THE LETSLINK UK NATIONAL LETS CONFERENCE 1998 Friday 16th October, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England Complementary Currencies: new choices for the millennium with: Professor Bernard Lietaer, designer of the European Single Currency keynote speech on the need for reform of the present system, introducing complementary currencies around the world and their importance for the future, the subject of his forthcoming book The Future of Money James Robertson on a multi-level currency system for sustainability Jan Wyllie on globalisation, the Year 2000, economic meltdown and the potential role for local currencies Liz Shephard National Coordinator, LETSLINK UK on complementary currencies best practice, and a strategic vision for development Minister for Regional Development tbc Linda Gilroy MP on the Parliamentary Campaign for LETS David Lloyd, health policy adviser Professor Edgar Cahn on Time Dollars in the USA tbc Martin Simon of Fair Shares, the UK's new pilot variant of Service Credits or Time Dollars This exciting one-day conference will present a portfolio of current best practice world-wide and future options in local and complementary currencies, as a set of new tools for policymakers, local authorities, practitioners and partners in community and local economic development, third sector, voluntary and community organisations. It aims to: introduce the most successful local currency options from around the world incorporate some of the key economic and social policy issues explore the different aims, strategies and effects of local and 'application-specific' currencies at various levels explore their potential for complementary development in the future. The conference will present innovative developments and ways forward for LETS; developments in local authority and UK Government support; the policy context and issues (regionalisation, social exclusion, health, welfare and work); the Parliamentary Bill on LETS and Benefits and EDM update; and draw from local and community currency developments around the world to identify new ways in which established models and proposals could complement one another. The day begins by looking at the impacts of globalisation and how a sea-change in the world economy is now emerging (described in the FT as 'countdown to meltdown') with the combined impacts of three major events: the South East Asian and Russian currency crises, the single European currency,and 'the crunch' for microchip-dependent systems world-wide as the Year 2000 approaches. Professor Bernard Lietaer, James Robertson and Liz Shephard - three leading complementary currency innovators - will present their analyses of the economic and social impacts of currencies in monetary systems and their recommendations on community-based, local, regional and 'application specific' currencies as complementary tools for sustainable economic development and regeneration. Bernard Lietaer will give his view of the global possibilities offered by existing local currency options in practice, and his own formula for a redesigned monetary system. Linda Gilroy MP will explain how policy changes are being pursued at UK government level with her LETS and Benefits Bill and the Parliamentary Campaign. A range of other speakers will share their experiences with different kinds of local currency schemes. An hour has been set aside at the end of the day for collaborative action planning around the issues of the day. The LETSLINK UK LETS Conference 16th & 17th October 1998 This biennial event is organised this year in two parts: Day One: Complementary Currencies - New Choices for the Millennium : Saturday 17th October Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hants a presentation of best practice from the world-wide range of local, community and complementary currencies, with recommendations for practitioners and policy-makers Day Two: Creating New Waves: Saturday 17th October Portsea Community Centre, Portsmouth a day of presentations, workshops and networking for LETS Schemes, subscribers to the national LETSLINK UK Network, and others who share the co-operative spirit for local communities The LETSLINK UK LETS Conference, 1998 DAY ONE Complementary Currencies: New Choices for the Millennium Norrish Central Library, Guildhall Square Key Speakers - Professor Bernard Lietaer, designer of the European Single Currency - Linda Gilroy MP on the Parliamentary campaign for LETS - James Robertson on multi-level currencies for a sustainable economy - Liz Shephard, National Coordinator, LETSLINK UK on new local currency strategies and models for the UK - Jan Wyllie on globalisation, its impacts and potential roles for LETS - David Lloyd, health policy advisor - Martin Simon of Fair Shares Professor Edgar Cahn, inventor of Time Dollars tbc Professor Bernard Lietaer Designer of the European Single Currency, is now a Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources of the University of California at Berkeley. His forthcoming book, The Future of Money, advocates the widespread adoption of local currencies. Linda Gilroy MP The Parliamentary champion whose LETS Bill and Early Day Motion 1538 seek to amend the benefits legislation to enable equal participation in LETS for people on low incomes. She worked for Age Concern Scotland before becoming Labour Co-operative MP for Plymouth