TimeBanking is, in large part, about building relationships with other people, and TimeBank Boulder’s special events are a fun way to do so. From fermentation classes to potlucks, happy hours to movie nights, our members offer each other a variety of interesting planned and occasionally spontaneous events throughout the year. A list of our upcoming events is always available at https://www.meetup.com/Boulder-Sharing-Economy-Events/, and that is the place to RSVP if you’d like to attend an event.
Since all types of events help create and cement connections and build community, your Board of Directors wants to encourage you to host and organize events. The resulting additions to our calendar will give our members opportunities to get to know each other, make more exchanges, and circulate more TimeDollars.
At our last Board meeting, we identified three types of events.
Educational: classes, workshops, or any event requiring a lot of advance preparation. For example, last year we had a class about fermentation that was attended by 14 members.
Entertainment: movies, music, or any event that doesn’t require much preparation time and at which people are engaged in something fun.
Social: potlucks, language practice, happy hour, tea party or any event where most of the time is devoted to learning about other members.
We also looked at three elements that are essential to any event:
- Providing the location
- Advance preparation
- The event itself
We encourage members to organize for hosting events by starting at the proposed date and counting backward to determine the amount of time needed to create and publicize an event. Six weeks is best. And of course, we also encourage everyone to watch the TBB TIMES and our MeetUp page to see what’s coming up and plan to attend the events your fellow members create.
Now for the incentive details. TBB will pay you $TD for many of the aspects of creating an event, including providing the location. Here’s how that breaks down:
Educational Events: Attending members pay the organizer $1TD for each hour of the event. If attendance is low, and the organizer doesn’t gather enough $TD to cover his/her time, TBB will make up the difference. If more $TD are collected than the number of hours spent organizing the event and someone else has provided the event location, the organizer pays location provider. If not, TBB will pay that person.
Entertainment Events: Attending members each pay a set, standardized amount (such as $1TD for a movie). If attendance is low, and the organizer doesn’t gather enough $TD to cover his/her time, TBB will make up the difference. If more $TD are collected than the number of hours spent organizing the event and someone else has provided the event location, the organizer pays location provider. If not, TBB will pay that person.
Social Events: These events provide the most networking potential, so TBB pays everyone involved for their time, that means the organizers, helpers, and the provider of the location.
At TimeBank Boulder member-only events, we like to open each event by sharing offers and requests. At events that are also open to the public, we ask that a 10- to 15-minute period be built into the structure of the event so TBB representative can to talk to people about what TimeBanking is and how it works.
Consider what knowledge you have that you could share with your fellow TimeBankers. Which type of events do you enjoy and would like to see? Can you host one of them so that others can join you? Is there something you can teach others? Do you want to organize a hike or nature walk? Would you like to have company to go to a concert, museum, or other location or event? Do you have access to resources that you could share? Like a swimming pool, hot tub, or workout room? We’d love to see you sharing and enjoying with other members of our community. Contact Member Services Co-Coordinator, Lisa Benner (imcelticmoon@gmail.com) with your ideas.