Past Progress NotesThis page contains summaries of our Core Group meetings since October 16 1999. Lastest meetings are first. We now meet weekly. As of November 27, 2000It's been a while since the last update. Here's what is happening with Ukiah HOURS. The HOURS is kind of on hold at the momet. Over the last few months, every one of the core group members has moved on to other activities in their life, and no new progress has been made recently. We're sorry. We want to apologize for not notifying members sooner, not only so that you knew what was happening, but so that other members could consider whether they wanted to step forward with new energy to help make this project work. Local currency is a great concept and it would be wonderful to see it happen in the Ukiah area. But it requires a real commitment. We had this commitment for quite a while. But when it came to beginning the stage of enrolling businesses, none of us seemed to be able to find the time, and now months have gone by with nothing happening. Our lack of success with getting the Coop to come on board with its support in September was certainly a factor in us losing momentum. They wanted to see us further along before coming in with their support. We wanted them to come on board at the beginning of our enrolling businesses as a boost to motivate us to get out to those businesses. It didn't happen. If you still think local currency is a good idea, please contact us. We have the infrastructure of a web site, a database, literature, the design of the money, and and a base of support of 50+ members. It can still happen. Anything is possible. Here are some ideas: New energy could step in. The decision that X number of key businesses need to come on board before starting could be re-considered. Some currency could be printed and HOURS started among the current members, with the idea of the project would grow once other people see it working. Or we could wait until the economy gets a little worse off and there not quite the uphill battle we face now getting the community to understand the need and advantages of an alternative currency. You might have some other good ideas or thoughts. Let us know what you think. Dale Glaser on behalf of the Ukiah HOURS core group *** As of September 22, 2000In early September, Joan and Dale met with the Coop board to respond to a couple of questions coming out of the meeting we had with the Finance Committee in August. The questions were: 1. Who decides how and how much HOURS is printed gets put into the system? After answering these questions, we discussed the HOURS project with the board for quite a while. We were asking their support without any committment at this time to actually using the money. We just wanted there willingness to be considered a "key business" in the project. Unfortunately, they were unwilling to do this. Basically, board members expressed their support for local currency, but said they didn't think the program was well enough along at this point for them to committ. Dale pointed out that this was a case of the chicken and the egg. They said we needed to be further along in getting community support. We said we were there at their board meeting to get their support to help in getting further along in getting community support! Needless to say, we were a little disappointed, because we consider the Ukiah Coop an essential business that needs to be involved for HOURS to ever become self-sustaining. We continue to slowly gather businesses and members We are continuing the process of gathering members and enrolling businesses. Help us! The Ukiah HOURS group meets weekly on Tuesdays at 7 pm at 296 Gardens St. in Ukiah. Call 463-5517 for more information. ******* As of July 22, 2000In June, Larry and Dale gave met with the Finance Committee of the Ukiah Coop and gave a short presentation and answered questions about HOURS. They were going to discuss and then present the idea of the Coop joining the project to the full Coop board. We pointed out that we considered them an essential core business in our local currency project, that they could pick there level of involvement at first. July 15-16 Active-Fest We set up a table and talked to a lot of folks at the Booneville Fairgrounds at the Active-Fest which was a great event. Tabling around Ukiah We are starting to show up with our HOURS table at events. Besides Active-Fest, we had a table at the Medea Benjamin, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, event in Ukiah on July 22. We are currently gathering businesses and members We are in the phase of gathering members and enrolling businesses. Help us! ******* At Our May 9, 2000 Meeting...Over the last few weeks the personal time and energy of the members of the core group has shifted to other activities in our lives. We continue to meet on Tuesday nights, and pick away at little parts of the project, but we haven't jumped head first into the next major stage of bringing HOURS to reality: enrolling businesses into the program. But Spring is here and we are aiming this summer to get this great project going! HOURS table at the Farmer's Market and elsewhere - We set up a table at the first Farmer's Market of the year, on April 20, and plan to be there during the summer. Come by just to talk , or help us out. We also plan to table in front of the Coop on some of the nice days coming up. Presentation to Ukiah Coop Board - We are continuing to work on a presentation to the Coop board, but miscommunication has been preventing it happening. Come help us - For this great local currency project to happen, we will need more energy than just the core group who has been doing it so far. Please contact us! ******* At Our March 16, 2000 Meeting...Mendrs Letter - We received the following announcement for the directory Mendrs Mendocino Dispute Resolution Services Post Office Box 205 Mendocino Dispute Resolution Services (Mendrs) is a community based, volunteer driven, private nonprofit organization. Mendrs provides community mediation services to assist people in conflict make informed decisions and develop mutually acceptable solutions. Mediation is a private, confidential and voluntary process in which a neutral third party