Report from the Currency Project

Surveying the local economy & non-profits              October 2018
After our first two weeks studying holistic economics, witnessing local currency initiatives, and learning from people whose life work is building a healthier economy, we asked ourselves, “Where do we go next?” Why, Wall Street of course!

We spent the month of October focused on mapping the local economy and surveying local businesses and non-profits. But first, we kicked off the month with a field trip to New York City. We crammed two cars full of sleeping bags, clothes, and notebooks, and drove to a residential neighbourhood in the Bronx. Peter, a friend of Free Columbia, graciously hosted us and took us into Manhattan to give us a tour around WisdomTree Investments, which is an exchange-traded fund and asset management company. We learned about the investment parts of the market economy, and the values/beliefs/worldviews driving the world of investment banking. We came with lots of curiosities, and were fortunate to have Peter around to thoughtfully answer our questions.

Next up, we had a wonderful conversation with Moshi, who runs the ArchCare TimeBank, across many diverse neighbourhoods of NYC. In a Time Bank, currency is in ‘Hours’-- as in the number of hours of service you provide/receive. Everything from doing someone’s laundry to doing someone’s taxes can be of value in a Time Bank, which is rooted in the principle of ‘no more throwaway humans’. We were impressed by how the ArchCare TimeBank really reaches impoverished folks, as 37% of its members have an annual income under ten thousand dollars. With our goal of facilitating transactions of goods (not just services), the time-backed currency is not a perfect fit for our study but deeply inspired all of us. Roxanne and Destiny were especially excited, and may just go on to start a TimeBank or two!

Before leaving New York City, we visited the Wall Street statues of the Charging Bull and the Fearless Girl. The statues are crowded with tourists, particularly around the bull, which evoked a strong imagination of the industry culture. With camera and mic in hand, we interviewed the tourists about their interpretations and feelings towards each statue. After listening to a couple different takes on its significance, we left the bull behind and called it a day. Soon enough, we were back in Philmont, pulling into the driveway of Columbia House.

We then began the larger journey of scheduling, planning and embarking on our field work of surveying Columbia County. Our next days laid the foundation for what was to come. We hosted check-ins, both about work and our personal lives. We designed our calendar of milestones, categorizing all the tasks that laid ahead and how we could empower each other through division of labour. We strategized around our storytelling/social media process, which resulted in some beautiful Facebook videos which Caleb posted about the currencies we visited. We consolidated our evaluations of the currencies’ challenges and successes; Kait categorized each point by theme so we could see the larger whole that we are aiming towards.

There’s a team of us who mapped out Columbia County, both on- and off-line. We used digital mapping software to input the businesses and non-profits of Columbia County, with Daniel’s expertise. We labeled them depending on the type of organization they are, from agriculture to retail, and gather contact information. Destiny created a beautiful, colourful painting of Columbia County and its towns, where we can add sticky notes and statistics. This huge painting is not only functional but is a wonderful art piece to have in our work space.

Another group -- Robbie, Stefan and Kait -- worked on designing and iterating our survey form. After a couple brainstorm sessions, we prototyped and received feedback from Dan McMannis, a Biodynamic farmer right here in Claverack. We used this experience to create a farm survey template, which we could later generalize to be used for any business. We studied some reports from the International Labour Organization about value chain development, assessing the value chain model to inform our survey design. After practicing the survey as a group, it was released into the wild through two weeks of interviews. We continued to iterate the form based on the ongoing team feedback rounds.

And then, we were finally out in the field! Bit by bit, everything we’d been talking about and feeling started to come alive. We were moved by our interviews here in Philmont, from witnessing the community-driven heart at McNan’s to the commitment to local sourcing from Local 111. As we scheduled our 45-90 minute interviews, we soon realized that most business owners are even busier than we thought, yet are often incredibly generous with their time. Instead of our initial plan to schedule interviews through calls and e-mails, we found ourselves full of energy as we walked door-to-door, introducing ourselves to relevant storefronts from Hudson to Chatham.

We interviewed a wide variety of businesses including restaurants, supermarkets, co-ops, mom-and-pops, farmers, a medical professional, a custom apparel store, a software developer, a plumber, a photographer and a tattoo artist. As we transitioned into the second week of surveys, we interviewed a number of not-for-profits as well, from second hand clothing stores to a Camp Hill to folkloric dance theatre. All these surveys make up the bulk of the second phase of the project, which we are wrapping up now. These days, we are having our final series of interviews and synthesizing our data / key learnings into presentable material.
 

In the past week, we have started some research into the technology component of the project. This kicked off with a visit from Pete Lemire, a software professional and friend of Free Columbia, who advised us on what it could mean to develop a digital currency software. We shared our relationship to technology, got an overview of the product development life cycle, and had an exciting brainstorm session to envision the functionalities of our ideal local currency app. Pete reflected back to us that through our desire for features such as a newsletter and community forum, he could feel how deeply we care for the community/social realm, and how crucial it is to bake the community experience into any app we develop.

As November now begins, we turn the page on our field work and step into the third phase: the design & strategy portion of our action research project. For our team of 9, October has been an intense & productive stretch in the lifecycle of our regional currency feasibility study. Now it is time to move towards monetary design, researching relevant technologies, understanding the legalities of our proposal, crafting a long-term strategy for the potential currency and consolidating it all into a proposal which we will present on November 17. We hope you can join us at the from 10am - 1 pm at the Philmont Public Library!