Cohousing-L Mailing List: questions about time banks

[Sean Davey (sean]

hi all,

a community that I host a website for (for more info see 
https://cohousing.site) recently requested a new module for managing their time 
bank. A time bank is record of when one community member does some task for 
another member. The provider doing the task earns a credit of the number of 
hours needed to perform the task, the recipient gets a debit of the same number 
of hours. Performing tasks builds up a balance that can be used in trade for 
tasks provided by other people.

As soon as I was done writing the code, I received a similar request from 
another community. So I was wondering if there are other communities out there 
who also have a similar system.

I've long been interested in something like a time bank because the focus is on 
time instead of other factors like skill level or experience. In the early days 
of our community and over the years we've had discussions about paying 
community members for doing certain things and part of those discussions is 
about how much a person's time is worth in dollars. I never liked those 
discussions and much prefer the idea that we're all happy to share our 
expertise with each other. I like the idea that the time we have to give is the 
same for all of us. (I realize this isn't totally true, some of us have more 
time to give than others, e.g. retired members vs. employed members). I imagine 
many communities embrace this idea somewhat by requiring a set number of hours 
work per month from each member.

Does your community use something like a time bank between members? If so, how 
well does it work? I'd also be interested in hearing about other types of 
non-monetary based work systems. And also if you think your community could 
benefit from software to help manage those systems.

best,
  Sean