GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Want an afghan, but don’t know how to crochet? Have a garden, but don’t have anyone to share your zucchini? Want to learn French, but don’t have money for tuition?
Try bartering.
When Sadie Macklin lived in Calgary, she used the Bow Chinook Barter Community to live rent free and buy her clothes, food and transportation.
“I found it very beneficial for me,” said Macklin who has helped organize the Borealis Barter Community in Grande Prairie.
“I like it. I have my basic needs met in a way that I can trust and use dollars for luxuries.”
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Macklin said social connections are as important as the exchange of goods so she organized potluck suppers as a way to meet people.
“It’s a good way to build community connections,” she said.
Over supper a person may mention she needs her lawn mowed. Someone across the table will say he can do that, but he needs help to write a resume. A third person may join in to offer his services as an electrician.
“You just need to get people together,” said Macklin, a school bus driver and student, who considers bartering her second job.
Scott McAlpine, a Grande Prairie Regional College professor and chair of the South Peace Social Planning Council, said barter communities help link people from various backgrounds.
A professor may offer French tuition to a single mother in exchange for babysitting services or barter dollars.
“It’s a good thing for the community.”
McAlpine said establishing the bartering community is the council’s priority.
Slow beginning
The idea of a bartering community was talked about for about a year without much success, said McAlpine. The planning council wanted to copy Calgary’s successful barter community, but didn’t know how to begin.
“We wanted to clone Calgary immediately in full regalia with everything in place,” said McAlpine. But with no money or experience the idea didn’t take root.
“Then along came Sadie.”
Because Macklin had used the Bow Chinook Barter Community, she knew to focus on the basics of a barter community.
Potluck suppers are key for people to meet and swap services. Also essential is a simple newsletter with a column for services and products wanted and another for services offered. Already there are 50 members and almost 200 people who have contacted Macklin for more information.
In Calgary the barter community has its own currency, a Bow Chinook Hour. An hour is worth $10. Calgary Transit accepts the Bow Chinook Hour as legitimate currency, as do some community associations for hall rent. Second-hand shops, hair salons, food markets and many home-based businesses accept payment or partial payment in barter dollars.
“It’s purely local. You can’t take it on vacation to Florida.” McAlpine said the system encourages spending in local communities.
“Think globally, act locally is no longer merely a slogan, which it all too often is,” he said.
