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Over the past week I’ve been working on a short project for the local HANDS committee. I’ve been invited to take on the short, ten hour job of phoning up all the local businesses that are listed in our local paper (the GB Weekly) and asking business owners whether they’d accept part-payment in HANDS. It’s been a fascinating experience.

Why am I raving about a complementary currency?

Ok, so most people wouldn’t consider currency systems to be a very interesting subject. And before I grew to know and love the HANDS system, I wouldn’t have paid the subject any attention either. I would have thought … ‘ok, boring, next subject’, envisaging bearded, glasses wearing men sitting round discussing decimals. But believe me, HANDS is full of heart, and interesting quirks, and loving intention. It’s community building in action, or as Rebbecca Reider recently said, it’s a ‘community glue’.

I’ve watched HANDS growing over the last seven years or so that I’ve been living in the Bay (as a ‘grown-up’ hee hee hee) and I’ve observed the HANDS committee slowly building it up, like doting parents, with meticulous attention to detail. It’s built on strong, intelligent foundations and all it’s going to do is keep growing.

I’ve talked to some interesting characters

So far I’ve talked to: engineers, hair-dressers, a travel agent, a photographer, a headstone producer, a outdoor gear hire man, a fence trimmer, some builders, several storage businesses, a naturopath, an iron worker, various health practitioners, and left messages on countless other people’s answer phones. And the great thing was that ninety percent of people had heard of HANDS, and only around ten percent said a straight-up ‘no’. I’m amazed to be writing this. I mean, wouldn’t you expect most people to have have no clue about how their local complimentary currency works, or at least to be extremely skeptical about considering accepting payment for their services for anything other than precious Kiwi dollars? I guess I did. But people surprised me.

The People – They Were Interested

They asked me to explain what I meant, we talked about how it works with the kiwi tax system (our Inland Revenue Department expect businesses to pay tax on HANDS), many people asked how they’d spend them, one man asked whether he’d have enough money left over to pay his mortgage, a lady asked if HANDS people were ‘honest’, they asked what percentage of HANDS they’d need to charge. The travel agent said she couldn’t use it for international travel, but would investigate accepting partial HANDS for travel insurance. An Accountant’s assistant encouraged to to email her boss with more information. The headstone engraver said she was open to considering anything. An engineer said he mostly serviced farms, but ‘you never know’ … They were open. I was amazed.

It’s Amazing

The whole project feels like an interesting anthropological experience. I’m watching a culture change as my community allows an intentionally created complimentary currency sub-culture into its midst. One with deeply heartening values. And if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.

Today’s rating: 9/10

Today’s e-book progress: writing, just for a change.

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

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