Community Development Support From Hastings to Eastbourne in the wake of their pier fire

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Paul Crosland
Tel Zero7807 066 202 & I'll call back
https://www.facebook.com/EastbournePierFire



http://SussexCommunity.blogspot.co.uk
http://StLeonardsSharing.info
http://freelender.org
http://2066.info
http://telephonemediation.org.uk
http://ApologyPlus.org.uk
http://YouTube.com/toothpaste007 (please subscribe)
http://twitter.com/paulcrosland (please follow)
http://Facebook.com/paulcrosland1 (please befriend)
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What would it take for you to be at least OK, if not pleased, for (some/all of) those on the Hastings pier on 5th October 2010 (& the alledged 30th July 2014 Eastbourne Pier arsonists) to be invited to re-open these Sussex Community piers in Spring?
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Suggested next steps:

1) Keep coming back to the values of "caring and sharing"
2) Where there is difference, build understanding and trust
3) Practice seeing "my" property/wealth as belonging to the community
4) Honour the "5 ways of well being": Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning & Give
5) Value community learning opportunities eg "Hastings Pier Fire Justice Fiasco"/ "We Need To Act If We Want Justice"
6) In responses to all conflagrations develop creativity & flexible nonviolent (direct) action
7) Earn our care in later years by acts of service this week
8) Generate support structures for all with as much wisdom and compassion as we can foster for self and other/world.
(http://StLeonardsSharing.info)
Radio 4 programme on the Sharing Economy - note to Freelending CIC co-director http://bit.ly/1fqs05K

How do we co-create a more sharing and caring community?

For the past five issues, I’ve been advertising on this penultimate page of the Hastings Independent. And I’ve had some feedback: apparently, I’ve broken all the rules of design and been cryptic beyond measure – producing something that while laden with meaning for me, is confusing to others. So here, I’m going to try again, in writing.

I'm attempting to encourage people to come to Southwater Community Centre and talk about a number of themes. My mission is to co-create a more caring and sharing community. For me, this involves building good will & co-operation as well as addressing grievances.

I set up the Gallery Space at Southwater Community Centre in February this year, and intend to keep running it for two and a half years. My goal is to provide space and resources for the linking together of ideas such as offering your possessions to strangers in such a way that it responsibly builds trust, which, in essence, is currency.

A few year ago, together with Edmund Johnson, I created a website called freelender.org, which in 2010 was describe by leading environmental think tank Forum for the Future as years ahead of it's time in imagining the low-carbon economy. Since then, we’ve given way to streetbank.com, which does much the same thing but perhaps in a more user-friendly format. Both sites trade mainly in low-value items such as garden tools.

To assist the sharing of more valuable items, I've created a system of cashless deposits – timebank hours. Thus a carbon-fibre racing bicyle that I bought for £550 can be borrowed for a deposit of 108 hours of timebank credits. I am "Lend-It-All Man" – anything I own can be borrowed, for I am just a custodian of community resources and ideas. 

The main vision I am attempting to transmit in the 2066.info Gallery is the idea of generating pensions through timebanking, inspired by a conversation with Prof Heinz Wolff (watch a three-minute video here: Care4Care.mov). The basic premise is that when you are young and healthy, you spend a certain amount of time each week looking after the elderly and vulnerable, while earning timebank credits for each hour spent caring. Then, when you yourself become elderly and vulnerable, you start to cash in those credits with the young and healthy. Something similar exists in Japan, as explored in Radio 4’s "Would that work here?" series

I would like to invite you to a community meeting at Southwater Community Centre on Saturday 14th June, 4pm-6pm, to talk about things such as these – or just listen, if you prefer.

Amongst the most valued visits to date to the 2066.info Gallery that have arisen from the series in the Independent has been that of Richard from the oldest mental health charity in the UK. He works works with a woman who at the time was due to appear at the Magistrates Court for anti-social behavior. However, as the same woman cooks an evening meal almost every day for an 88-year-old neighbour, I was happy to propose that she be given 5 hours of Timebank credits a week for this work – and thus to pay off her fine. Each Timebank hour has a locally redeemable value of £5 (though not for alcohol or cigarettes), though I hope that in future they will be traded not for money but directly for services.

Visitors to the 2066.info Gallery have sparked dialogues about all kinds of wonderful community regenerative ideas. Amongst these is a street party, as well as ideas for an action plan to address the unhappiness generated by living in an increasingly unequal society – including better dialogue between those who own property and those who do not.

What does the prospect of getting to 100 look like for you? For me, my centenary will be in 2066. Some people believe their wellbeing lies in the bank, some believe it lies in property – me, I believe it lies in community. There's still all to play for, in my humble opinion. I hope my words prompt your next step boldly into that future, or even into the 2066.info Gallery on a Friday or a Monday afternoon (open again from June), or a 2nd Saturday of the month.

