NCPlenty 126 Justice Street Chapel Hill, NC 27516 www.ncplenty.org ncplenty@ncplenty.org

In Each Other We Trust NCPlenty, Inc. is a non-profit corporation working to promote local commerce, fair wages, environmental responsibility, self-reliance, and neighborliness through the implementation and support of a local currency, the PLENTY.

Voice of the PLENTY - the NCPlenty Newsletter

Welcome to the June issue of "Voice of the PLENTY," the newsletter for NCPlenty members and others who support the PLENTY local currency. To submit an item or inquire about any story in this newsletter, please contact Member Support at membership@ncplenty.org, or call (919) 619-9368.

In This Issue...
Member News
Featured Article: LOOPS - a Progress Report
Festival for the Eno (Volunteer Opportunity)
PLENTY Grants
Farmers' Markets and EBT (Volunteer Opportunity)
Next Board of Trustees and Steering Committee Meetings
Survey Results and Analysis
Send Your Stamps!
PLENTYs and the Environment - part 1 - from the WSM Newsletter
PLENTY Specials

Member News

• Paul Aaron is helping organize a benefit for Branch's Bookstore in Chapel Hill. The event will take place over Independence Day weekend and will feature performances by local authors, poets, and musicians, including NCPlenty member Hotel Motel. A copy of a flyer can be found here. For more information or to volunteer, please contact paul@paulaaron.com.

Featured Article: LOOPS - a Progress Report

What began with an intriguing idea, offered by member Stacye Leanza at NCPlenty's 2nd Annual Meeting, has been developing into an innovative pilot project called LOOPS: Local Occurrences of Organized Plenty Spending. The goals of LOOPS are increasing the frequency of PLENTY circulation, equalizing the distribution of PLENTY transactions, and enhancing the hidden social connections in the local economy. This is accomplished by creating loops, which are semi-formal arrangements amongst members (and non-members who trade in PLENTYs) in which every participant has a guaranteed income and outlet for PLENTYs.

In its most basic form, having a "loop" means member A spends PLENTYs with member B for goods/services, B spends PLENTYs with c, and C spends with A. This is the easiest form to grasp visually, but a loop can have many configurations. For example, one member in the loop may have multiple "connections" for spending, receiving, or both. The Board has defined a loop as any arrangement where there are at least three members involved, and each participant has one or more participants from whom they receive PLENTYs and one or more participants with whom they spend PLENTYs.

Here is a summary of the work done by the Board of Trustees in developing the LOOPS pilot project.

• We drafted a formal proposal according to the standards set by The Grantsmanship Center. This proposal is still in progress and we welcome comments and suggestions. You can review the latest draft (in MSWord) here.
• We created a game to demonstrate LOOPS. NCPlenty debuted this game at "Reclaiming Economics," a conference on local economies held at the Earthaven Eco Village near Asheville, NC:
           Images from NCPlenty's LOOPS game at Earthaven. Click on any for a larger version.

  After "Reclaiming Economics," the Board further developed the game and deemed it good enough for our members! Those who attended the last NCPlenty Annual Meeting played the current version, featuring a wide variety of noisemakers. This was fun and sparked discussion on how micro-economies work.

           Images from NCPlenty's 3rd Annual Meeting at Spence's Farm. Click on any for a larger version.

  You can review the rules of the LOOPS game here.

• We conducted a survey of our membership to determine, amongst other things, baselines for key statistics that inform our LOOPS objectives. For example, we wanted to find the average cumulative interaction set, a term for the number of members with whom a particular member has spent PLENTYs. See the article on the survey in this issue for detailed results and analysis.

Much has been done and much remains to do. Our next critical step is enhancing our directory to make it a tool for forming loops. Currently, one can easily learn what other members have to offer, but not what they want. By allowing members to enter both offerings and wants, opportunities for loops become more apparent. Giving them the power to update this information easily in real-time is also essential.

We need a mySQL/PHP-savvy volunteer for this very important component, and we need volunteers of all stripes to move LOOPS from idea to reality. Please email ncplenty@ncplenty.org or call (919) 619-9368 if you can help in the planning and implementation of LOOPS.

