Annual Meeting
Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for this Sunday, February 26th, from 12 - 3:30 pm at Marlboro Grad Center's Classroom 2E on the 2nd floor! Welcome, all, and welcome, spring!
We'll be setting up a buffet-style munch and greet, coordinated by our Potluck Committee, at the beginning of the meeting while folks find seats. Please arrive 10-15 minutes early to unpack and set up a potluck dish/snack you plan to share!
This year, our focus is on how we come together as a community. The meeting will include a short run-down of highlights and financial reports from 2016; appreciations of past coordinators and a departing Board Member; a summary of BTT's strategic plan steps for 2017, and elections for the new Board of Directors.
After two planning sessions for the meeting, it was agreed that the focus of our Annual Meeting this year should be to share info, catch up with each other, have some fun, provide a sign-up list of clear ways that members can get involved this year, and enjoy a skill-share with a bunch of different activities that folks can choose from, during which laughter, discussion, connections, learning, and fun is encouraged!
Here's the schedule for the afternoon:
12:00 Food/snacks (potluck-style), mingling, finding a seat
12:20 BTT news, updates, info & appreciations to former staff & board
12:45 Community icebreaker facilitated by Jennifer Jacobs
1:20 Future Vision: plugging in to our strategic plan
2:00 Facilitated activity and a fun member-led skill-share!
3:00 Closure & outcomes, community announcements
Childcare will be provided during the meeting, by TT member Kay Curtis, who has graciously offered to coordinate care and creative activities.
A sampling of our skill-share offerings confirmed so far:
- Creating a simple stretch routine you can do daily.
- A drawing/arts session with Sadelle Wiltshire
- Learn how to juggle! with Tony Duncan.
- How to make an origami crane with Maya.
- Sheet-mulching demo/lesson. (confirmation pending on this one)
We're looking forward to a lively and fun gathering, and we hope you'll join us!
~Your Board of Directors and Coordinators
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A February Love Letter from Your Board
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Hello, fellow time traders.
Our annual meeting is set for Sunday February 26th, 12:00 – 3:30pm at the Marlboro Graduate Center in Brattleboro. This one is a particularly important event that we are urging as many members as is possible to attend. We feel like we are at a crossroads; if we are going to realize the potential of our social resource, we need to take some important steps to become even more effective in helping each other and our communities. Over the past year, a very dedicated member/Board team worked on a strategic plan that provides a lot of direction at this crucial period in our development. Now, we need as much input from our members – who really make this organization what it is, to support and guide the way forward, and to take on specific roles!
Our strategic plan is a framework for growth, long-term stability, and good management of resources and institutional knowledge. A lot of it came out of last year’s annual meeting. At our annual meeting this year, we want to look at the parts of our plan that call for making member trades more responsive, efficient, and valuable to the members and to our community as a whole. A major focus of this year is to increase member engagement in trades and strengthen our sharing of resources and support with our member organizations. We are asking members to come and help “flesh out” these concrete Time Trade proposals into workable plans.
In order to implement these plans and dreams, we need our members’ ideas, thoughts, talents and actions! We especially need new board members who want to help organize and lead the work. We also need folks to take leadership roles in other ways as we start to implement ideas and test how well they actually work. Among them:
- Finding a few skilled, tech-comfortable, and long-term committed members to divide bookkeeping tasks that need doing on a monthly and quarterly basis.
- Organizing and reviewing policies and procedures for legality and functionality.
- Creating easy ways for current members to hold the responsibility for helping new members become active and engaged in trading.
- Creating community action groups that can help us link with individuals and community organizations around specific needs and/or specific geographies, and working with our existing software OR a supplement to it, to facilitate that.
- Grants research, writing and reviewing/editing. WE NEED A GRANTS TEAM!
- Assistance with Fundraising “asks” - We need well-connected TTers who enjoy asking local donors and businesses for support a few times a year for our large fundraisers.
We are pretty excited about where we can be in the next year or two. There already have been changes that we think have helped.
- With the help of many great TTers, Maya collaborated with Omega Optical to create a BTT edible garden! In spring/summer/fall, this gives back large chunks of hours on our office rental agreement (without a lot of coordinator time required), provides garden edibles to whomever would like them, and helps welcome folks to the office.
- There is the “real-time” daily/weekly digest of offers and requests that make it easier to see what trades are available.
- The new website makes it easier to facilitate trades as well.
- Our annual subscription reminder system is now automated and mostly works great, and payments are entered into CW3 so that the system takes care of disabling/enabling trading when dues are unpaid/paid, instead of the coordinator bearing that burden.
- Maya has been streamlining administrative and bookkeeping functions as well as some other changes that are designed to make it easier for BTT to run lean.
So, PLEASE ATTEND – WE NEED YOU AND YOUR IDEAS & ENERGY at our annual meeting on the 26th.
We have several folks signed up to offer skill-share activities in small groups, but we’d love a few more! If you are interested in sharing something fun or useful, please email Maya your idea. brattleborotimetrade@gmail.com
Until then we invite you to contact people you know in time trade as well as nonmembers who are interested in getting involved.
Thanks for being members!
Love,
Your Brattleboro Time Trade Board
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Like spring itself, Brattleboro Time Trade's 3rd Annual Spring Forward Extravaganza, is just 'round the Corner!
Friday, March 3rd 2017 5:00 PM — 8:30 PM
Come to the Robert H. Gibson River Garden on Friday March 3rd's Gallery Walk evening for our 3rd Annual Spring Fundraiser and Celebration of Student Art Month in collaboration with the Arts Council of Windham County!
We have two great youth bands this year!
Nomad vs Setter (NVS) is our headliner, and opening for them will be Raspberry Jam! Next Monday, TTers will be helping The Arts Council to hang the artwork of area high school students on the walls for all to enjoy!
Dosa Kitchen will be serving up yummy food, with 10% proceeds donated to the Time Trade.
Time Trade member and master Herbalist Cindy Hebbard will be offering short consultations, we'll have a collection of Silent Auction Items to bid on, a fun $1 raffle for great small prizes, and Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center & Edible Brattleboro are collaborating to offer a cool seed-bomb making activity for springing forward!
Bring yourself, your friends, and/or the whole family! Help support the Time Trade and keep us up and running in 2017!
VOLUNTEERS/HELP NEEDED!
Setup & Cleanup
Silent Auction Assistance
Photography
Videography
General event helpers
Load-in/load-out helpers
Dessert Bar Donations!
Sign up via email, brattleborotimetrade@gmail.com or
at our ANNUAL MEETING!
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