International Local Community Currency Conference Summit
International Local Community Currency Conference Summit
This is a design proposal for an international conference and summit focused on local currency, community currency, complementary currency and additional ways to fine tune the money supply and spending withing communities, regions or states.
Of primary interest at the summit would be examining in detail the successes and failures of local currency to meet their design goal within their circulation area; to examine the concept of developing a state owned bank; and to examine other ways that communities, regions, and states can intelligently create the money or capital necessary to meet local needs.
Motivation
In Michigan, where the reported unemployment rate is 11.6%, and local employment rates are higher, such as in Detroit with a 22% reported unemployment rate, the need to create money in order to create jobs is massive.
One possible solution is creating local community currencies which could provide a system for barter within communities. It appears that such systems are currently in use in hundreds of communities around the world, with notable examples in the USA including the Ithaca Hours and BerkShares.
Another possible solution is the creation of a state owned bank, the primary example being the Bank of North Dakota, which takes in all revenue for the state, and in turn is able to create loan money to create jobs.
Both of these possible solutions hold promise for Michigan and other hard-hit areas as a result of the current global recession.
Content
Desired understandings from the conference:
Location, Times, and Date
The target location and date for the conference is June of 2009 in Michigan; June because this is the earliest practical time to organize a conference of such design, but as early as possible due to the deteriorating state of the national and global economies; and Michigan because of the highest level of general unemployment in the USA and the overall desire to look critically at all ways to create jobs within the state, not to mention the very high likelihood of rapidly increasing unemployment if/when the auto industry continues to contract and/or fail.
The length of the conference would be four-days, as follows:
In addition, specific individuals and communities would be invited to speak about their efforts, both successes and failures, and to provide insight into the day to day challenges of such efforts. Namely:
* Ithaca Hours of Ithaca, New York
* Berkshares of New Barrington, Massachusetts
* Mendo Credits of Willits, California
* Bay Bucks of Traverse City, Michigan
* Thomas Greco of Reinventing Money
* Robert Kleine, the Treasurer of the State of Michigan
* Eric Hardmeyer, Head of Bank of North Dakota
* Ellen Brown, author of Web of Debt
* Chiemgauer of Bavaria, Germany
* Calgary Dollars of Calgary, Canada
* Totnes Pound of Totnes, England
* Money created as investments by Byron Dale
* Experts in money, finance, economics, monetary policy such as college and university professors and researchers
* History, causes, and ways to avoid inflation, deflation, hyperinflation
* Money's relationship to energy and labor
Request for Help
To my knowledge, no conference of this magnitude (four-days, international, broad scope) has been organized around these topics, so this would be a first. It will take many, many people spreading the word, and volunteering to participate to get this conference to happen. You are invited to do what you can to help, most importantly in this early stage by providing critical input, suggestions, ideas, for all of the above; and in spreading the word to others who might be interested in such a conference.
Please comment below so that everyone reading and interested can provide input.
Also, feel free to email me: Aaron Wissner, organizer of Local Future nonprofit: aaron@localfuture.org
About
Local Future is a nonprofit education organization designed to help move towards a better, more sustainable, local future. In 2008, Local Future hosted two major conferences, The International Conference on Peak Oil & Climate Change: Paths to Sustainability; and The Conference on Michigan's Future: Energy, Economy, and Environment.
This is a design proposal for an international conference and summit focused on local currency, community currency, complementary currency and additional ways to fine tune the money supply and spending withing communities, regions or states.
Of primary interest at the summit would be examining in detail the successes and failures of local currency to meet their design goal within their circulation area; to examine the concept of developing a state owned bank; and to examine other ways that communities, regions, and states can intelligently create the money or capital necessary to meet local needs.
Motivation
In Michigan, where the reported unemployment rate is 11.6%, and local employment rates are higher, such as in Detroit with a 22% reported unemployment rate, the need to create money in order to create jobs is massive.
One possible solution is creating local community currencies which could provide a system for barter within communities. It appears that such systems are currently in use in hundreds of communities around the world, with notable examples in the USA including the Ithaca Hours and BerkShares.
Another possible solution is the creation of a state owned bank, the primary example being the Bank of North Dakota, which takes in all revenue for the state, and in turn is able to create loan money to create jobs.
