend these credits by purchasing time from other people, or getting discounts on selected services in their community.

in 2010, NTLP supported an action research project in conjunction with University College Cork exploring the suitability of a timebank to promote volunteering in North Tipperary. (Download excerpted version of the research here. A short presentation is available here.)

FINDINGS FROM ACTION RESEARCH ON TIMEBANKS IN NORTH TIPPERARY
The research found a very clear social analysis at the core of Time Banking. Founder Edgar Cahn, pinpointed the lack of value that our current financial/money system gives to most kinds of caring or community work, noting how GDP actually goes up when someone goes to prison, or when somebody is put in nursing home.

In addition, the research pointed to huge developments in the field of Complementary Currencies, which seeks to design OTHER types of currencies, for different uses, which don't just promote competition, and devalue carying labour, but which have a "community conscience".

Regarding timebanking itself, while an interesting innovation, the research found serious, persistent flaws with the system. For example, some of the earliest evaluations have pointed out that providing 'credits' for time volunteered, is not a key motivator for timebanks, and that people who tend to join time banks tend to be joiners anyway. Secondly, early evaluations also described the credit system as "gimmicky" and a nightmare to keep track of.

WANT TO READ MORE?
An excerpted version of the research can be downloaded here.

We also include 2 short passages from the work below:

Time banks: Community Currency or Volunteering initiative
“The hour for an hour aspect of TimeBanking makes them a truly complementary currency, one that is specifically designed to stimulate ... the economy of home, family, neighborhood and community” (Herpel 2010)

It is in the distinctions between time banking’s role as community currency and volunteering initiative, that we come to the nub of the difficulties with time banking. Broad claims are made for it as a mechanism to counter social decay, and generate social networks. It continues to be pitched and sold as a time bank, i.e. as a type of currency, despite the fact that earliest and succeeding evaluations indicate that this element of its operation is rife with difficulty.

 In his book on money systems, Greco outlines the two principal characteristics of money: as a medium of exchange and as a measurement of value (Greco 2009). While measuring in units of time is certainly innovative, methods for tracking and actually exchanging those credits are crucial and problematic aspects of time banking, which are most in need of development. Credits need to be able to move quickly and easily to function properly as a form of money. When former time bankers complain about the difficulties in recording and tracking the time credits, they are actually describing a fundamental flaw of the time banks system.

Richard Logie, CEO of GETS Plus, a community currency consultant, pointed to other flaws in time banks as currencies. As credits can continued to be issued, without being backed by anything other than a promise to repay, bizzarely, the system comes to resemble the debt currency of mainstream banks. With so many in circulation, and without enough attractive options to redeem them, time credits tend to become devalued (Logie 2010). For more on this see the next chapter.

So while time banks work as networks, promoting member exchanges and building social capital (Collom, 2008), evidence of a deep conceptual wooliness lies in the persistence in calling them currencies, without addressing the serious design flaws. That such a flawed system continues to be marketed as a currency is misleading and wasteful. Open discussion of these flaws would allow innovations to arise that could enable time banks to really live up to the claims that are made for them.

Conclusion
While there may be future innovations which allow the type of internet based time banks offered by Time Banks USA and Time Banks UK to flourish, it is the conclusion of the current study that as they are currently configured, they are fundamentally flawed. Furthermore, it is contended that such flaws have been consistently ignored in the drive to promote something deemed as good, thereby causing a negligent waste of time and resources among those who would spend time struggling with this mechanism.

In this optic, that this study did not reach its original stated objective to establish a time bank in North Tipperary, is a good thing. The research was able to correct itself, and reformulate its objectives when challenges arose.

If NTLP is to experiment with a complementary currency to reach its target groups, the mainstream model of time banking is not likely to help. From my study in the area, the two systems which would bring the most benefit are:
1.    A community points system – to reward specific community or civic minded behaviours
2.    A business-to-business, local authority-to-business credit clearing system, which in a climate of restricted finance, could be a huge boost to the local economy.

For more information, please contact Gearóid Fitzgibbon on 085-7409023 or email: gfitzgibbon@ntlp.ie

Here are some links of interest;

www.timebanks.org - the site of TimeBanks USA, establised by Timebanks founder Edgar Cahn.

www.timebanking.org - the site of the UK Timebanks network.

www.communitytimebank.org is the website of Glounthane Community Timebank in East Cork, which is one of the first timebanks established in Ireland.

Click on this link to a presentation by Edgar Cahn where he explains the theory behind Timecredits.
BELOW IS A VIDEO FROM ROCHESTER FAMILY SERVICES, ABOUT A TIMEBANK WHICH THEY HAVE SET UP IN THEIR ORGANISATION, IT'S CALLED "Timetrader".

Video

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