Plan voor Transition Town Hollands Kroon

1
Plan voorTransition Town Hollands Kroon

• with
• Local Exchange Transfer (LETS) system.
• By
• Stichting Bakens Verzet (NGO Another Way),
• Wieringerwerf, Netherlands.
• (Contact Tel. [phone] E-mail
  bakensverzet_at_xs4all.nl
• Skype temanning
• This document falls under a Creative Commons
  Attribution, Non-commercial, Share Alike 3.0
  Un-ported licence.

2
Contents

• 01. Where do we want to go?
• 02. What is a transition town ?
• 03. What do we need?
• 04. Operative levels.
• 05. How do we do it?
• 06. Interest- and cost-free micro-credits.
• 07. Relations with local council and
  authorities.
• 08. What are the risks?
• 09. The management structure.
• 10. The local exchange system.
• 11. Some advantages for members.
• 12. Costs.

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01. Where do we want to go?

• We want to create an independent transition
  town to
• - reduce our ecological footprint and
• - improve the quality of life of our
  inhabitants,
• through
• - a general mobilisation of the inhabitants
• - cooperation (therefore not competition)
•  
• - with transaction balances amongst
  transition
• towns 0.

4
02. What is a Transition Town ?

• In the following 3 slides we cite the homepage of
  website www.transitiontowns.nl

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02. What is a Transition Town ?(Slide 1.)

• 1. A Transition Town is a popular citizens
  initiative in towns, villages or local areas to
  make their life-style, work and environment less
  dependent on fossil fuels and to improve social
  contacts there.
• Peak oil and climate change with their
  connected economic crises are the main reasons
  for taking action.

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02. What is a Transition Town ?(Slide 2.)

• 2. Transition Towns seek to create waves of
  small-scale, social and payable solutions to
  promote a switch to a fully sustainable world.
  Independent popular citizens action can break
  through political and economic barriers.
• They give people a chance to contribute and
  take part in the change towards a better,
  healthier and happier world.

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02. What is a Transition Town ?(Slide 3.)

• 3. Transition Towns promote a cultural change in
  which people, biodiversity and flexibility are
  central. So that we can organise a strong,
  healthy, and peaceful reaction in the presence of
  energy, climate and economic crises.
• We strive for the timely achievement of a
  practical, attractive world with less energy,
  fewer goods and less money (debt).

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03. What do we need?(taken from
www.platform31.nl)

• Spirit motivation to give form to initiatives.
• Contact  with neighbours, and local
  organisations and authorities.
• Empathy leaders who understand the local people
  and follow up their initiatives properly. 
• Establishment in the community, accepted by the
  town council and authorities that are willing to
  cooperate cooperation with local businesses
  involvement of young people, especially women. 
• Equipment - means, time, capabilities.

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04. Operative levels.

• In this section we describe the four cell types
  needed for Transition Town Hollands Kroon.
• Celtype 1 Neighbourhood.
• Celtype 2 Clubs, schoolclasses, religious and
• culural groups.
• Celtype 3 Schools.
• Celtype 4 Commercial units.

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04. Operative levels.

• Cell type 1 Local neighbourhoods with /- 100
  homes and /- 250 people.
• Each neighbourhood has a small, preferably young,
  dynamic leadership group of 3-5, where possible
  with a majority of women.
• The neighboruhood groups cooperate with each
  other.
• The following example refers to the
• Wieringermeer in the Netherlands

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(No Transcript)
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A few possible activities for group type 1
(slide 1 skip for rapid presentation)

• Animals walk, wash and groom.
• Baking.
• Barbecues, summer.
• Bicycles repair.
• Bicycle tyres repair.
• Car share and/or set up green car service.
• Caravans (lend).
• Childrens club.
• Child care, accompany to and from school,
  babysitting.
• Children, parties, make-up, body-painting, group
  trips. 
• Chicken run (self-made from straw bales (?)
  maximum one hen per family (100). The chooks
  recycle food waste.
• Clothing repairs, sewing.
• Clothing swaps, sale and purchase.
• Computer problems, solve.
• Cooking and associated services (in case of
  illness, parties etc.)
• Copies make, scan, projectors, screens.