Sutton. James Robertson Editor of Turning Point 2000 and former Director of the Inter-Bank Research Organisation, he contributed to enquiries on government, the civil service, parliament and London's future as a financial centre. Leading new economist whose books include Future Work, Future Wealth, Beyond the Dependency Culture and Transforming Economic Life (1998). Professor Edgar Cahn Inventor of Time Dollars and originator of the US network of legal advice centres, he is Professor of Law at the District of Columbia Law School and runs the Time Dollars Institute, Washington DC which has enabled over 200 schemes to become established in the USA. Liz Shephard UK LETS Development Co-ordinator and founder of LETSLINK UK, the national LETS Development Agency. A new economist, innovator and Schumacher Award winner as formulator of the co-operative, community-based UK Model LETS adopted throughout the 1990s. Jan Wyllie Former diplomat and advisor to the Canadian Environment Ministry, journalist, editor and founder of Trend Monitor International, a long-established intelligence research company which has just completed two major reports, on the Year 2000 ('Y2K') software problem and the global economy - the findings of which will be unveiled at this conference. Martin Simon Founder of the UK's nine pilot service credit (Time Dollars) schemes 'Fair Shares', in Gloucester and the Forest of Dean, with 3-year funding from the Barnwood House Trust and other funders. Martin was formerly community development and voluntary sector liaison officer for Gloucestershire County Council. Robin Murray The GLC's advocate for local currencies in the '70s. Over the last few years he has led fascinating projects in the Canadian 'Hours' local currency movement, and now runs the London Pride Partnership. David Weston A local currency scholar and activist who pioneered the first local exchange trading schemes in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada in the 1970s and early 1980s, the Community Exchange and Green Dollar Exchanges. His little-known work presaged the hundreds of community-based LETS schemes now established throughout Britain and Europe. Bob Paterson Director of Portsmouth Housing Association until 1997, founder of Homeless International and founder-Chairman of People for Action 2000, the national umbrella organisation for Housing Associations. Now Visiting Research Fellow at Salford University on the Development of Community-Based Financial Institutions. A Community Banking pioneer, setting up a national pilot Community Bank in Portsmouth. David Boyle Journalist and former editor of Town and Country Planning magazine, he studied Time Dollars with Edgar Cahn and LETS in New Zealand, and has just written a new book about his travels in the USA researching local currencies. David is editor of New Economics magazine and a trustee of LETSLINK UK. Invited: The Prince of Burma; Yehudi Menuhin For a Conference Booking Form see end of email, or SAE to National Conference, LETSLINK UK, 2 Kent Street, Portsmouth PO1 3BS tel: 01705 730 639 fax: 01705 730 629 email: [log in to unmask] The easy-access venues are centrally placed on the South Coast, with good rail links from all parts of the country; 11/4 hours by train from London Waterloo, and with fast direct access from the Continent via hovercraft and ferries. LETSLINK National Conference DAY ONE: Complementary Currencies: New Choices for the Millennium - Friday 16th October, Menuhin Room and top floor, Portsmouth Civic Library, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth City Centre. Guildhall Square is by the city's central station and its park, theatre, cafes, restaurants and shopping centre. In the evening join us for a celebration dinner (LETS Dine Together) in the Guildhall, then take a stroll along the beach, even dip into the waves! LETSLINK National Conference DAY TWO: Creating New Waves: LETSLINK UK LETS Conference - Saturday 17th October, Portsea Community Centre, St James Street, Portsea, Central Portsmouth. The year's most sought-after opportunity to meet LETS scheme organisers and members, practitioners and likeminded spirits from around the country for the networking event of LETS. A range of workshop topics both practical and inspirational. The venue in Portsea is near the harbour station with the historic ships and is at the heart of the community regeneration area. THE NEED IS NOW All over the world, a great tidal wave is now breaking in the global economy. Already, its recessionary effects on the US and European economies are unfolding more rapidly, and with much greater impact, than most experts had imagined possible. The consequences are liable to be felt in every local community throughout the world. And yet, such a 'meltdown' could provide the historic turning point towards a truly sustainable economy. One in which local economies ultimately emerge as thriving centres of renewed activity, self-reliant and interdependent in ways that are far less vulnerable to the ups and downs of global markets. The need to prepare for changing fortunes is now urgent. This conference is the place to start. The scene will first be set by a presentation of the most up to date research on the global economy commissioned by Teddy Goldsmith, which suggests that the world must now face up to the difficult transition stage from an economics