facilitates understanding and agreement. We charge on a sliding scale based on ability to pay. *** Business Sign-up - With one of us on vacation, and others busy, we did not make a lot of progress getting around to sign up businesses. We have made up a large number of business packets. We talked of hiring Larry to sign up businesses and individuals in exchange for whatever money he collects. Coop presentation - We are arranging a presentation before the Ukiah Natural Foods Coop board of directors, probably in April. Working on... - Next meeting we will finish the business sign-up form, update the database on the web ****************** At Our January 27, 2000 Meeting...Chamber Letter - The Ukiah Chamber of Commerce discussed our presentation to them last meeting and proposal that they endorse the HOURS project. Here is the letter they sent: Greater Ukiah Chamber of Commerce January 24, 2000 Ken McCormick Dear Ken, On behalf of the Board of Directors I would like to thank the Ukiah HOURS group for making a presentation to the Chamber and for your continued research efforts on our behalf. We too have found little information on how chambers in other communities partner with and work with local script. Upon further discussion at the January Board meeting, the Board welcomes Ukiah HOURS and will support your enterprise as we do all Chamber members. We encourage you to submit articles to be included in our newsletter in order to inform the membership and promote participation in the program. We are also looking at ways the Chamber will be able to accept the script; we are considering accepting it as a portion of a payment for Hot Sheets or select seminars. These are issues that will be decided during our budgeting for the fiscal year beginning in April 2000. The Board of Directors wishes you much success in this new venture. The Ukiah HOURS program appears to have the potential to enhance the greater Ukiah community. Sincerely, Elizabeth R. Brazil Setting up a non-profit corporation - We have been discussing for a while about seting up HOURS as a non-profit corporation, but have put it off because there is so much else more immediate to do. Larry has downloaded a set of bylaws from a local currency in Washington state that can be modified for our purposes, and Michael Kissinger from NCO has offered to help us do the paperwork for the state. So we are going to pick up on this aspect of the project. Downtown Merchants Association - We were about to join the Downtown Merchants, but they said to hold off, because they are working on a non-profit membership that will have a lower fee than a business membership. Moores Flour Mill is a new business member! - Moores is enthusiastic about local currency and has joined as a business which will be accepting HOURS. We are slowly beginning our door to door promotion to businesses to solicit their involvement. Much to do still! - There continues to be much to do to get this project going. We are working on a business membership form, doing more presentations, finishing the last touches of the money design so we can finally print the currency, and working on a presentation to NCO with the idea of a ongoing collaboration with them. At Our January 13, 2000 Meeting...Business Packets - We organized materials and a procedure for putting together more business packets next week. Business Membership Form - We decided to create a special membership form for businesses, different than the one in the brochure, that would be inserted in the business packets. Text on back of HOURS bills - It was decided to use a re-wording of the text on the back of the Sound HOURS bills in Washington for our bills. Now as soon as we determine who will be the second signature, we can print the bills! Promotion - The holidays are over and we are getting back to work! More brochures have been printed, current brochure racks will be filled tomorrow, business packets organized, and next week we will start going around to gather new businesses into the program. Volunteer help needed - If you are interested in picking up some brochures to hand out, or going around to businesses, please contact us. The sooner we get enough members and businesses, the sooner we can start this great program! ****************** At Our January 6, 2000 Meeting...Promotion - Strategy was discussed. Business packets like the ones we made up for the Chamber presentation will be given to each business we ask to join HOURS. Businesses will not have to pay a membership fee to be involved, and will be listed in a special Business Particpants section of the newsletter. Chamber Mixer vs. Open House - After discussion, it was decided to organize an Open House at VIP Printing next rather than do a Chamber Mixer (which we can organize as new members of the Chamber of Commerce) right now. More Brochures Needed - We have run out of brochures for racks and to hand out, and plans were made to print 2500 more at VIP. Printing the Money - We asked Elizebeth Brazil, the chair of the Chamber of Commerce, to be the second signatur of the bills along with Joan, our Treasurer. Elizebeth made her decision dependent on the endorsement of the chamber at their January 19 meeting. We are pursuing other signaturs in case we don't get that endorsement. ****************** At Our January 1, 2000 Meeting...Ukiah Chamber Board presentation - We gave a presentation to the Ukiah Chamber Board on Wednesday, December 17. Ron and Ken gave the presentation, with Dale, Joan, and Larry helping to answer questions. We focused in on the benefits local currency would have to retail business, and asked both for an endorsement by the Chamber and for chairperson Elizabeth Brazil to be the second signatur of the currency. The board requested us to research the involvement of other Chambers of Commerce with their local currencies around the country, and will make an endorsement decision at the next meeting. Ukiah Natural Foods Coop board presentation - We scheduled a presentation before the Coop Board of Directors meeting on December 22 but cancelled at the last minute when the store manager said the board had a lot on its plate for that meeting, and she wanted us to meet with her first. Promotion literature - We pulled together a great business packet folder for the Chamber members that will now become our business packet to take around to local businesses. It includes both general and business information pamphlets, a list of benefits of local currency to the community, a sample directory of current members, an example of the "HOURS Accepted Here" sign that participating businesses will put up in their stores, and a sheet showing examples of the money. Going into the new year.... - We will continue to contact local businesses one-on-one with our info packet and ask them to join and put up a brochure rack. Businesses that join and agree to accept HOURS will not have to pay a membership fee. Happy New Year! .... We don't know exactly when we will print the currency and start Ukiah HOURS, it depends on how quickly people sign up. Meanwhile, check out the online directory for the services to beoffered by the 40+ people and businesses who have signed up so far! ****************** At our December 10 meeting...December 9 Potluck gathering - We had our first member potluck, with invitations going out to all the current 32 members via email and snail mail. Twelve people besides five HOURS staff members spent an enjoyable evening at the Collins/Kelley residence. Staff answered questions about HOURS and we went around the circle after the meal sharing the services we were offering, and expressing our thoughts and ideas about local currency and HOURS. It was a very enthusiasm group of people. We are going to make follow-up phone calls to the people who came, because several expressed interest in helping out. KZYX report on the meeting - Dale gave a report on the meeting the next evening on the 6 pm Community News. He felt it was important to use EVERY opportunity to inform the commuity about HOURS. Table at MEC Holiday Benefit - We set up a table at the MEC benefit. King had printed, in pieces, a huge blow-up of one of the currency bills, and we did a bit of performance art putting the bill up on the wall piece by piece. Latest update of information handouts - Work continues on information handouts. At the MEC table we had brochures with updated membership forms, and three handouts: a new version of the Questions and Answers about Ukiah HOURS handout; Benefits of HOURS to the Community, and a Member Directory. Quite a few people visited the booth and took away brochures with membership forms. Ukiah Chamber Board presentation - Next week is the Ukiah Chamber Board presentation on Wednesday at 4 pm. ****************** At our December 3 meeting...Channel 50 TV Spot on Ukiah HOURS! - Channel 50 from Santa Rosa came on November 29 and filmed and interviews HOURS core group members for a spot on the news that night. We are going to try and get a copy because only one of us saw it. November 30 lunch meeting - A special meeting was called the next day to strategize our next step2, which focused on two upcoming events:
Printing the money soon - We talked about printing the money soon, perhaps by the end of the year. What is left to do is getting a second signature for the money. Joan, our Treasurer is going to be the other signature. Information packets and brochure racks - We are preparing information packets for the HOURS Potluck and the Chamber meeting. We are going to laminate more sample currency for putting in the info packets and also for attaching to the front of the brochure racks. We have noticed the laminated money disappearing from the racks (!), so we are going to experiment with attaching some money to the end of a small chain, so that people can look at one or more laminated bills but not walk off with them. We are also going to put "Sample" on the bills, not only for "security" reasons but also because we still haven't completely finalized the money design. Keep the momentum going - We all agreed to keep the energy around HOURS moving and growing as we approach the end of the year and millennium.
****************** At our November 25 meeting...Ukiah Daily Journal article! - It was real exciting to have local currency on the front page of the November 24 Journal, and be able to inform another segment of the community about the value of using a supplemental money system in the area. Brochure inserted in Mendocino Environmental Center newsletter - The core group had our last meeting at the MEC, where we strategized as we stuffed brochures into the outgoing newsletter, which reaches about 500 members. Business Mixer planned - Ken is planning a Wine Mixer at VIP on December in Ukiah to gather together local businesses interested in local currency. The purpose of the evening would be both social and to build enthusiasm for, and answer questions about, Ukiah HOURS. Business packets will be handed out. Business packets - We are putting together a packet of information specifically for businesses, to include: a business FAQ pamphlets, a brochure rack and brochures, a "We Accept HOURS" sign, and examples of the currency. Promotion packets - We are also putting together an information packet for individuals who want to help promote HOURS to businesses and individuals in the community. This packet will include: individual and business FAQ pamphlets, brochures, laminated examples of the money, a sample directory, and the TUC audio tape about how well local currency is working in Ithaca, New York, where the latest round of local currencies sweeping the country began in the early 90's. Final thoughts - We in the core group are continually be inspired and re-inspired about the power and value of this HOURS local currency we are all about to start using. Think of it this way: what we in the community will be doing is trading some of our federal dollars for Ukiah HOURS, a currency whose amount and flow is entirely in our own hands, Spending that money, just by the fact that it can only be used locally, will directly and immediately support and self-sustain locally owned businesses, products and services. This money passes hands over and over again, continually facilitating the next exchange of a product or service being requested and a product or service being offered. Therefore, the local currency itself becomes a "value-added" product in our community.
