Friday, August 30, 2013

FREE software is one GIANT step toward mobility for our collective!

While I normally don't swoon over tech-related things I am very excited that we have found free software to track our member timebank exchanges offered through hOurworld.  This means we can allocate our collective $money$$ in the bank to other needs AND sign people up more quickly, easily and efficiently! The next month will be dedicated to learning the software and assisting all current members with setting up their profiles with offers and requests.

I spoke briefly with a member of hOurworld, which is also a collective, this week and found out another bit of info that was exciting too - that St. Louis is where timebanking originated!  I knew that Grace Hill had run the M.O.R.E (Member Organized Resourc Exchange) for decades and that it's activity has waxed and waned, but I always thought that Maine was the birthplace of timebanking.  This is really important to me as my desire to have St. Louis be a frontrunner in the timebanking scene grows and I now realize we are simply returning to our roots, again, by honoring the start of a model alternative economics program right here in the midwest.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Abundance is the new Currency!

In entertaining the idea of creating the freedom and wealth we want for our world, "Abundance is the new Currency" is a statement that has surfaced for me lately.  I think it just might become the motto for The Cowry Collective!  When you reflect on all that you have and that the universe has a perfect mechanism to provide for all needs that exist, feelings of calm and gratitude wash over you and your outlook cannot help but become brighter!

We did not win the Delmar Divide SLOUP contest this time but we continue to look for funding and will re-apply to a SLOUP event very soon.  It was so great to share timebanking with more folks in St. Louis and I know other opportunities await us!

Monday, August 19, 2013

We have a chance to win $500+ from SLOUP Crowdfunding!

The Cowry Collective was selected to present at the Delmar Divide SLOUP this past Sunday 8/18 at MHM at 3 pm.  Presentations from 7 finalists were heard by an audience of about 50.  Attendees paid $10 and had the chance to vote for the project that best addressed the racial and social divide and inequities highlighted in the BBC news clip and resulting documentary that surfaced last year.  The doc was shown and while we all know about the huge disparities in race and class in St. Louis, with the statistics and visuals it was quite depressing to see the stark difference in appearance of the neighborhoods that lie just north and south of Delmar in the Central West End. However, out of those disparities I see so much potential for timebanking to equalize the playing field for residents in St. Louis who have great human capital they can invest in their neighborhoods.  

The winner of this SLOUP will be announced this Wednesday, so stay tuned!