based on throughput and consumption, towards a new sustainable kind of wealth creation geared to meet genuine human needs. THE TURNING TIDE In helping communities to create their own wealth and maximise self-reliance, complementary currencies can provide essential tools for dealing with adverse economic conditions. They offer an important part of the solution, and many can also be organised by people for themselves. Over 1,500 local community-based exchange systems with their own currencies have emerged around the world during the last decade. WHO SHOULD ATTEND Practitioners from a wide range of fields, especially including all those involved in helping to create more prosperous and inclusive local economies, more caring and efficient social services, new approaches in public health, and a better-supported and resourced voluntary sector. LETS is also an important Local Agenda 21 policy and those involved in sustainability and environmental issues should come too. This includes LETS groups from around the country, local authorities, community and voluntary organisations, co-operators, community businesses, credit unions, training and enterprise councils and organisations, educationalists, small businesses, chambers of commerce, housing associations and tenants groups, health care trusts and health workers, charities, churches, user groups, and ordinary people both over-employed and unemployed. WHAT LETS CAN DO Day Two of the conference will focus on what communities and those already involved in LETS can do as the role and potential of complementary currencies begins to extend beyond individual self-help and community-building and into the realm of cooperative action in the face of economic necessity. Presentations and workshops are scheduled on what the community in LETS and around it is doing, and could do in the near future, about local purchasing and developing the local economy, co-operative development and small business support, food production and distribution on a sustainable local basis, community credit and local banking, health and empowerment, low income, housing, and new community organisation resource exchanges (CORES) for organisational support. THE ORGANISERS LETSLINK UK, the world's first national LETS Development Agency, whose work since 1990 created the blueprint for over 1,000 LETS schemes now established across Western Europe. Over 1,500 local exchange and currency schemes have emerged around the world over the last decade. THE PROGRAMME DAY ONE: FRIDAY 16th October 'Complementary Currencies: New Choices for the Millennium' Menuhin Room and Top Floor, Norrish Central Library, Guildhall Square 9.45 am Registration and Coffee Plenary Menuhin Room 10.10 am Welcome to Conference Chair: Pat Conaty, Aston Reinvestment Trust and UK Social Investment Forum Into the Millennium: the Need is Now The high tide of globalisation now sweeping away industries has already beached local economies and cultures. But as tidal waves overwhelm tiger economies and currencies, are mainstream economic assumptions now on the turn? 10.20 am In the Eye of the Millennium: a triple storm is about to hit the global economy - Russia, China and Japan in free fall; the Euro; then Y2K. Could local currencies become lifeboats very soon? Jan Wyllie, Trend Monitor International 10:45 am Multi-level Currencies: for economic stability we now need a new subsidiarity: one of local, regional, national and international currencies. James Robertson 11.10 am Coffee The Turning Tide: Choice in Currencies 11.30 am The Future of Money: from Global to Local Currencies Keynote address - Professor Bernard Lietaer, designer of the European Single Currency, author, currently Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Resources, University of California at Berkeley 12.15 am Panel: Questions and responses 1.00 pm Lunch in the Guildhall 2.10 pm LETS and Benefits - The Parliamentary Campaign Linda Gilroy MP and Liz Shephard 2.50 pm Complementary Currencies, New Choices: A synthesis of experience world-wide brings new opportunities for creative local currency developments, including LETS Notes: Liz Shephard 3.20 pm Break 3.40 pm From Ithaca to Maritime Hours: On-the-ground experience with local currencies in North America Robin Murray, David Boyle, David Weston 4.30 pm Time Dollars in the UK, the first UK projects: Time Dollars and LETS compared Martin Simon of Fair Shares; Professor Edgar Cahn 4.45 pm Into the Millennium: The Choice is Now: This Open Space style interactive plenary is for strategy-building, bringing together the day's insights and mapping out the links we can make and steps we can take together to meet the challenges of the next few years. 