4 door knockers 4 a more caring & sharing Hastings & St Leonards Sharing

Recruiting for 4-6 weeks (starting August 1st)

4 door knockers 4 a more caring & sharing Hastings 

(& <a target="_blank" href="http://StLeonardsSharing.info">http://StLeonardsSharing.info</a>)

Also 'Pay It Forward Pedicab' drivers 

- bringing people between the sea & <a target="_blank" href="http://2066.info">http://2066.info</a> Gallery

4 door knockers 4 a more caring & sharing Hastings & StLeonardsSharing.info

Recruiting for 4-6 weeks (starting August 1st)
4 door knockers 4 a more caring & sharing Hastings
(& http://StLeonardsSharing.info)
Also 'Pay It Forward Pedicab' drivers
- bringing people between the sea & http://2066.info Gallery















Radio 4 programme on the Sharing Economy - note to Freelending CIC co-director http://bit.ly/1fqs05K

What is 2066 Timebanking?

What is 2066 Timebanking?
It's the future of your potentially transformed relationships to money, work, community and meaning; an economic shift to "more convivial lifestyles" (Simms, A - Ecological Debt: The Health of the Planet and The Wealth of Nations)

A simple conversation can unlock unknown skills and requests for assistance from those who live near you.

Here's how it's started with Kurt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAq_i2dukFM

Part Two is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHUkPcnKkgI
& Part Three:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpm42wjnNyA

Now what do you make of Kurt as a performer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqDH_GOvTNg

Kurt will be playing on the next "(Almost) monthly #2066 #Timebanking event" on Saturday15th March 2-9pm; see you & friends at the Southwater Area Community Centre then? , Stainsby Street, TN37 6LA

Join the dozen(s) who have registered interest in getting more socio-economically involved with neighbours via http://stleonardssharing.info

And for a general introduction to Timebanking, see http://timebanking.org.uk
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Radio 4 programme on the Sharing Economy - note to Freelending CIC co-director http://bit.ly/1fqs05K

We launched with this gig which I can reproduce; the food I can't. See you on the next Middle Saturday? -gigs etc almost every month from 2pm-9pm

Susanna's Gig that launched a predicted 2,066 memorable smiles this year at the Action for Hastings Happiness #2066 #Timebanking Gallery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI91S7lJmyU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoBT9Yym_tE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot3zuWSxjLY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqII-o5G33I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbbWwAVn5MI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odSFCv62diY
& more available by following this link:
https://www.youtube.com/toothpaste007?o=U&sq=Susanna







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Paul Crosland, Curator of #2066 #Timebanking Gallery
Southwater Area Community Centre
Stainsby Street
TN37 6LA
http://www.southwatercommunitycentre.org/2066-timebanking-gallery.html
Tel 0780 7066202
Twitter: http://twitter.com/paulcrosland
YouTube: http://YouTube.com/toothpaste007

Please join the dozen(s) who have registered interest in getting more socio-economically involved with neighbours via http://stleonardstimebank.blogspot.co.uk/p/welcome-register-page.html
And for a general introduction to Timebanking, see http://timebanking.org.uk
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Radio 4 programme on the Sharing Economy - note to Freelending CIC co-director http://bit.ly/1fqs05K

What brief YouTube Introduction would encourage your visit?

http://youtu.be/p3ctYXs3bVo

Film of the Gallery launch day -15th February 2014

Or this?

First Follower - Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy*

And for a general introduction to Timebanking from one of the national organisations who commissioned me to create a social media strategy for them, see: http://timebanking.org.uk

*Transcript:

If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!

Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it's not about the leader anymore - it's about them, plural. Notice he's calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.

The 2nd follower is a turning point: it's proof the first has done well. Now it's not a lone nut, and it's not two nuts. Three is a crowd and a crowd is news.

A movement must be public. Make sure outsiders see more than just the leader. Everyone needs to see the followers, because new followers emulate followers - not the leader.

Now here come 2 more, then 3 more. Now we've got momentum. This is the tipping point! Now we've got a movement!

As more people jump in, it's no longer risky. If they were on the fence before, there's no reason not to join now. They won't be ridiculed, they won't stand out, and they will be part of the in-crowd, if they hurry. Over the next minute you'll see the rest who prefer to be part of the crowd, because eventually they'd be ridiculed for not joining.

And ladies and gentlemen that is how a movement is made! Let's recap what we learned:

If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.

Be public. Be easy to follow!

But the biggest lesson here - did you catch it?

Leadership is over-glorified.

Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he'll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:

It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.

There is no movement without the first follower.

We're told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.

The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.

When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.

(WITH THANKS TO D SIVERS)



February 2014 presentation of the Timebanking Gallery idea to a study group