****************** At the November 10 meeting...Farmers Market - Dale and Larry had the HOURS table up again. People did came by, but the table is not set up yet to attract attention. We need to work on a banner for the front that says something like: "What if....we printed our own money." We agreed to keep working on table materials. Newspaper article - Dale and Larry met with Glenda Anderson of the Journal and were interviewed for a newspaper article to be in the paper next week. The general consensus of the group is that we need to start getting as much notice and coverage as possible, not only to educate the community about local currency, but also to work on getting more people to help with the many tasks yet to be done. Potluck dinner - We started planning a December potluck dinner to which we will invite all current members, to discuss strategy and plans for continuing to inform the community about HOURS. HOUR Town newspaper - We talked about the idea of producing the first issue of the newspaper as a promotion and education tools and not as a directory of services (of which there are only about 60 right now). Another advantage of doing the newspaper before we had a sufficient directory of services to kick the program off, is that we would be finally starting this last major component of the currency program. TUC Radio Ithaca Hours audio tape - Joan and Dale have now both heard the tape which interviews people of Ithaca about the very successful Ithaca Hours currency program going on there. They both felt we should get more copies so that everyone could listen to it. Hearing the people who are actually using a local currency in their lives was very exciting and inspiring, and there are lots of good ideas on the tape. ***********
At the November 4 Meeting....PumpkinFest - Larry reported that only a few people came by the table he set up outside of Serendipity during PumpkinFest. He was too busy to spend any time at it. Main Street/Farmers Market - Dale and Larry reported that the evening street market was much more successful, with many people coming by the table. Dale said he really enjoying talking to people about HOURS. Dale and Larry will set up the table next week also. Brochures - Ken printed more brochures, which looked beautiful on an off-white recycled paper. Information packets - Dale has been working on information materials. All agreed that putting together a packet for businesses was a top priority. Printing sample money - We discussed printing some money with "Sample" on it, so that we could start handing out money to people. Organization - We discussed the need to set up a non-profit corporation. Joan will contact Michael Kisslinger at NCO. Going under the wing of the Community Multimedia Alliance was another idea discussed; it is a 501C3 that already exists. Outreach strategy - we discussed/argued over what to do next to inform and educate the community. King felt we should talk to all downtown merchants before doing anything else. Everyone else felt we should pursue a newspaper article. The meeting ended with no consensus. Ukiah Chamber of Commerce board meeting presentation - Ken has arranged for us to give a presentation to the Chamber Board. Ken needs to be contacted. We all preferred Ron to give the presentation and he is out of town. We talked of possibly postponing the presentation for a month. ************
At the October 22 Meeting...At our October 22 meeting, we did an and updating editing of the HOURS brochure. We also discussed strategy about how to proceed with promotion of Ukiah HOURS to the community. Ideas discussed: 1. Contact the Downtown Merchant Assoc. members who were at the October meeting where we gave our first presentation. 2. Contact the Journal, which has expressed interest in writing an article about HOURS. 3. Gather together materials for tabling. 4. Set up and distribute a dozen or so brochure racks, each of which has a laminated bill attached to the front as an attention grabber. What we have done: * Materials for a table were gathered and a table set up in front of Serendipity/Touch of Major in Ukiah during the PumpkinFest on October 30-31. * A new updated brochure was printed and plastic display racks (with a currency bill attached to the front) are being placed around Ukiah. * We are arranging an interview with Journal reporter Glenda Anderson who wants to write an article about HOURS. * We are continuing to talk to downtown merchants about HOURS. * Brochures are being handed out on a one by one basis. ************** At the October 16 MeetingOn October 14, several of us gave a presentation about Ukiah HOURS to the Downtown Merchants Assoc. This was our first presentation to the public. Those present expressed interest and support. We ourselves came away very excited about finally starting our promotion phase. We had just completed the first version of our HOURS brochure/membership form and passed those around as well as some sample color versions of the currency. At our regular meeting that night we planned to do a table at the PumpkinFest coming up in Ukiah. We will also start placing brochures in racks in stores around Ukiah, and, of course, continue to sign members up one by one. |