We are pleased to announce an Online Auction to Benefit BerkShares—A Local Currency for the Southern Berkshires.
Auction Items Include:
SPECIALTY ITEMS: Pete Seeger Sing Along; Starling Childs Forestry Consultation; Cook with Chef Danyell; Fly with Richard Stanley; Carriage Ride and Brunch at Blue Hills Restaurant at the Stone Barns.
ARTISAN PRODUCTS: Porcelain Dishes by Mary Anne-Davis; Organic Woolen Blanket.
VACATION/DINING: Dominican Republic Beach House; Red Lion Inn; Hallig Hilltop House Bed and Breakfast; Blue Plate Restaurant; Winter at Samoset; Winter/Summer at Saddleback.
PUBLICATIONS: Subscriptions to Orion, Annals of Earth, Resurgence, What is Enlightenment?, and Yes! Magazine. Signed books by David Rockefeller, Nancy Jack Todd, Kenneth Galbraith, and Kirkpatrick Sale. Basket of Books from Steiner Books, Lindisfarne Press, Bell Pond Books, Myrin Institute, and Housatonic Press. Ethical Marketplace DVDs.
FINE ART: Paintings by Ted Chaffee, Vita Petersen, Stella Elliston, and the late Dorothy Humphry. Farm Photo Print by Jason Houston. Ellsworth Kelly signed catalogue.
FASHIONS: by Marc Jacobs, Christofle, Judith Leiber, and Jane Iredale.
FROM FARM AND KITCHEN: 2006 CSA Shares Indian Line Farm and Chubby Bunny Farm; Blue Plate Restaurant Chewy Hot Fudge; Rawson Brook Farm Goat Cheese; Tour of Moon in the Pond Farm with Bacon Bucks.
AND MORE!
Why Local Currencies?
The purpose of a local currency is to function on a local scale the same way that national currencies have functioned on a national scale-building the local economy by creating a protective “membrane” that is defined by the currency itself. As the currency distinguishes the local businesses that accept the currency from those larger chain stores that do not, it builds stronger relationships and a greater affinity between those local businesses and the citizens of that place in which the currency circulates. The people who choose to use the currency make a conscious commitment to the local businesses that accept that currency. When individuals commit to buying locally first, they take personal responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their community, laying the foundation of a truly vibrant, thriving local economy.
Widely used in the early 1900s, local currencies are a legal, but underutilized tool for citizens to support local economies. The renewed attention to local currency systems was highlighted in the Schumacher Center’s 2004 conference Local Currencies in the 21st Century which drew over three hundred participants from thirteen countries.
A fully realized local currency program engages all the economic players of a region. Once operational in a region and its effectiveness proven, a local currency can be self-supporting with businesses benefiting from its circulation carrying the cost of yearly administration.
What Are BerkShares?
BerkShares are a local currency designed for use in the Southern Berkshire region of Massachusetts with planned issue by a local non-profit organization. BerkShares will not, and are not intended to, replace federal currency. Their use will help strengthen the regional economy, favoring small locally owned businesses challenged by giant corporations of the global economy.
Residents of the southern Berkshires will purchase BerkShares at ninety cents on the dollar from one of the Berkshire participating banks. Member merchants will accept BerkShares at full dollar value, thereby offering a ten percent discount incentive to customers for trading locally. The participation of the banking and merchant communities will guarantee wide local circulation of the currency. Merchants will seek local products purchased with BerkShares over those now imported from afar, providing an incentive for the growth of home-based industries and creating opportunities for those underemployed and unemployed to turn latent skills into business ventures. Federal dollars will remain available on deposit to redeem excess BerkShares.
In future year issues, BerkShares will also go into circulation through the making of no-interest loans, further supporting emerging small businesses, and allowing the community to set its own local priorities for lending. Non-profits can purchase BerkShares and then resell at full value to their members retaining the ten percent for their own activities and forging a closer link between the cultural/social service sectors and the business community.
BerkShares Campaign
Through the BerkShares Online Auction and other events, the Schumacher Center is seeking to raise a total of $100,000 for research and first year development of the BerkShare local currency program, a model for citizen action. Entrepreneurial donors to the BerkShares Campaign are helping to create a positive alternative to the problems posed by the distant and unseen manufacturing patterns of a global marketplace.
It will take citizens working in their own communities, region by region, to create the kind of systemic change that will lead to sustainable economic practices-practices that foster ecologically responsible production of goods and a more equitable distribution of wealth. Local currencies are a tool to bring about such change.
The Schumacher Center’s twenty-five years of effective programs in the will ensure the success of BerkShares and of the philanthropic investment. The budget includes funding for detailed documentation of operations in order to facilitate development of local currencies in other regions.
Your participation in the auction will help us reach our goal. Have fun!