13
A few possible activieties for groups type 1
(slide 2 skip for rapid presentation)

• Data registration for local transfer system.
• Documents, drafting, help with tax returns.
• Dog poo (remove).
• Dogs, walk, in case of illness or absence of
  owner.
• Elderly, accompany.
• Gardens (private, unused) for vegetables,
  berries, fruit trees, insects etc. lend and use.
• Gardens, individual, maintain.
• Green town council areas, maintenance.  
• Green waste, collect and compost (where
  appropriate dispensation from all or part of
  local rubbish collection taxes).
• Group purchase of goods and services. 
• Gutters, cleaning.
• Health care (not professional).
• Household chores.
• House removals help.

14
A few possible activities for groups type 1
(slide 3 skip for rapid presentation)

• Interior design.
• Ironing.
• Ladders (lend).
• Languages.
• Litter, clean up.
• Local zone brighten up.
• LETS boxes, make and install.
• LETS boxes, empty.
• Lessons (extra) for children.
• Local market booths, manage.
• Meeting area(s).
• Painting, wallpapering, carpet laying.
• Picnics, especially for children.
• Plant nurseries.
• Reading aloud (to individuals and groups),
  elderly, children.
• Repair workshop.
• Sheds, hire.
• Shoes, clean

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A few possible activities for type 1 groups
(slide 4 skip for rapid presentation)

• Shopping with or for the elderly and the
  handicapped.
• Social support.
• Solar gardens.
• Spaces (some public) for vegetables, berries,
  fruit trees, insect-attracting bushes etc.,
  availability and use.
• Story-tellling.
• Support for local businesses.
• Swapping events contacts with local recyclers.
• Social security system for group members unable
  to contribute productively.
• Tools and sheds, share and lend.
• Trailers (lend)
• Transport by car.
• Trees (fruit, nuts) and bushes (berries), plant
  and maintain.
• Urine own urine collection. (The urine is paid
  for !)
• Urine, collection and use for gardens.
• Washing.
• Wheelbarrows and carts (lend), where required
  purchase.
• Windows, cleaning.
• Work in the form of gifts of earned LETS points.

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04. Operative structures.

• Type 2 Groups Social, religious and cultural
  groups, sports clubs and school classes.
• Every accepting club (and therefore all its
  members) may be a member of the local transfer
  system. Clubs and their members may freely make
  general use of the local transfer system.
• Local unit costs for clubs groups and classes
  are split amongst their members. Individual
  members may recover their costs using the local
  transfer system outside their clubs, groups and
  classes.

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A few possible activities for type 2 groups

• Example for volunteers and services within a
  football club.
• Cantine management.
• Maintenance of buildings (with agreement and
  contribution of local authorities where
  necessary).
• Maintenance and cleaning and cantines and
  shower areas.
• Maintenance of playing fields.
• Preparations for training sessions and
  matches.
• Purchases.
• Referees.
• Training activities.
• Transport.
• Washing/ironing sports clothes. 
• All other services required !

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04. Operative structures.

• Cell type 3 Schools.
• One group for each school. All parents become
• members of the local transfer system. Including
• parents from outside the systems geographic
  area.
• School transaction costs are split and allocated
  to
• the parents. Individual members earn credits in
  the
• normal way within system as a whole. They can
  also
• of course provide goods and services for the
  school.
• Individual school classes are type 2 cells and
  viewed
• as social clubs.

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04. Operative structures?

• Type 4 cells Commercial units.
• Businesses and professionals can participate in
  the local transfer system. Before doing so they
  must reach an agreement with the tax department,
  since, under the current tax system, their
  activities are subject to VAT (GST) tax.
• Group activities amongst employees are organised
  like social and sports clubs.

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05. How do we do it?(Slide 1.)

• 01. Systems can be gradually built up step by
  step, cell by cell, beginning with one or more
  neighbourhoods and/or clubs with a few
  activities, eventually in just one centre.
• 02. Cells can be neighbourhoods, clubs, religious
  and cultural groups, schools or businesses.
• 03. Start the local transfer system up. This
  might include children over 13 ( or other age
  members may choose) with the consent of their
  parents. This has consequences, but encourages
  the responsible social participation of youth
  from an early age.

