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JANUARY POTLUCK
Monday, Jan. 30th
5:30 - 7:30 p.m. @ BS&L Conf. Room
with Special Guest
Kenneth Andejeski, Time Banks USA 2017 Fellow!
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BTT will table at "Love Local", a Celebration Of All Things Local
Friday, February 3rd 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
River Garden
*Two volunteers are set, we NEED 2-3 MORE volunteers for 7-8:30pm shift for TT hours!
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SAVE THE DATE!
Brattleboro Time Trade's
Annual Meeting will be on
Sunday,
February 26th
12:00 - 4:00 p.m. Marlboro Grad Center
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Do you have a time trading success story to share?
Please share your story with us!
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BTT's 3rd Annual Spring Forward Extravaganza!
Friday March 3rd Gallery Walk
5:30 - 8:00 p.m.
River Garden
Folks needed to assist with setup, cleanup, silent auction donations, getting the word out!
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February Meetings:
Planning Session for Annual Meeting
Wednesday, February 1st
6:00-7:30 p.m.
BS&L Conf. Room
Board Meeting
Wed. February 16th
5:30 - 7:45 p.m.
Co-op Community Room
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A New Year with Brattleboro Time Trade
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Thoughts From Your Membership & Outreach Coordinator
As we've welcomed this new year, we've naturally looked both ahead and behind. In Aymara, an indigenous language still spoken by about 2 million Bolivians, half a million Peruvians, and smaller numbers of Chileans and Argentinians, time has a completely different physiological orientation than many of us take for granted. When speaking of the past, an Aymara speaker would actually gesture forward, because what's past has been seen and is known. The future is unseen and unknown, so to indicate future, one would actually gesture toward one’s back. To use this as an allegory of sorts, many of us may be feeling that all we can see right now is the past. The future, the next year, though unknown, may feel like it's moving backward or even behind us, and we may feel like time and space are a bit scrambled around!
While modern-day Aymara culture and language are moving changing things, this sense of time and orientation historically found its home in a culture that is very much built upon reciprocity and mutual aid. Community members respect and care for the earth, and help each other in overtly reciprocal ways: everyone does their part, and when folks need to receive a lot of community resources, they know they will give back by helping others in return. Does that sound kind of familiar, Time Traders?
So, this is where I’d like to bring in yet another special cultural-linguistic piece of wisdom from the Aymara to help us navigate our unknowns, and that is; the third, unknown, other possibility.
As a product of Western Colonial (European) history, the U.S. has carried on what could be referred to as a “binary-normed” culture. Our systems of knowledge, logic, belief, and law rely on a series of binary opposites (e.g. Good/evil, woman/man, have/have not, in/out, happy/sad, true/false, mind/body - derived from Cartesian logic). Some people think these binaries (or dualities, or dichotomies) are very helpful, some are neutral on the subject or perhaps never really think about it at all, and some really struggle with this way of thinking, existing, and knowing.
In this new year, as we face huuuuge changes in the leadership of our nation, I'm wondering if we might look to the Aymara for some insight, and some useful tools. You see, in Aymara culture and language, a trivalent logic exists. There is always a third true possibility.
OK... Great, so what is all this getting at, Maya?
I would like to ask our Board, our Time Trade members, and our community, to look into the face of this new year, dream ourselves into a third possibility, and make it ours. As we encounter a greater need for our community to offer mutual aid; let’s explore the new ideas, blessings, wonder, transformative unknowns, and inter-resilient relationships that this might offer us. Let’s explore what that “third” space might be in our interactions, our trades, the way we organize our daily lives, and in our work. And, as we enter a time where it's likely we may be inundated with polarizing rhetoric, or even public policy; let’s be that third logical possibility. Each and every Time Trader can be a part of exploring and creating what that means. The more we can all help each other, and the more of us there are doing so, the stronger, healthier, and more vibrant our community will be over the long term.
Brattleboro Time Trade is grateful for each of our visionary members and member organizations that make up this amazing web of mutually supportive relationships. We are looking forward to building together, this year, and into the years ahead!
Wishing us all a wonderful New Year in togetherness, creative solutions, fixes, problems solved, and many great trades!
~Maya
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Encouraging New Connections for Long-term Sustainability
Our Annual meeting is approaching, and in line with our strategic plan goals, One of our focus areas will be to encourage more (and new) connections among and between members - even those who haven't used their accounts lately. If there has ever been a time when Time Trading will be an important community resource, it is these next four to eight years! Here are a couple of things each of us can do immediately:
1. Make sure you have uploaded a profile photo, so folks can recognize you, and talk with you about trades when they bump into you around town!
2. Complete/update two important sections of your TT profile. In your "About Me" section on your TT profile: a brief note about you, what you're looking for, and/or what you have to offer. In the "Talents" section of your profile: review what skills or talents you've selected, and update them!
3. Brainstorm a list of things you and other members can do to strengthen and enable greater connection among BTTers, and bring that list to our Annual Meeting on February 26th!