Festival for the Eno (Volunteer Opportunity)

NCPlenty is looking forward to our fourth year in a row at the Festival for the Eno (July 2-4, 10-6 each day) and our second year having the Festival as an NCPlenty member. Each time we have participated we have signed up new members, talked with some great people, and enjoyed the beautiful environment. Each time we couldn't have done it without the members who volunteered their time to take a shift at the booth.

Ideally we hope to divide each day into three 3-hour shifts with two volunteers per shift, though if you are flexible and can go slightly longer that is great. We pair an experienced volunteer with an inexperienced volunteer, so you have both a safety net and an opportunity to learn. Best of all, you get a free pass to the Festival for the day!

The shifts planned are: Opening - 9:30am-12:30pm, Middle - 12:30-3:30pm, and Closing - 3:30-6:30pm. To volunteer, please email ncplenty@ncplenty.org or call (919) 619-9368. We hope you can join us!

PLENTY Grants

Each year, NCPlenty reserves a small portion of the previous year's membership issuance to grant to local groups or individuals doing work that fits our mission. In the past, we have granted PLENTYs to the IFC's "Food-Faith-Farms" partner project, Spence's Farm's "Friends of the Farm," and to reward volunteers who removed the floorboards of the Moncure Museum of Art. We would like to hear from you on what worthy projects in the community now could benefit from a PLENTY grant.

• This year, the combined allocation for Grants and the NCPlenty Bank is 78P (equivalent to $780 US). The vast bulk of this is expected to go to Grants though the precise amount won't be known until after the Festival for the Eno which is the last major event where the Bank will be active.
• Both members and non-members are eligible to receive a PLENTY grant. Non-member applicants must be nominated by a member.
• The Board will decide on grants in July and in September. The respective deadlines for those granting periods are Thursday, June 30 and Tuesday, August 30.
• The application can be accessed online in Microsoft Word format here or as an HTML document here. The form must be printed and mailed to NCPlenty; instructions are contained therein. You can also obtain an application by emailing board@ncplenty.org or calling (919) 619-9368.

Another way you can help is by donating PLENTYs to NCPlenty specifically for use in grants. This would increase the amount of PLENTYs available for grants because the additional funds would come from currency already in circulation, not newly introduced PLENTYs. If you are interested in supporting this and have some PLENTYs on hand, please contact us at board@ncplenty.org or (919) 619-9368.

Farmers' Markets and EBT (Volunteer Opportunity)

The Durham, Carrboro, and Hillsborough Farmers' markets are working with the Leaflight to develop a system allowing farmers to accept Food Stamps and other benefit programs which require EBT (Electronics Benefit Transactions). This is being done to give those in food assistance programs access to fresh, local food. While the specific methods have not been finalized, the system will involve a dedicated card reader which debits the benefits recipient's account, and a scrip, token, or voucher which will be used to shop with the individual vendors.

If you are an artist interested in designing a special-use PLENTY which could be used in conjunction with the electronic card reader system, please contact Robert via email to robert@ncplenty.org or call (919) 619-8119.

Next Board of Trustees and Steering Committee Meetings

The NCPlenty Board of Trustees will meet Thursday June 16, from 7 to 9pm, in room 109 of the Carrboro Town Hall. In addition, members of the Board will be on hand in the same location the hour before for a Steering Committee meeting. That meeting's topic will be potential new directions for NCPlenty (larger-scale grants, funds to encourage local entrepreneurship, and expanded membership types are being considered). The Steering Committee meeting is open to the public, and we strongly encourage any interested person to attend. If you plan to attend either or both meetings, please RSVP by Wednesday June 15 by emailing board@ncplenty.org or calling (919) 619-9368.

Board meetings are normally held on the second Wednesday of each month, from 7-9pm, unless other notice is given.

Survey Results and Analysis

Thanks to all who responded to our membership survey earlier this year. Based on your responses we have created the following report for your perusal. Please take a moment to review the findings and analysis.

Send Your Stamps!

Postal mailings to our membership (such as the survey earlier this year) or other mass mailings are an important but costly part of the work of NCPlenty. The biggest expense is the postage, sometimes with two stamps per mailing to cover a return envelope. We expect to be doing this more and more often, and to more recipients, in the near future.