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05.How do we do it?(Slide 2.)

• 04. Find a few preferably young animators (with a
  female majority where possible) in each
  neighbourhood ( /- 100 homes, 250 people) or
  other cell type to organise integrated activities
  there. All the residents or participants, as
  members of the local transfer system, are free to
  participate in them. While participation is never
  compulsory, it should be made as attractive as
  possible.
•  
• 05. The cooperation of local councils and
  authorities should be sought. Councils may for
  instance release residents from (green) rubbish
  collection charges, make areas available for
  gardens, provide water sources and accommodation
  for meetings and activities. They might opt to
  accept local transfer units as local taxes.
• 06. For each 50.000 residents, about 200
  neighbourhood groups would be formed. The groups
  are interactive they can carry out transactions
  with each other.

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05. How do we do it?(Slide 3.)

• 07. Set agreements up with the numerous local
  sports social and cultural clubs to help them
  solve their problems in finding volunteers. Their
  members can always form separate cell groups,
  including members coming from outside the
  geographic area of the local transfer system.
• 08. Club members coming from the various centres
  can be grouped separately and/or the benefits and
  costs of transactions and initiatives distributed
  amongst them.

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05. How do we do it?(Slide 4.)

• 09. All transactions are settled within the local
  transfer system.
• 10. Centres, neighbourhoods, clubs, schools,
  churches, businesses etc. are independent cells
  within the local transfer system.
• 11. The independent cells can cooperate with each
  other in any required combination.
• 12. Cell members living in specific centres can
  also be separately grouped.
• 13. Social support (social security) is built
  into every cell, and eventually centre and
  transfer system level.

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05. How do we do it?(Slide 5.)

• 14. A third party insurance policy is needed. An
  existing council-level policy covering volunteers
  could, where possible, be extended for this
  purpose.
• 15. Eventual surplus production can be disposed
  of by agreement with food banks and/or with other
  local transfer systems.
•  
• 16. Active local animators (leaders)
  automatically qualify to set up (new) cells.
  (Self-teaching concept).

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06. Interest- and cost-free micro credits.

• Micro-credit groups can be set up at the
  neighbourhood, centre, or system levels.
  Micro-credits are available for investment for
  productivity increase only.
•  
• Example neighbourhood cell with 200 members.
•  
• Example with a contribution of 5 per person per
  month. First month - Euro 1000. This becomes
  bigger each month. The system includes repayment
  guarantee structures. The terms of repayment are
  in principle determined by the borrowers.
• Administration costs are settled under the local
  transfer system.
• Cooperative buying groups, for instance for
  energy, can also be organised.
• Formal money (euros, dollars etc) invested in the
  local area stays and continually circulates
  there. Financial leakage from the transition town
  area is blocked.
• Poor group members may qualify for a social
  subsidy and could enjoy precedence to receive
  micro-credit loans to increase their
  productivity.

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07. Relationships with council and other
authorities.

• The council (and other authorities) may be
  members of the local transfer system.
• Groups or individuals can carry out tasks for the
  council against payment in local transfer units.
  The council may allow some services and/or part
  of its rates to be paid for in local transfer
  system units. Otherwise the local unit costs can
  be split amongst transfer system members at
  system, centre, neighbourhood, club etc. level.
• Examples cleaning up litter management of
  animals in parks help with maintenance of public
  parks, streets, unused areas collection of green
  waste at local level for local composting.

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08. What are the risks ?(Slide 1)

• A few risks
•  
• Lack of clarity over the initiatives members are
  free to take.
• Inadequate delegation of responsibility to
  participants.
• Deliberate or unintentional exclusion of existing
  groups or interests.
• Lack of support from participants inadequate
  demand for support by leadership groups. 

