There are Users, and there are Members…
In BrisLETS, there has long been an assumption that opening an account on CES to trade and joining BrisLETS are one and the same thing. But are they really? And should they be? What if they were quite distinct? What if anyone could register themselves on CES and start trading? What if becoming part of the BrisLETS community was quite another thing? Would this expand the market in a good way? Would it engender greater appreciation of the personal support,real life events and the volunteers who provide them?
I delve into these questions, consider the answers and discuss the implications for our constitution, logo, name, Terms & Conditions and the ‘joining’ process.
As I collate the results of the Member Activation Drive and delve into the CES User Guide to update the data base, I’m becoming more aware of how important the distinction between Users and Members is. I believe that those of us who have looked into it need to pass on the information and provide members with some guidance. The results of MAD will be released in a separate report.
The CES is a new money system, not a club or organisation. As such those who use the CES are its users, not its members. New users do not ‘join’ the CES but register to use the system and are in there for life, just as they are in the official money system for life. We are ‘registered’ to use the official money system when our parents register our births and do not consider ourselves as opt-out members of a club when we use that money system.
Users can of course de-register from the CES if they want to, but as there are no renewal requirements they are not automatically ejected after a certain period of time.
CES User Guide; Members vs users
(see under “Help” tab)
This suggests that Community Exchange accounts should be as readily available as accounts in the debt-based banking system. However, the Aussie dollar, like all debt-based money systems, has a culture that goes along with it and users are never warned of it. Essentially, it’s a tool for accumulating wealth (and power); a commodity issued only by institutions controlled by the rich. The culture is acquisitive (greedy) and supported by the taxation system of a political structure that has come under its influence. For example it subsidises bank interest for investors. People begin to understand some of this as they use money, but most never learn the half of it.
Mutual credit also has a culture; a culture of fairness, impartiality and neutrality. It is an abstract and unlimited measure of value (like meters and kilograms); it is interest-free and not a commodity.
Therefore, in order to attract people from money to mutual credit, the transition needs to be reasonably familiar and easy; at least to begin with. In time, they will learn how different it is and how to do trade and economics with a completely different heart. Every member of the community can contribute to the success of this by being well-informed and ready to educate others at all times.
Our Association is an incorporated ‘club’, which is what people pay for when they join and become Members. It’s a luxury that most Community Exchanges don’t have; most rely soley on a volunteer CES Website Administrator. Being incorporated protects committee and team members from personal liability, should something go wrong and good-will fails to resolve the problem.
Is it time for a change of name that makes it easy for someone that has no knowledge of LETS or the CES system? In 2019 we are hoping to use grant money to boost our public profile using street and house signs, flags, banners, business cards, pamphlets, letters to editors, social media and zero-cost trader advertising as marketing tools. A title which describes us, for example Brisbane Community Exchange may be easier to read and understand. If BrisLETS is used on its own, an outsider has no idea what it is unless they know of the LETS movement.
Currently our Association’s official name is Brisbane Local Energy Trading System Organisation Inc. and we use BrisLETS as a brand name for marketting. On CES our exchange is called BrisLETS Community Exchange.
Many people, including existing members but especially newcomers, have trouble understanding what “BrisLETS” is what “CES” is and how they are different. “BrisLETS” has a catchy feel, and encapsulates the LETS side of our history. However, since the merger with CES, we have been gifted a very powerful online system for trading that also networks us globally.
There are good reasons for clarifying the difference between CES and the Association, as I’ve outlined above. But the compelling reason for naming them similarly is to make it easier to see the connection between them. Online the difference is obvious; they have separate websites. They also have their own logos.
The table below summarizes how a clearer distinction between the two would work.
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CES |
BrisLETS |
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Current names and logos |
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BrisLETS Community Exchange
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Brisbane Local Energy Trading System Organisation Inc branded as BrisLETS
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Proposed changes |
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Language |
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Privileges & Obligations |
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Management |
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At the time of writing, it is not advisable to canvas major name changes because of a lack of information on constraints such as our website url (brislets.com) and our name on CES and associated account prefixes (BLCE). When the information is available, we may be able to consider dropping BrisLETS in favour of Brisbane Community Exchange.
Whatever we decide, we need to be ready to educate newcomers, we need to be well informed ourselves. Our Association is an ideal club for supporting and sustaining those of us with even a hobby-like interest in monetary and mutual credit systems. Our Library and Advisory Body are spaces for learning, sharing and storing an accumulating body of knowledge that can be drawn on by members.
Simon Cole
December 26th, 2018
I would rather see that we retain the Brislets name and change our marketing to incorporate ‘Community exchange’.
Lets explain what we do a bit better.
“We are Brislets and we are a community exchange, we use the CES software to trade our goods and services. It is based on Mutual Credit. etc.”
Does ‘BrisLETS’ sound like a cult to outsiders?
No, it is a brand name.
Explain to me what an ‘Local energy trading system’ means?
Sounds like a electricity company!
It does, doesn’t it. The ‘energy’ refers to ‘services’. But we trade goods as well, so we could replace that word with ‘exchange’. However, that’s almost the same as ‘trading’.
Still keen on ‘LETS’? (:>)
Sometimes you need to retain a name for posterity.
