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Progress Report
on Ukiah HOURS

Below is both a current status report and then a general overview at how we are doing in the process of setting up our local currency...

Latest!

As of April 2, 2001

Ukiah HOURS is currently in a holding pattern. Please read on...

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Our local currency project has been in the formative stages for some time and we're sure that you are all wondering what is happening.

After roughly two years of effort, we have:

* A bank account
* A database
* A directory of members which includes about 50 individuals and several businesses who have already signed up.
* Promotional literature including a brochure, brochure racks and a business information packet
* A currency design that is ready to print
* A web site (www.greenmac.com/hours) in which all of the above information and more is available

Financial Report  Approximately $2000.00 has been put into the project. Of that amount, $575 came from your membership fees. Most of the rest of the money came from one of our founders. The money was spent for artwork and design of the currency and brochures, printing of promotion literature, purchase of racks, and membership dues for the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Merchants Association. As of December 31, 2000 , our account at Mendo Lake Credit Union has $278.60. in it.

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Our strategy

Last year, in search of the best method to make this project work, we decided to enroll "key" businesses to agree to accept and use HOURS before actually issuing the currency. By key businesses we mean those which offer essential and conveniently available services such as food, auto repair, clothing, etc.

Our limitations

After a while, we discovered just how much time and energy it would take to make the contacts with businesses and the many other kinds of work that had to be done to launch the project. Eventually, we realized that the core group did not have the energy to continue with our strategy.

At a crossroads - what do we do now?

HOURS is at a crossroads because to go further will be a lot of work and require an even greater commitment than we of the core group have made so far, and we are not ready to do that on our own. We will need help if HOURS is going to get into operation and work.

Since the core group seems to have stalled out on the project for the moment, we offer the following alternatives once more people get involved.

Could you please email back your thoughts and let us know which of the following you would like to see happen with HOURS.

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HOURS Response Ballot

1. ___ Others from the membership will provide a significant amount of energy to carry on with our fail-safe strategy. If you choose this one, please give us your ideas of how we can accomplish this or write the name of the individual(s) who will be doing the work.

2. ___ Start HOURS with the 50 members we currently have and trust that other people will get involved as they see it working.

3. ___ Print just one of the currency bills, say the $10 or 1 hour bill, rather than all the bills and see how the project goes before printing more.

4. ___ Not worry about enrolling "key" businesses at this point, and just continue to sign up local businesses who we find are easily supportive of HOURS.

5. ___ Find someone, or someone step forward, and make a business out of the HOURS newsletter: selling advertisements and creating a network of exchange, which is what Paul Glover did with Ithaca HOURS (Ithaca, NY).

6. ___ Put the whole project on long-term hold, and await further inspiration.

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Please return this ballot at your earliest convenience.

It can be mailed or emailed to the addresses below, or you can call us and leave your ballot choices and ideas on the phone.

Thanks very much,

The Hours Core Group
296 Gardens Ave.
Ukiah, CA 95482

email: sheehy_larry@hotmail.com

463-5517


Recent meeting summaries

Steps involved in creating a local currency
and how we are accomplishing each of them...

1. Gather a committed Core Group of people - Gather a core group together willing to oversee the project

• A group of 3-5 volunteers has been meeting regularly and working very hard for a year and a half to complete the rest of the steps below.
  

2. Design the currency - Create a design for the currency and find funding and a printer to print the HOURS currency.

• We have finished the design of the currency (it has taken many months and the currency looks beautiful! - Go to HOURS page for link to images of the money) - Old photos of the Ukiah Valley give a sense of history and permanence to the currency. Perhaps the "old" ideas of local production and distribution have some relevance today.
• We have found a printer. Ken McCormick of Visual Identity Printing is enthusiastic about Ukiah HOURS and is going to be printing the money in partial exchange for Ukiah HOURS. We are looking into paper: we would like to use tree-free paper and the bills need to be durable enough to get through the laundry in a shirt pocket! We are swaying toward using "recycled dollar bills" produced by Crane, the company that supplies the 100% cotton paper used for federal money. We were wanting to use 100% hemp paper but it would not be durable enough.
  

3. Develop computer tools - The database of members and services as well as a bookkeeping system for membership dues and tracking the disbursement of the currency.

• A computer database has been designed using FileMaker Pro on the Mac which keeps track of members and their offered and requested products and services, and distribution of the currency. We have actually been adapting a database we got from the SEED folks on the coast, who in turn got it from the Berkeley Bread folks in Berkeley. Using the same program has allows the passing back and forth of improvements.
• Some additional computer applications have been developed which make it easy to take the database information and easily update both the print and web directories.
• We have started entering people into the database who find out about HOURS even before we start the actual promotion phase.
  

4. Produce a quarterly newspaper - This newspaper informs the community about how the currency is doing, and contains a directory of the products and services offered and requested by members.

• We haven't started working on the layout of the HOUR Town newspaper - The core group will probably do the first newsletter. But we looking for someone or some other people to take on both the selling of advertising, and the ongoing production of the HOURS newsletter, as a self-supporting job. Tools for easily creating the directory listings of the newspaper have been created.
  

5. Create a web site - This is the digital age! There needs to be a web site where people can find out more about Ukiah HOURS 24 hours a day, sign up, AND view the MOST CURRENT listings of goods and services being offered and requested.

• The Ukiah HOURS web site has been available on the Internet for several months now - It provides background information for the media and the public about local currency and the Ukiah HOURS project as well as an online membership form. There is also a current directory listing of members who have signed up so far and the products and services they are offering and requesting. There aren't too many yet because we are just getting started with promotion.
  

6. Network with other local currencies - Work with other currencies in the area so we can mutually support eachother and not all be "re-inventing the wheel."

• We are in communication with the folks at the SEED local currency on the coast and the folks at Community Cash in Sonoma county to share experience and skills. We at HOURS have developed some computer tools for generating the directory which we are making available to the other groups. Perhaps some day in the future, the currencies can be made interchangeable!
  

7. Inform and enroll the community - Promote the project in the community - develop promotion material and a promotion strategy and let the community know about Ukiah HOURS.

• We now have both print and online membership forms - We are starting to sign up individuals and to spread the word about the HOURS web site and the online membership form.
• We have finished our information brochure - The brochure contains a mail-in membership form and will be placed on racks in stores around the community.
• We have materials for tabling. We will be setting up a table around Ukiah to start telling people about the advantages of local currency for our community.
• We are beginning to contact businesses. As well as individuals, a local currency needs businesses willing to accept the currency, whether in partial or full payment for products and services.
• We continue to discuss various promotion strategies. We plan to write newspaper articles, go to businesses, give presentations before groups, and do a lot of talking one-on-one.
  

We are looking for a few good people! A half dozen people have created the infrastructure of HOURS. As the scope of the project widens, we intend to involve many more people in the next phase of making local currency here a reality!

We especially invite help in informing and exciting the community about the contribution an alternative local currency can make to our local area. HOURS works if our community sees its value and starts using it!

Remember, the HOURS local currency program will "officially" begin at a widely-announced potluck meal, where the first newsletter and HOURS currency will be be distributed to members. Stay tuned!

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Email: Ukiah HOURS Staff