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08. What are the risks ?(Slide 2)

• Dominant attitudes of leadership groups or their
  members, in particular those of experts. 
• Lack of time for review and evaluation.
• Too many meetings, not enough action.
• Not enough fun during meetings and activities.
•  

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De bestuursstructuur
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09. The local transfer (LETS) system (Letskring
Wier)

• (Slide 1)
• A separate Powerpoint presentation is available.
• Participation includes in principle all
  residents. Residents never have to make use of
  the system.
• Participation is possible at age 13. Children
  below 18 need their parents reasoned consent.
  For good and for worse youth participants share
  all system costs and responsibilities.
• Transactions can take place amongst individuals,
  individuals and cells, centres, council and
  authorities and cells, centres, council and
  authorities amongst each other.
• Transactions between local transfer systems and
  with other Transition Towns are also possible.

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09. The local transfer system (Letskring Wier)

• (Slide 2)
• Individual members begin with 500 units, or 50
  hours at an
• average rate of 10 units an hour, or 1 unit
  every 6 minutes.
• The total units in circulation in any system is
  therefore constant. It changes only with
  increases or decreases in the number of
  individual resident members and externally
  resident cell members.
• Non-individual members (neighbourhoods, centres,
  councils, clubs, religious and cultural groups,
  schools, businesses etc) do not initially receive
  any allotted units, since they do not themselves
  personally provide any time. Their credits and
  debts are distributed amongst their members.
• That distribution is done once a month, in
  principle on the basis of a plan provided by the
  non-individual members themselves.
• The local transfer system administrators retain
  the right to redistribute the credits and debts
  of non-individual members more or less frequently
  as circumstances may require.

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Het LETS systeem (Letskring Wier)
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Het LETS systeem (Letskring Wier)
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10. Some advantages for members.(Slide 1).

• Do what you enjoy doing.
• With the agreement of the local council where
  required, halve rubbish collection costs (savings
  about 200 per family per year).
• Use the services offered by other members.
• Use all types of services and products without
  the need for formal money (euros, dollars etc).
• Buy vegetables and fruit under the local exchange
  system with per family savings up to 20 per
  week ( 1000 per year).
• Take advantage of cooperative purchasing groups.
• Improvement in members quality of life, in
  particular that of people with minimum incomes,
  the aged, the ill and the handicapped.
• Use unused structures, where necessary against
  rental payments in local exchange units.

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10. Some advantages for members.(Slide 2).

• With the consent of local authorities, public
  spaces and accommodation can be used for
  productive and social purposes.
• Interest- and cost-free cooperative loans for
  productivity increase are made available to all.
• Improvement of members social contacts,
  especially those of the aged and handicapped.
• Social safety nets are made available to needy
  members.
• Urine is collected and paid for in local exchange
  units.
• Volunteers are well paid for their efforts, if
  they so wish.
• The unemployed can make productive use of their
  time and earn local exchange units for their
  efforts.

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11. Costs.

• Formal money (euros, dollars) start-up and
  management costs are minimal.
• A simple data base programme (operating off-line)
  is used. The same applies to the cooperative
  micro-credit system.
• Second-hand computers are fine. Otherwise, the
  use of computers can be hired from members.
• One on-line computer is needed to manage contacts
  with members and third parties.
• An internet subscription with website access. To
  start with, the www.integrateddevelopment.org
  website could be used.
• Office articles one or more guillotines for
  paper, one or more heavy-duty staplers one or
  more printers to make transaction slips.
• Paper for transaction slips and documents.
• Toner for printers.
• Staples for transaction slip booklets.
• Power for computers and lighting.
• Telephone costs.
• Transport costs (fuel). These are minimal as most
  activities are local and can be done by bike.

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12. Contact informationwww.integrateddevelopment
.org

• Stichting Bakens Verzet, NGO Another Way
• 1018 AM Amsterdam.
• Direction T.E.Manning
• Schoener 50,
• 1771 ED Wieringerwerf.
• Tel. [phone]
• E-mail bakensverzet_at_xs4all.nl
• Skype temanning
• K.van.K. NL 34235506, Amsterdam
• BTW nr. NL 8150.17.972.B01
• This document falls under a Creative Commons
  Attribution, Non-commercial, Share Alike 3.0
  Un-ported licence.