Spring and Summer Virtual Socials
/The Silver Spring Timebank continued 2023 with two more wonderful virtual socials.
April Virtual Social: It’s a great big beautiful world, and it’s full of timebanks!
With spring in full swing, Maryland-style, the Silver Spring Timebank’s Daisy Birch and Laura Kranis hosted a two-hour Zoom social on April 23, 2023. The social was all about inter-trading -- what it is, what the possibilities are, and how best to take advantage of this feature.
Most participants in the social were already timebank members. For the non-members, our hosts shared a brief explanation of the essence of timebanking and its benefits.
They then shared a map of timebanks. They are all over the world! An inter-trade is an exchange between members of different timebanks. Those timebanks may be in the same state, across the country, or on another continent.
Inter-trading opens up exchange options not only for local timebank members who can’t find takers for their offers nearby but also for people who want to expand the audience for their requests. In addition, members may want to make connections with timebankers in another part of the world, and responding to their offers and requests is a great way to do that.
Inter-trading can be helpful with any service that can be done at a distance (such as language practice via zoom -- but not lawn mowing!). Inter-trading can also work very well when traveling or when arranging help for family members or friends who live in other cities, states, or countries.
Daisy and Laura offered examples of inter-trading, including some exchange stories shared by Silver Spring Timebank members. One idea is to find lodging with a far away timebanker when traveling -- or perhaps find someone to show you around their city. One participant at the social mentioned another exchange that was a good way to illustrate inter-trading: Instead of being asked to paint someone's home in exchange for timebank hours, they were asked to teach someone how to paint their own home in exchange for hours. The teaching can happen on Zoom or any similar platform, with someone who is near or far.
Daisy and Laura explained the details of inter-trading within timebanking, how to locate the inter-trading area on the hOurworld platform, how to find the offers and requests from members of timebanks throughout the world, and how to list our own offers and requests in the inter-trade area so that members of other timebanks may see them.
By the end of the social the conversation covered other aspects of community-building such as when businesses, non-profits, and co-housing communities join a timebank or encourage their members and employees to take part.
Everyone got to ask questions and share their experiences and left the meeting ready to participate in inter-trade in addition to local timebank exchanges. For questions on how to record hours with inter-trade, check out this video from Time and Talents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MxMplA14bM
Thank you to all who attended for making this social an informative and pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
June Virtual Social: Credit Scores DemystifiedI
In June, the timebank's Virtual Social focused on credit scores and reports -- and how to understand, build, repair, and dispute them. Host and Silver Spring Timebank member Christopher Cruise started out in the mortgage business more than three decades ago and has become a true industry expert.
He shared that many people have questions and/or misconceptions about consumer credit. Not only is the system complicated, but it also wasn't designed to help borrowers understand it. It was designed to help lenders assess risk. As a result, it seems shrouded in mystery to many consumers. He feels that we can all be armed with the information we need, to get the most out of this system: Industry insiders shouldn't be the only ones with access to the most effective tips and tricks.
He touched on so many helpful facts such as:
*why it may be a good idea to freeze your credit and only unfreeze it when applying for loans or credit cards,
*how you may be able to get your timely rent or utility payments added to your report to see how they boost your score,
*recent changes in the consumer credit laws which may allow you to have late but paid-off debt removed from your report (rather than simply being marked as repaid).
He also talked about fairness in the credit industry, including what can and cannot legally be asked in an application for credit. He says we have a long way to go to make the process more fair to people from diverse groups, but some important advances have been made.
Participants at the social had quite a few questions about their own situations, and Chris gave thoughtful, insightful responses to all. Many thanks to Chris for chatting with us!
If you couldn't attend this session, Chris will offer another one on this topic in the future. In the meantime, timebank members may write to him through hOurworld.org to discuss doing an exchange with him regarding their credit scores or reports.
Opportunity: Earn hours for helping the Timebank! So many tasks or roles to choose from -- large or small, on an ongoing basis or one time only! Do you like to organize events? Manage schedules? Write short articles? How about hosting a social like this one? Sharing on social media? Posting to an online calendar?
Daisy, Laura, and Chris earned timebank hours for preparing for and hosting these socials. Timebank members Brikena Kay and Laura Kranis also earned hours for writing up these summaries. Several other timebank members promoted this social on social media and their neighborhood listservs and earned time for that, too. Please reach out to your Member Mentor to discuss ways you may enjoy helping. (If you're not sure how to reach your mentor, please write to silverspringtimebank@gmail.com.)