Time Dollars (www.timedollar.org) or “Timebanking” as it is now called has been an interest of mine since I first became involved in community currencies at the end of 2002. I remember visiting my cousin in Providence and telling him about my discovery, feeling kind of proud that I had discovered such a revolutionary idea, and quite sure that I was on to something big. He responded rather matter-of-factly, “my dad has been involved with that since 1998.” He was talking about my uncle Richard who is the founder of the Maine Time Dollar Network, one of the larger Time Banks in the country, based in Portland, Maine. Although Timebanking hasn’t been my main focus since I first got involved with community currencies, I have been continually drawn to its emphasis on the meeting of basic human rights through generosity and a “pay-it-forward” ethic as the core of its mission.  I also remember my late mentor, Mike, saying to me once that if money were to continue into the coming age, it would most likely be denominated in units of time.

The conference was sponsored in part by the Dane County Time Bank (http://danecountytimebank.org/) who has made amazing progress since their launch in 2005. I am so impressed with Stephanie Rearick, an attendee of the Local Currency Conference I organized in 2004 and the director of the Dane County Time Bank, for her amazing leadership in pulling the whole thing together including the conference itself. They now have 562 members and a variety of programs that are based on the Timebanking program including a stellar Youth Court initiative where young people earn time dollars for jury duty and for their community service sentence. There president, Cheri Maples, was one of the key-note speakers. She deservedly received a standing ovation for an amazingly touching speech. She was only one of many top notch speakers including John McKnight who, short of Van Jones, gave one of the most moving talks I have ever heard. John is the Director of the Center for Urban Development and a pioneer in “Asset-based Community Development” which is a staple part of the Timebanking movement.

But who caught my attention the most was Nipun Mehta. An ex-programmer for Sun Microsystems, Nipun started an organization called Charity Focus (www.charityfocus.org) and has dedicated his life to teaching and inspiring people around the power of the gift economy. Nipun also wrote a beautiful blog entry about his experience at the conference. I highly recommend that you check it out, http://www.charityfocus.org/blog/view.php?id=1663, for he has summed up the conference with more eloquence and grace than I am able. It must be said that Nipun is a master in the art of story-telling. He had pretty much comprised his entire talk of stories that he had collected over the years, of people being transformed by the act of giving. Each story was recited with an angelic presence that had everyone in the audience spell-bound. Reading his blog, it is easy to see where all the stories come from. For he has fully embodied the phrase, “be the change you wish to see in the world,” where his every action seems to bring forth a supreme generosity that in turn, infectiously brings out in others the desire to do the same. He reminded me that behind the veil of money, the true currency, is the alchemical process of transforming the proverbial lead into spiritual gold, which is none other than a state of being that, through one’s transactions, inspires in others the wish to do good for the world. Money, in my opinion, is this light, bound in the opaque container of economic theory, jargon and institutions. Money, when fully liberated, will be the full account of this transformation in human beings.