4. Encourage co-workers, friends, family, and even random kind-hearted strangers to join the Time Trade!
Board Meeting and Updates
Our next Board meeting will be Thursday, February 16th in the Co-op community Room. Members are encouraged to attend.
BTT is Seeking New Board Members
"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
If you are interested in joining a working board and have a solid skill set you are willing to put to use in support of growing and sustaining the Time Trade (e.g. legal expertise, long-range organizational vision and organizing skills, marketing and graphic design skills, tech and web or software developer skills, bookkeeping/accounting skills), email Tony Duncan or Maya Morales!
Our Annual Meeting UPDATED!
Our 2017 Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 26th from 12-4 p.m. at the Marlboro Graduate Center - Please save the date!
Brattleboro Winter Farmer's Market Tabling:
We need a few more TTers willing to table at the Farmer's Market on March 18th!
If you like talking about Time Trade and sharing your stories, this is a great opportunity for members to help the Time Trade flourish! Sign up for a one, two or four-hour shift at the Winter Farmer's Market. Please email your coordinator if you are interested.
Opportunities to help BTT with fundraising efforts:
If you would like to help with the planning and tasks for our Spring Forward Extravanza, there is much to do, and all are welcome! Please Reach out, and/or attend the next planning session on February 1st.
Purchase BTT's Re-usable Gift bags!
Our wonderful TTers Jan and Shirley, along with Abby, continue to take great care of this wonderful regular fundraiser for the Time Trade. We've also got a re-designed gift bag tag, thanks to Kathy Carr, that will soon be hot off the press! These are such a great, affordable alternative to using gift wrap! Find more info here.
Upcoming - A New Policy on Trades
Stay tuned for a new policy on trades next month! Written by Alan Baker and recently approved by the Board, this policy will offer guidance on valuing and talking about trades, and includes very clear guidelines on exchanging goods for hours - without involving talk of sale or monetary value.
Happy Trading!
Your Coordinators,
Alan (Information Technology) & Maya (Membership & Outreach)
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Seeking Brattleboro Office Staff Volunteers (for TT hours)
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What's involved?
- Answering the phone / making phone calls.
- Assisting walk-in members with using the site.
- Being friendly and welcoming!
- Assisting applying members with filling out membership forms.
- Using your email while at the office to communicate with the coordinator(s).
Office staffing shifts:
- Mondays 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
- Wednesdays 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
- Fridays 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Click HERE to get more info and more details on our member site! We especially need regular staffers on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3-6 p.m., but would love to have some folks willing to fill in on various days.
*This is a great way earn regular TT hours!*
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Recent Offers and Requests
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A Great Trade Story! Contributed by Donna Faith K-Brooks
Our long neglected living room sorely needed some invigoration. After searching for months, I was happy to find a small, non-pilling, bright couch at Experienced Goods, and an acceptable pole lamp at a tag sale. Mismatched pillows, and a few other beautiful and functional touches followed.
Still needed was a coffee table. All of the ones I encountered looked manufactured and chintzy, and often didn't have the requisite shelf. Then I came across Pam Wagner's offer to construct paper-mâché end tables. A light bulb flickered in my brain, and I wondered if she would be into making a coffee table. She was, and this unique coffee table adds an amazingly special touch to our living room. The photos, which show the work in progress, followed by the completed table, speak for themselves.
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Are you a grant-writer?
If you have grant-writing experience, time on your hands: would you like to earn hours assisting Time Trade in seeking out and pursuing new grant-based funding? If so, please contact us!
Do you have book-keeping experience, great references, and want a steady volunteer commitment doing Time Trade's book-keeping? We use Quickbooks. Contact us!
If you would like to participate in the planning of potlucks, the Potluck Committee meets the third Monday of every month at 12:15pm at the office. Everyone is invited. Join the committee!
Sharing your event or member org volunteer request in the monthly newsletter
If you would like to share your BTT member-organized event in the monthly newsletter, you can find the submission guidelines and deadlines on the monthly calendar on our member site. Click here for info & the December Newsletter content deadline.
Annual Subscription Dues
Lack of funds should never be an obstacle to joining a time bank. We're pleased to offer scholarships for low and no-income members through generous grants by Ben & Jerry's Foundation and Thomas Thompson Trust. Please contact us if you're in need of a scholarship, and help us reach out to other community members who might benefit. Otherwise, dues are on a sliding scale from $60 to $36, with a monthly payment plan option, as well as a six-month membership for $18. You can mail a check to our office (15 Grove St.), pay in person during our office hours, at the next potluck, or online, where it's now possible to make a recurring monthly donation. For those of you with this dues anniversary, we hope to receive your member dues by the end of this month, so that you can continue to log in and take advantage of all that the Brattleboro Time Trade has to offer.
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BTT thanks Omega Optical for our time traded office space.
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Photos on Right and Left are of BTT's Table on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday, January 16th, at the Brattleboro Food Co-op,
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