As we all watched the Occupy Movement erode, and as I witnessed an emotional force there more interested in opposition than support, which is of course the nature of emotional force, I returned my focus to alternative pathways.  In 2012, I began researching the possibility of creating a "time bank" as a tool for crowdsourcing support for all positive avenues to a future of sustainable prosperity - and by facilitating all approaches, even ones in apparent opposition to each other, finding a common ground that intrinsically disarms demagoguery.

My first approach to creating this structure was crowdfunding with a focus on identifying persons whom support the concept.  This was putting the cart ahead of the horse, in the sense that funds are a generic structure that first needs an organization to fund, and consequently I found little interest in funding the concept before broad and deep interest was demonstrable.  Thus, in late 2012, I established a discussion group and page on Facebook to facilitate networking support, and began organizing pledges of time, rather than money, to the time bank as a tool for empowering ourselves and each other to build a sustainable future, selecting a membership of 1000 as a goal, which goal was recently achieved.

With the help of an open and transparent discussion at our Facebook board, I've now selected the software and hosting service for the Reconomy Global Timebank.  We were fortunate to have the help of some of the leaders and experts in alternative economics along the way and through this final process.  The members of our Timebank are pledged to support sustainable development and especially at the community level, and the software will enable us to create and manage independent community time bank and currency systems.

The organizational structure of this time bank is democratic, and my own role as creator and caretaker will be phased out such that the tool works as a pathway for many visions.  My own focus regarding the time bank will be to support local currency systems that discount renewable energy when purchased with their local money, which is a project that has support from some of the leading progressive voices today as well as from many of the persons pledged to support this Timebank.

The Reconomy Global Timebank will be up and running in the very near future.  All are welcome to participate.

For more information, you can visit our pledge page at https://www.causes.com/peoplepower, our group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/peoplemoney, our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ReconomyGlobalCooperative, and our website at http://reconomy.net.  You may also email me at peoplepower@me,com, and I also subscribe to comments here.

Cheers,
Kevin