Since stamps are something nearly everyone purchases from time-to-time, we are asking those who are able to pick up an extra book for NCPlenty, or send us what is left of one you have been using. If you are feeling so inclined, please mail your stamps to:
NCPlenty
Attn: Stamps
126 Justice Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

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PLENTYs and the Environment - Part 1 - from the WSM Newsletter

Weaver Street Market has graciously given space in their newsletter for a series of articles from NCPlenty. The following is a reprint of our most third submission, which was written by Trustee Matt Kalb and originally ran in the May issue of the WSM Newsletter. This is the first of three articles concerning local currency and the environment. The next will run in the July WSM newsletter and will be reprinted here in August.

One of the major hurdles in educating the public on local currency is linking the values espoused, such as promoting local commerce, environmental responsibility, or neighborliness, to the actual act of paying for goods and services with a slip of paper that says “PLENTY,” or “HOURS,” or “Bread,” instead of the more familiar green paper that says “Federal Reserve Note.” The connection to local commerce is usually understood first—the money stays here so the buying power does, too—but it is difficult to go beyond this into important areas that seem less linked to economic indicators and more to social justice and stewardship concerns.

As of this article’s publication, the 35th Anniversary of Earth Day will have elapsed. As it is being written, the headline for the April 2005 edition of (NCPlenty member) Triangle Free Press reads “Evangelical Leaders Join Effort to Combat Global Warming,” bringing a group that overwhelmingly voted for Bush in the 2004 election into an issue the current Administration does not officially acknowledge. At such a time, it seems appropriate to draw the connection between the local economic movement and a responsible approach to the environment.

Read the rest of the article here.

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PLENTY Specials

These are the specials being offered by our members at this time. Remember, you can be listed, too -- you just need to tell us! One way to qualify for listing is if you allow customers to pay 50% or more in PLENTYs on a per-transaction basis, even if this is your regular policy. You can do this online here. This requires a user name and password, which we will email to you if you do not have it (just follow the link on the update page). In addition to adding specials, you can update your contact information or your goods/services offered in the same spot. Otherwise, please send an e-mail to membership@ncplenty.org or call (919) 619-9368. You will need to provide the following information: your business, your PLENTY acceptance policy and/or the special(s) being run, and the start and end dates of the special(s). The Board of Trustees reserves the right to determine whether the special submitted is sufficient to warrant listing.

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Business Name: Blast, Inc.
Goods/Services Provided: Internet Service Provider, Web Design, and Website Hosting
Contact Name: Lyle Estill
Phone: (919)545-2535
Web: http://www.blast.com

Special: We accept up to 100% payment in PLENTYs for all services.
Special runs until further notice.
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Business Name: Magoo, Jimmy
Goods/Services Provided: Theatre Coach| Games Master Voice| Guitar| and Ukulele Lessons Musical Performance
Contact Name: Jimmy Magoo
Phone: (919)942-8527
Web: http://www.thesunandthemoon.net
Additional Contact: (919) 545-9556

Special: 10% discount for NCPlenty members or persons spending PLENTYs.
Special runs until further notice.
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Business Name: Pittsboro General Store Cafe
Goods/Services Provided: Art and Crafts Gift Shop Entertainment| Live Music Café/Restaurant Featuring Homemade Baked Goods| Sandwiches| Salads| Mexican Food| Specialties| Live Music
Contact Name: Vance Remick
Phone: (919)542-2432
Web: http://www.generalstorecafe.com
Email Address: info@generalstorecafe.com

Special: We accept up to 50% payment in PLENTYs on all sales in the cafe.
Special runs until further notice.
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Business Name: Winsome Technologies
Goods/Services Provided: In-home Family Therapy, Individual Therapy, Assertiveness Training
Contact Name: Jan W. West MSN, APRN, BC
Phone: (919)451-6645
Email Address: jwwest@mindspring.com

Special: Accepting PLENTYs at 100% for all services.
Special runs until further notice.
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Keep abreast of all the specials and other offerings by visiting the directory at http://www.ncplenty.org/directory.php