5.30-45 pm Close LETS Dine Together - Dinner in the Guildhall Up to 10 pm Evening Groups: For those who want to discuss any topic after dinner, various rooms are available on the Library top floor until 10 pm. On the booking form please propose or indicate your own choice of workshop or focus group topics and we will do our best to accommodate you in the rooms available. PROGRAMME DAY TWO: SATURDAY 17th October 'Creating New Waves' A day of presentations, workshops and networking for LETS schemes Portsea Community Centre, St. James Street, off Queen Street, Portsmouth 10.00 am Registration, Coffee and Announcements Lets and the community economy: Buy Local Schemes - Julie Lewis New Community Banking - Bob Paterson Credit Unions and LETS - National Federation of Credit Unions Cooperatives and LETS - Southampton Area CDA Community Development & Organisations: Inner City LETS - Liverpool City Council LETS Team Local Agenda 21 and LETS in Rural Areas - Dave Rickard, Adam Hunt Community Organisations Resource Exchanges - Heather Maddison Food on LETS: LETS EAT - John Rhodes Local Food Schemes - Liam Egerton Bath Farmers Market & Local Organic Buyers and Growers - Rob Weston Health and Empowerment: LETS, Low Income and Health - David Lloyd, Rose Snow and others Multicultural, Womens, Disability and Mental Health LETS LETS Tackle Your Questions - Liz Shephard Workshops: Starting your LETS - advice for new groups Developing your scheme - Anne Rickard Businesses and LETS - Steve Knight, Dave Williams Researching LETS - Peter North, Teresa Aldridge, Colin Williams Free Space for Stalls, Displays, Crafts, Software, Exhibitions, LETS Projects and Networks eg Housing / Education / Arts / Mediation / Holiday LETS BOOKING FORM Please complete one form per person, enclose a cheque for the full amount made payable to LETSLINK UK, and return to: LETSLINK UK, Quinnell Centre, 2 Kent Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 3BS, UK. In the event of the Conference being over-subscribed, Network members will have precedence. For late bookings please telephone (01705) 730 639 or fax (01705) 730 629. Name ______________________________ Occupation __________________ Organisation/LETS Group _______________________ Position _______________________ No. of members______ Please state if from local authority, voluntary sector, charity, academic, business or other _____________________________ Please book me for: [ ] Friday 16th October: Complementary Currencies and/or [ ] Saturday 17th October: Creating New Waves. I am [ ] a LETSLINK UK Network subscriber / [ ] not a subscriber My address and postcode Tel __________________ Fax ____________________ Email_____________________ I would attend workshops on these topics (any, e.g. LETS Notes, encouraging trade, gaining members, health care, cooperatives, local food projects, regional development, arts & crafts networks, overseas initiatives, group mediation.... etc) _______________________________________________________ I would attend an evening group in the library on (please state any topics) ________________________________________________________ I could lead/facilitate/contribute to a group on ________________________________________________________ I intend to bring (please tick): [ ] group literature [ ] a banner [ ] a video [ ] LETS produce/crafts/stall [ ] OHP slides [ ] other Please state if you have any special needs. We regret no creche will be available. CONFERENCE FEES Fees include refreshments but not meals or accommodation, which must also be booked and paid in advance. A small number of bursaries may be possible; please write with copy UB40 etc. Friday 16th October, 1998: 'COMPLEMENTARY CURRENCIES' Full rate: Local authorities, statutory agencies, TECs and businesses - ?60 [ ] Standard rate: non-LETSLINK member individuals/bodies - ?45 [ ] Discount rate: unwaged LETS, nonprofit and community groups - ?25 [ ] Lunch on Friday (all vegetarian, please state if vegan) ?4.50 [ ] Tea after 5pm Friday: please tick [ ] sandwiches ?1.60 / [ ] cakes ?1.30 LETS Dine Together: Full Evening Meal at the Guildhall - ?8.25 [ ] Subtotal for FRIDAY ?_____ Saturday 17th October, 1998: 'CREATING NEW WAVES' Full rate: Local authorities, statutory agencies, TECs, businesses - ?45 [ ] Discount rate: local nonprofits and voluntary groups - ?20 [ ] Lunch on Saturday (all vegetarian, please state if vegan) - ?4.50 [ ] Subtotal: fees and meals for SATURDAY ?_____ TOTAL fees and meals for BOTH DAYS ?_____ Accommodation Guest Houses/Hotels/Bed & Breakfast: please book direct with the proprietors. SAE to LETSLINK UK or FAX (01705) 730 629 for list of best value places (enclosed with mailing). A limited number of spaces have been reserved for people on low incomes on Friday night. These will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, and *must be pre-booked by telephone first* on 01705 730 639. - LETS members Bed & Breakfasts: (costs neg/varied, to be paid direct to the hosts: for LLUK Network subscriber groups) - Youth Hostel B&B: (open 5 pm-11 pm), ?11.75 per night (paid via LLUK) - Back-packers Lodge, basic self-catering: ?9 per night (paid via LLUK) I enclose a total for fees, meals and accommodation for ?______ (please make payable to LETSLINK UK) Travel Please let us know if you are able to provide any lifts to or from the Conference and we will help match people up to save travel costs SEE YOU THERE! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks are due to the National Lottery Charities Board for their support of LETSLINK UK; and to Portsmouth City Council and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council for their support for this Conference LETSLINK UK, The UK LETS Development Agency, 2 Kent Street, Portsea, PORTSMOUTH, Hants PO1 3BS. Tel: 01705 730 639 Fax: 01705 730 629 Email: [log in to unmask] Web: www.letslinkuk.demon.co.uk Registered in England, Company Ltd by Guarantee No 3343871 Registered address: 2 Kent St, Portsmouth PO1 3BS %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%