I agree with Andrew on the name. If it aint broke don’t fix it. I have spoken to Simon about my views which are not very supportive, keep coming back to the KISS principle. I didn’t know Brislets had a CES Website administrator, I thought this was all handled by Annette in Sydney. I don’t see why Brisbane LETs members should support someone who signs up to the CES as a “user”, pays no membership fee but has free use of our drop off points and is sent a list of our wants and offerings. Why is their email address in our system if they are not a member? The idea of joining free for a year and then paying and having a renewal system will make so much work for the Management team who already complain of being overworked . The system does not need to be over-managed and/or over-complicated which I fear it is becoming.
Thanks for calling and your ideas and feedback, Liz.
I’ve moved the Drop off Point service from Traders to Members, on your suggestion. It’s all up for debate atm, so everyone, feel free to chime in!
Alison was our BrisLETS CES Administrator doing lots of work behind the scenes for us.
All CES account holders are required to have an email. When you say ‘our system’, you’re equating the CES system with the incorporated association, which is what I’m suggesting should be separated more than it is now.
Yes, a free year of membership will create a little more work than now, but if there are rules it can be made manageable. IMHO it will be worthwhile giving outsiders a chance to peek into the life of our community before they decide to join. It’s only a year, and after paying an obligatory $20 for their 2nd year, they will need to respond to a request to renew their membership within 2 months (with the option of donating an amount of their choosing) or their membership to the association expires. Their CES account will always exist, but can be hidden after 12 months of no trading and the account holder can easily unhide it themselves when they decide to start trading again.
I agree with Liz and Andrew. Keep the name for posterity. World wide there are LETS systems which have been used for many years. Why try to change/fix what is not broken?! Remember KISS. Simon, what you have suggested – first year free, etc – is going to make a lot more work and who is going to want to do that? Why make things complicated? Better to spend that energy and time on promotion in my opinion.
I think we need to be very careful to keep the focus on trading. That is what it is about, definitely not tying up energy in committees. The energy needs to go into all our trading activities to encourage them to happen more and more.
BrisLETS is definitely a brand. However, the move to the Community Exchange software is a massive step. I think we need to understand exactly what Community Exchange is all about. A good starting place is to read through the Help menu entries on the communityexchange website. Very clear and straight-forward, in business-like language. It brings LETS right up into the modern age. We need to remember that LETS was ‘invented’ pretty well before the Internet and the whole modern world of personal computing.
Yes, Anne, good point “focus on trading not committees”. Trying to micro-manage everything takes a lot of energy and time and is not necessary imo
As Andrew wrote: we are BrisLETS and CES is the software that we use
It’s interesting to compare with other Aussie exchanges:
LETS South in Willunga just south of Adelaide
http://www.letssouth.com.au/
They’re incorporated and charge $25 every year.
Whilst the above reform proposal adds to the level of sophistication required of the association, I think the benefits outweigh the extra work involved:
• A separate register of members of the association needs to be maintained, as required by the constitution
• The membership registry needs to be updated annually, as most incorporated associations do
• The membership registry needs to be cross-referenced to the CES database of account-holders, rather than relying soley on it
• Membership of the Association needs to be easily verifiable by any Member in order to identify who is eligibile for member services. For example, when attending a Market Day, non-members and Users pay a fee to enter. The easiest way to access this information is by having it recorded on Users’ accounts and logging into the mobi website on a smart phone to see it. Another example is that a User requesting use of a Drop off Point or Mediation would be ineligible if they are not a member.
The benefits to separating services to Users and Members are:
• Both will enjoy an expanded market of goods and services
• Members will not be burdened with free-loading Users; the services the mostly volunteer membership provide to members will be better supported by on-going income from the members themselves
◦ Income will not be dependent on an ever expanding membership (the current growth model we have, where people come and then just fade away)
• Users will be free to focus on just trading without feelings of obligation, guilt or exclusion that might discourage their participation in the market.
• Users can choose to join ‘the community’ at any time, support it and enjoy the benefits of membership once they appreciate the real value of it.
Hi all
Adapt/change or ?. I was involved in a local garden club which has a majority of older members. They wanted to attract new young members. I suggested the club needed an email address, distinct from individual committee members who might change each year and that it should be included in the newsletter. It was poo pooed and part of the reason was ‘more work’.
I think Simon has pointed out some ‘broken bits’ that would benefit those involved quite well and put forward a good case for change.
best wishes
Thanks Joe. There are still some ‘broken bits’ in this proposal to fix, e.g. Users can subscribe to the NewsLETS. It’s available to the public anyway, and as long as it doesn’t have invitations or notices about events (the Events Update email is for those) it will give Users a taste of what they’re missing out on, e.g. past events. The thing is, it’ll need to be made clear that Users must pay (say $2) to enter events, whereas Members get in free. So they can come and see what it’s like (they can pay for workshops in Units) and then they may decide to join up. Andrew if you’re reading this, I’ve changed the above list of privileges to concur with this.
For me the critical interest in LETS that keeps me there is an alternative currency. Not fiat money but community/anarchist currency. So LETS sort of says this and CES doesn’t. CES can be a goods barter system with a focus on the goods rather than the alternative currency behind it. This is ok to a point yet it to a point misses the mark of what LETS is about in my view.
How are LETS and CES different? A good topic for discussion at the next Advisory Body meeting? (:>) Another topic we we can talk about is gate-keeping and education.