Ideas for recruiting members

[Chris Caston]

Hello,

My exchange has been going for a few months but I haven't managed to generate a thriving trading community yet.

I'm looking for some ideas to get people to sign up and start trading.

I put an advert on the gumtree classifieds and one lady contacted me saying that she was interested but with the gumtree classifieds the free adverts quickly get pushed further and further down the page. At this point i'm unwilling to pay the national currency from my own pocket (particularly as i'm already in a lot of debt and i'm trying to get more paid work at the moment) to advertise my exchange.

How can I get more people to sign up? Perhaps a flier to go on notice boards with tear off strips or a letterbox drop?

What things have people tried that have worked?

thanks,

Chris

[John Rogers]

Hi Chris

Decades of experience from around the world show that some of the best strategies for generating both new members and new activity include:
* regular social events for people to make friends and connections
* organised working parties where everyone works, gives and earns together - could be helping in a neighbour's garden or doing something for the whole community
* recruiting *voluntary groups* that need more volunteers - they spend credits rewarding their volunteers and earn them by charging entry to events or use of photocopiers/vehicles/rooms etc.

In other words, don't just think *individuals*, think *community* too!

Hope that helps.

John Rogers
Value for People
www.valueforpeople.co.uk

[Chris Caston]

Hi John,

The social events is a good idea and I should plan ahead for when enough members have joined the make the first social event possible.

What i'd really like to be able to do is help people to become less reliant on money.
I know from experience that low income people spend most of their money on food and shelter. I'd like to start a movement for local food production mainly based around aqua culture which is the co-farming of fish and vegetables .

So the "working in each other gardens" would hopefully be to setup aquaculture. Each person would produce different types of food so that they could trade with each other when they get tired of what they farm.

Voluntary groups is also something to think about. How would you approach a voluntary group and explain it to them?

Do you have a powerpoint presentation that you use?

The other thing I can think of is the Youth Advisory Councils (YACs) but they are funded by local councils.
I could probably go and give talks to them.

[Chris Caston]

OK this is crazy replying to my own post but I think i'm making some progress.

I responded to an advert on gumtree where a guy needed someone to help design a website.

He said that he had a bad experience because someone had ripped him off and by taking his money and vanishing into thin air.

I told him about my exchange and said I would be willing to help him if he is signed up to perth exchange.

He asked for examples of things he could offer and I said one of the things I had started offering on my exchange was assistance for people looking for work. It's one of those things in life it's very difficult to solve your own problems but it's always very easy to solve someone else's problem. I sort of see looking for employment to be along that theme.

Anyway turned out the guy is a recruitment consultant and his website is about listing jobs for people for them to apply for.

So i'm going to help him build the website on the community exchange system. He's coming around for a meeting tonight to show me what he wants on the website.

I also made a similar offer to a tree surgeon that wants a website in a barter exchange for his tree surgeon service but I haven't heard back from him yet.

So I'd like to make that a suggestion for local exchange administrators trying to get the first few people to sign up to reply to people that look like we could provide something that could benefit them.


I also had a e-mail from a lady in Kalgoorlie who was looking to setup something like a LETS for her Yoga classes. Turns out she was googling and came across my website!

I tried a few google searches and it turns on there's already quite a few pages that link to my exchange mainly from ning and some on other forums that I use.

I told her a little about CES and how she could setup an exchange in her town. I also gave her my contact details and said that I'd be more than happy to help build a website for her exchange.

This I think is the important thing. We need to make sure that all the exchanges have websites and we need to get as many links to each of the exchanges as possible. When people google for alternate currency systems we want the pages to be optimised so that the various CES exchanges dominate the google search results!

best regards,

Chris

[Dawn Pilatowicz]

Hi Chris,
Well done on getting started. I started with meet and greet evenings at home:-
- get everyone to bring along somthing to share (sell)
- then show them how the system works
- discuss what they can offer
- when there' a bunch of people, you might find they're instantly available to help each other
- this creates ideas about what they can offer
- Sign them up there and then.

I also spoke to every single person I needed to trade with and asked them if they knew about the Talent Exchange? And slowly, slowly buit up a network of people I trade with personally. They then do the same with others.

Talk to local businesses who might be struggling - offer them an opportunity to start a loyalty system (for people who belong to your network). They don't give the discounts - they accept part payment in your currency, this is free advertising for their businesses on the CES website. They can spend their earnings by giving staff bonuses in your currency, paying overtime etc. So the business joins and all their staff join, they have signs up offering loyalty rewards in your currency so their clients join.

Good luck!

[Chris Caston]

Hi Dawn,

I'm slowly telling people about it. I think the most important thing is to smile and look like i'm having fun and enjoying myself. No one wants to join the group if I'm not smiling!

When you say "- Sign them up there and then." that's brilliant idea!... paper registration forms!

How much more likely are people to sign up if they find a flier and paper form in their letterbox compared to if they find a flier asking them to go to a website and sign up?

I want to be able to trade with people who grow food mainly because all soldiers march on their stomach. I would also like to start growing food myself.

I have also created a facebook group just a few minutes ago and invited all my 300 facebook friends to join but I'm not expecting that to achieve instant success. It will probably just help a little bit to get the word out if anything.

In regards to approaching businesses I want to be really careful here. The rules of my exchange are that part payment in the national currency is not allowed. When I was first starting my exchange I got some advice from the lady that runs the Nortern Suburbs Community exchange and she said that part payment in cash gets the interest of the tax department. I decided that although the rule that it has to be 100% community trade or no trade seems restrictive in the long term it will make people more resourceful and encourage re-localisation of manufacturing.

[Dawn Pilatowicz]

I Love the idea of 100% community currency - we did try to impose that but then the exchange lost impetus - I guess it's find what works for you and go with.

[Chris Caston]

Dawn, I was wondering if any CES or other LETS system have had experiences with student members.

It's the sort of thing that students could really make use of when they need food (and food is available over the CES), want to trade books, need tutoring or would like to tutor, or are seeking work experience related to the profession they are studying.

Perhaps various student guilds could be made aware of the CES and their members could join. The guilds themselves might start their own CES exchanges.

Expanding CES to involve people in education could happen in many countries and perhaps even start to make schools embrace mobile phones (when used for alternate currency systems) instead of banning them.

[Dawn Pilatowicz]

There is already a Facebook group by the way.

[Chris Caston]

I've joined that one as well. The group i've started is so that I can invite people I know (and other people in my city) to find out about my exchange.

[Chris Caston]

i've also setup a google groups list for my exchange. I have 8 members so far and I have added them all to the mailing list. At the moment there's no trading activity amongst the members but I hope the mailing list will help change this.