Both of these possible solutions hold promise for Michigan and other hard-hit areas as a result of the current global recession.
Content
Desired understandings from the conference:
- What money is, where it comes from, when it succeeds, and how it fails, including successes of the past which are no longer in use (such as being deliberately phased out)
- The best way to create, implement, and maintain a local currency; to create jobs, increase local spending, and ensure that all community members have access to a means to provide for their basic needs
- The many pitfalls of local currencies, and how to avoid them, such as counterfeiting, lack of acceptance, low confidence, under circulation, over circulation, hoarding
- The various forms of local currencies, including directly convertible fixed exchange rate, floating exchange rate, methods for demurrage (designed inflation to accelerate the speed of money), etc.
- The potential and drawbacks of creating a uniform local currency system within a state, which would be able to function effectively in the case of a hyperinflationary event in the national or global currencies
- The history and function of the Bank of North Dakota, and how this model could be implemented by any state, or appropriate governmental entity
- Impacts of transitioning to a state owned bank, and ways in which to best implement such a transition
- Ways to decrease the outflow of money from communities, regions, states by focusing efforts on decrease specific imports, such as fuel imports, by utilizing various methods to decrease use and increase production of said import within the community, region or state
- Ways in which the state could create money, such as debt or investment, as suggested by Byron Dale in Minnesota
- Provide extensive time including structured and unstructured opportunities for networking amongst all participants
- Provide critical discussion and debate around challenges and drawbacks of various solutions
- Create and strengthen the network of local currency advocates
- Create an extensive web site with conference podcasts, presentation slides, videos, and discussion areas;
- Create a documentary length movie on local currencies, including state owned banks, for use by participants in their own communities and constituencies, as well as others interested in learning more about local currencies
- Create a book "Local Currencies" which is a practical guidebook to creating effective, resilient, local currencies and state level solutions
Location, Times, and Date
The target location and date for the conference is June of 2009 in Michigan; June because this is the earliest practical time to organize a conference of such design, but as early as possible due to the deteriorating state of the national and global economies; and Michigan because of the highest level of general unemployment in the USA and the overall desire to look critically at all ways to create jobs within the state, not to mention the very high likelihood of rapidly increasing unemployment if/when the auto industry continues to contract and/or fail.
The length of the conference would be four-days, as follows:
- Thursday: one evening talk (preconference), and networking
- Friday: scheduled discussions and networking during the day (preconference), main conference begins at 6 p.m.
- Saturday: full day of talks and discussions, including evening panels, etc.
- Sunday: talks through 2 p.m., post-conference discussions and planning afterwards
In addition, specific individuals and communities would be invited to speak about their efforts, both successes and failures, and to provide insight into the day to day challenges of such efforts. Namely:
* Ithaca Hours of Ithaca, New York
* Berkshares of New Barrington, Massachusetts
* Mendo Credits of Willits, California
* Bay Bucks of Traverse City, Michigan
* Thomas Greco of Reinventing Money
* Robert Kleine, the Treasurer of the State of Michigan
* Eric Hardmeyer, Head of Bank of North Dakota
* Ellen Brown, author of Web of Debt
* Chiemgauer of Bavaria, Germany
* Calgary Dollars of Calgary, Canada
* Totnes Pound of Totnes, England
* Money created as investments by Byron Dale
* Experts in money, finance, economics, monetary policy such as college and university professors and researchers
* History, causes, and ways to avoid inflation, deflation, hyperinflation
* Money's relationship to energy and labor
Request for Help
To my knowledge, no conference of this magnitude (four-days, international, broad scope) has been organized around these topics, so this would be a first. It will take many, many people spreading the word, and volunteering to participate to get this conference to happen. You are invited to do what you can to help, most importantly in this early stage by providing critical input, suggestions, ideas, for all of the above; and in spreading the word to others who might be interested in such a conference.
Please comment below so that everyone reading and interested can provide input.
Also, feel free to email me: Aaron Wissner, organizer of Local Future nonprofit: aaron@localfuture.org
About
Local Future is a nonprofit education organization designed to help move towards a better, more sustainable, local future. In 2008, Local Future hosted two major conferences, The International Conference on Peak Oil & Climate Change: Paths to Sustainability; and The Conference on Michigan's Future: Energy, Economy, and Environment.