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. 0227-604128; E-mail: bakensverzet@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.

3. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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).

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 :

12. 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). • Children’s 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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 !

18. 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 system’s 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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).

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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. 

28. 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.

29. De bestuursstructuur

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. Het LETS systeem (Letskring Wier)

33. Het LETS systeem (Letskring Wier)

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 12. Contact informationwww.integrateddevelopment.org Stichting Bakens Verzet, [ NGO Another Way] 1018 AM Amsterdam. Direction : T.E.Manning Schoener 50, 1771 ED Wieringerwerf. Tel. 0227-604128 E-mail : bakensverzet@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.