Hi Tony!
I've add a link to TimeBank Mahoning Watershed from the Transition Ohio, Northeast Region, section.
Are there any other links, info, etc., that you would like to see posted there?
Also, if you add US-OHIO as a tag on the Transition US Timebank group it will show up when someone clicks on the Transition Ohio Associates hotlink.
It would also be great to see some more discussions pop up on the Transition Ohio group page if you feel so inclined.

Thanks and best wishes, Mamaka

Continuation...



I would recommend attending Transition US's webinar today about getting going on an Initiative. I'd dearly like to "be there" but need to take my daughter to her violin lesson, alas. Perhaps, I'll be able to join in late.

Let me know if you're able to join in on that.

Cheers,
Judith

Hm. TimeBanks are really communities, are you active, do you go to timebank meetings etc? It is a paradigm shift for a lot of folks and even those that are inclined via their DNA they also have to be hand held through the process to come out TimeBankers in the end.

I like to think that TimeBanking is a tool (a process of mutuality and reciprocity) that is applied at many levels, personal, community, neighborhood, organizational and social.

So given that I've in a way passed some information your way, would you reciprocate and suggest any best methods to kick start a "TransitionTown" effort here in Youngstown, Ohio? Of course I see the service exchange in Time Credits as a reward for building community to those making their way in the process of Transition. Comments please?

Cheers,
Tony

Hi Tony -
Sorry I've been gone for a while--tremendously busy organizing my part of our countywide 350 Garden Challenge which happened this past weekend. We blew right past our goal of 350 gardens (tied in with the 350 ppm climate goal), and had at least 620 registered garden actions happening! So good.

You ask about kickstarting a Transition Initiative. We are a bit peculiar in that the base of our organizing for Transition Cotati has been firmly in our cohousing community. Virtually all steering members over time have been fellow residents, which has been wonderful as well as (probably) constraining. i don't know, actually, that there is any way to kickstart these kinds of things unless you have a community that lives close to the flash point for such ideas, as one of our neighboring communities seems to, or you can garner a highly persuasive adherent. We are a slower slogger type of initiative, as it turns out and despite my high intentions initially, having been inaugurated in January 2008 (the first in California). (continued...)

Thanks muchly, Tony! I should've been more clear. We are running the free trial of Community Weaver already, with several members/coordinators working on this for their graduate thesis at a local university. I think we have about 20 members so far. It was just "launched" on May 7 at a Transition Cotati meeting and is working as a pilot project for a larger, countywide TimeBank.

Exchanges aren't really happening yet. Do you know a good way to encourage that? People aren't adding their Offers and Requests, by and large, yet either.

So maybe I'm just a bit impatient to see it take off, but I want to help it do so under the best "guidance".

cheers,
Judith