Dear community of Bend,
In an effort to begin uniting communities within Bend in ways that support sustainability and partnering in life.village practice, I am attempting to begin two community “services.”
One will be a tool.appliance library which will be focused on giving good use to the tools and appliances that we own and sharing them with each other. This way those who are not able to afford certain items, or are simply in need of a one-time use item can contact you and borrow your available item.
If you are interested in this please send me the following information:
- Name and phone number and email
- Items you are willing to enter into the “library” (vacuum, washing and drying machines, lawn mower, coffee pot, garden hose, etc… the list can be as wide of variety as you are willing to offer)
The second “service” is a ability.service library. The focus here will be on individuals or families offering what they like to do as something they are willing to “trade” or offer to the community. As we develop a substantial number of people interested, people will be able to trade one service or action for another. We will create a database of services that are offered by the community that people can access if they have a need.
If this is something that you are interested in please send me the following:
- Name and phone number and email
- Services or activities that you are willing to offer (cooking bread or meals, making kombucha, beer brewing, cleaning, physical labor, yard work, car work, bike work, babysitting, massage, making clothing, etc… this list can be as wide of variety as you are able to creatively imagine)
Mandala Yoga community (myc) and myself (through bridgeWorks, the non-profit i work for) will be the hub.connecting pieces to make the exchanges happen or send people in the right direction. If the list gets big enough, I will send out the information to all the leaders of the various communities so that each of us has a list of who is offering what.
My hope with this “service” is to give people the opportunity to connect with each other in relational ways and not feel the need to pay money for things they need. Also, my hope is that we might use what we have rather than feel the need to go out and buy something that we will only use a couple of times. It will be up to those involved in the interaction to settle on a trade that will be of value.
Please let me know as soon as you can as to what you are willing to offer.
Hope for sustainable community and closer connections,
Nate
Nate,
This really needs to be like a craig’s list on line project that people will update and delete to keep things current in real time. You may even be able to use something like Craig’s List to keep this up. Or do a twitter hash tag to have people post what they want to offer or need. good luck with this.
Bob,
Thanks for the thought. My hope is to make this a face-to-face, relational endeavor where people actually interact personally over the exchanges. My hope is to build on the relationships that exist and to help bring people together in community… hence “village-practice.” I am finding that many of those i am interacting with regularly are not really using twitter.
It will be interesting to see how it all pans out. I am planning more on adjusting the plan as we go than having it all figured out at the get-go.
See you soon,
Nate