Mole
Valley LETS - beat the credit crunch
Surrey Life - November 2008
Many of us may bemoan the fact that we work for dorks, but
there's a group of people in the Mole Valley who are
more than happy to do so. They've willingly babysat,
fixed up houses and even taken people to the airport for dorks.
Because to those in the know, a dork is not just a gormless
person, it's also a unit of alternative currency.
The dork users (the currency name is a shortening of Dorking)
are members of Mole Valley's Local Exchange Trading
Scheme (LETS). Though they are the only people in the county
earning and spending dorks, there are LETS schemes throughout
Surrey trading in beaks, croys, wells and watts.
LETS members, of which there are over 30,000 in the UK alone,
offer low value goods and services to others in the group
in exchange for credits in their alternative currency. The
credits can then be spent on any other members' goods
and services.
Each group has a directory showing what its members are willing
to sell. The content of Mole Valley's ranges from computer
support, welding and van hire to Russian classes and soul-based
polarity therapy.
The group's co-coordinator, George McNamara, who once
lived in the Findhorn spiritual community and eco village
in Scotland, has one of the most varied range of offerings.
"I've learnt a lot over the years, and thought
I'd show willing by offering some more unusual things,
too," he says. "I think LETS is generally a bit
alternative and quite green but it's mostly sociable
in our case."
A credit to themselves
For dorks, George will provide vegetarian B&B, Bach remedies,
German translation and proofreading. He'll coach you
in neuro-linguistic programming or paint techniques, tell
you your fortune, darn your clothes or undertake heavy gardening
- after which, unsurprisingly, he seeks to spend his
dorks on massages.
George says lifts to the airport are probably the most popular
service bought for dorks, but the group's monthly trading
meetings, where goods are exchanged, are always well attended.
"Other LETS schemes have different focuses -
child care and toy exchanges, healthcare and therapy exchanges,
older people's meal and help exchanges or 'jumble
sale' trading," he says. "But our trading
mornings have worked out as a gardeners' and cooks'
exchange over time, though we'd love to expand to include
other things, too."
Mole Valley LETS' monthly meet-ups are particularly
popular among people with allotments who can swap their surplus
produce with others. The morning I visited, vegetables, fruit
bushes, homemade jam, pot plants and a few household items
were arranged on a table in a member's Dorking home.
Over tea, credits were exchanged in the form of yellow dork
cheques, which feature a cockerel design.
"I've just taken some leeks, because they are
one of the things I don't grow so well," explained
Hugh Baker, who had brought along fruit to trade. He'd
already sold some blackcurrant bushes for dorks earlier in
the week. As well as selling allotment produce, Hugh rents
out a shredder and, through the group Compost Works, offers
free guidance to people wanting to start composting.
He admits he's used stranger currency than dorks on
occasion. "I wanted to make some nice boards for when
we go to shows," he says. "Anyway, someone in
LETS had some sticky-back Velcro off-cuts because he does
exhibition stands, so I gave him a bag of worms. He got a
good compost and I got good exhibition boards."
Some people join LETS for fun or to save money but it also
attracts those with certain ideals.
Robert Edmondson, a retired scientist who raises dorks by
selling herbs from his garden and hosting trading meetings,
says: "I'm a conservationist and a bit of an idealist.
I know money is necessary and I know capitalism is necessary
but if you can manage without it to some extent, I think it's
good for sociability. It encourages cooperation and a sense
of being involved in society."
For Margaret Harris, a retired teacher, who grows much of
her own food, LETS is also the extension of a green lifestyle.
"I sell mainly vegetables and buy anything I need but
I don't need an awful lot because to some extent I'm
self-sufficient," she says. "I run my own allotment,
which is organic, and I'm interested in alternative
health. I think there's a tendency for people to join
who are involved in the 'alternative' world."
Pennies from heaven
Mother-of-five Frith Stratford-Johns, who has been a LETS
member for about 15 years, agrees: "It's just
the kind of lifestyle I had - a bit of a hippy, vegetarian
and into permaculture and I used to be in the squatting scene
when I was young."
Frith offers one of the more unusual services in Mole Valley's
LETS directory - belly dancing lessons.
"I'd like to say I learned to belly dance somewhere
exotic but it was at adult education classes," she laughs.
"It's good for keeping you fit and it's
a womanly thing to do. I'm not so much the sequinned
bra type but people dress up or down as they like."
As well as her dancing lessons, Frith also does spring cleaning
for dorks and has spent her earnings on shiatsu massages.
She sometimes performs belly dancing at festivals, which
she says is as near as she'll get to following in the
footsteps of her theatrical father, Alan Stratford-Johns,
who played Charlie Barlow in Z Cars. "Because I grew
up so much in the public eye, I shied away from the stage
but now I've found the level I like," she says.
Another of the more curious offerings in Mole Valley LETS
comes from Reverend Geoffrey Brookes, who will accept dork
payment for funerals.
"I wouldn't want to stop someone using their
parish church," he says, "but if people wanted
something outside the normal run on things, I'd be interested
in doing a woodland service, for instance."
Though the UK LETS membership has declined in recent years,
he believes the recent financial downturn may well lead to
a boost in membership, as happened before during the recession
of the early Nineties.
Spreading in Surrey
For Surrey people seeking to save money on practical goods
and services, there's certainly plenty of scope. In
Kingston, LETS members can get job search advice from a recruitment
consultant, help with survey design from a psychologist and
proofreading from a sub-editor while over in Sutton there's
a scaffolding tower and cement mixer for hire, French or Italian
lessons on offer and someone willing to pay for help with
podcasting.
Back in the Mole Valley, the more practical offerings include
plastering, welding, accounting and electrical services...
which perhaps begs the question - how many dorks does
it take to change a lightbulb?
A note on tax:
The kind of low level transactions that occur through LETS
do not generally attract tax. However, if you're a professional,
such as a plumber, thinking of offering regular work through
the scheme, it's best to declare this for tax and ask
members to pay the bulk of your fee in real money.
What do you know?
Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) began in Canada in the
1970s. LETS started in the UK in the 1980s and grew in popularity
during the recession of the early Nineties. There are now believed
to be more than 30,000 people involved in LETS schemes in the
UK with an average of 100 members per scheme. Different LETS
groups do not generally exchange with one another but an internet-based
scheme that would allow this is under consideration.
Further information on Surrey LETS schemes:
For general information and to find your local LETS group, see
www.letslinkuk.org
The Forest of Dean LETS also has a comprehensive country-wide
list of local schemes here
For details on the Mole Valley LETS scheme, see www.lets-mole-valley.org.uk
or e-mail info@lets-mole-valley.org.uk
Return to top
|
Click here
to read the article on the Surrey
Life Website |
|
