Frequently Asked Questions
- What can Time Banking do for me?
- Why should I care and what is so special about Time Banking?
- What services can I buy with Time Dollars and what can I do to earn Time Dollars?
- What if I don't have time for volunteering? Isn't this just one more thing that's going to eat up my extra time?
- How exactly does it work?
- Why is everyone's time given the same value?
- Isn't Time Banking like bartering?
- Can you buy or sell things with Time Dollars?
- Who runs the Time Bank?
- How do members connect to each other?
- How do we keep track of the exchanges?
- Can social service agencies use Time Banking to deliver services for less?
- What if someone falsely bills me?
- Can people cheat?
- What happens if you go into debt?
What can Time Banking do for me?
Time Banking does many things for different people. Here is a short list of some ways people have used Time Banking to achieve their goals:
- Neighborhood renewal
- Community safety
- Health improvement
- Mutual support for single parent families
- Peer self-help, especially young people
- Involving older people as active citizens
- Integrating people with physical and learning disabilities
- Respite for caregivers
- Intergenerational understanding
- Community colleges
- Residents participation
- Environmental clean ups
- Rehabilitation of substance abusers
If you like to volunteer and give time to your community, Time Banking is a way to get something back in exchange for your time. If you'd like to join our Time Bank, click here.
If you want to build a network of support within your neighborhood or community, Time Banking can help you do exactly that. Instead of paying professionals to look after your children, care for your aging parents, and do the work that family and neighbors used to do for one another, the members of your Time Bank can do those things for each other. Time Banking creates connections through sharing skills. To find out more about how Time Banks help to build community, read about our Core Values and browse through the pages of Where Do I Start?.
If you are a social services professional and/or an individual committed to social change and social justice, Time Banking can help you involve the groups you are working with and give them a way to give back to each other and shape the outcome of their program.
Why should I care and what is so special about Time Banking?
Many folks are looking up from their busy lives and wondering if something essential hasn’t gone missing. Is the nuclear family enough to feel fully alive?
Some of us can remember a time when family members lived close by each other and we knew most of the people living in our neighborhoods. Some of us have only heard about it.
Helping each other out was a given, something we did for each other every day. From watching someone’s kids for a few hours, dropping off meals for a sickly neighbor to potluck suppers and barn raisings, communities were full of exchanges and mutually supportive networks of family and friends.
Few people would disagree that times have changed, that these networks are gradually disappearing and few of us have family members nearby or neighbors we know well enough to turn to for support. There are so many things we do that would be more efficient, fun, and meaningful when shared.
Feel free to browse our site and find out how you can get started sharing with others and creating your own networks of support.
What services can I buy with Time Dollars and what can I do to earn Time Dollars?
The list of possibilities is endless.
From walking a neighbor's dog, oiling a squeaky door, raking leaves, stuffing envelopes, braiding hair, cooking meals, giving music lessons, running errands to lending professional advice, everyone in a Time Bank has a valuable skill to share. Please visit the Offers & Requests page to see more examples of what you can do to earn Time Dollars.
What if I don't have time for volunteering? Isn't this just one more thing that's going to eat up my extra time?
Not unless you want to give extra time!
Many of the services people exchange in a Time Bank are the types of things they are already doing every day. For example, those of us who have children are already cooking for them, driving them to activities, and helping them with their schoolwork—among other things. Cooking an extra portion of food for someone down the street who is housebound, picking up your neighbor's kids on the way to soccer practice, or helping the child down the street with his homework don't add work to your day. Or, if you have a dog and take it for a walk every day, why not pick up your neighbor's dog along the way?
For professionals like doctors, lawyers and business people, Time Banking is a way to give back to your community without having to go someplace else on someone else's schedule. For example, you can just set aside 10% of your appointment calendar for Time Bank members.
Even better, Time Banking helps you gain extra time because down the road, you can spend the Time Dollars you've earned and have someone else do something for you that you can't fit into your schedule or simply don't know how to do!
When you spend an hour to do something for an individual or group, you earn a Time Hour. Then you can use that Time Hour to buy an hour of a neighbor’s time or engage in a group activity offered by a neighbor.
Why is everyone's time given the same value?
At first glance, it seems crazy that someone is paid the same for web design and pulling weeds, but this turns out to be the core of what makes Time Dollars really work. In the “Yin” or “caring economy” everyone’s time is valued equally – just like it is inside a family. You wouldn't ask your cousin to give you two hours of dog walking for every hour you spend fixing his computer.
Putting a price on people's time separates us by making some people more valuable than others. Time Dollars excel in building relationships because they place an equal value on everyone’s time.
Time Dollars aren’t meant to replace standard dollars. They are designed to counterbalance the market economy where people may have invested in special training to make their time more valuable. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just taken over too much of our experience of the world. Almost everything is monetized. We are building a parallel economy where people take care of each other as families. We build extended families by geography, not bloodlines.
Isn't Time Banking like bartering?
It is, but the big difference is that you don’t have to pay back the person who does you a favor. It is a “pay-it-forward” system. That’s one of the reasons why people find it so much easier to do things for others in a Time Banking system. You don’t have to figure out what to give back to the person who helped you. You can choose how to pay it forward doing what you want, when you want. There are also NO TAX LIABILITIES with Time Banking.
Time Banking goes back almost 20 years, and is flourishing in 22 countries and on 6 continents. Our local SOTB was initiated by Will Wilkinson and Bram Larrick in the spring of 2010. If you would like to participate in the advisory team, or in some other way, please contact us.
How do members connect to each other?
Members connect to each other online via our Time Bank web site. We have an easy to use, searchable, Web interface.
How do we keep track of the exchanges?
Our Time Bank uses specialized web software, all you have to do is record the exchange and the number of hours, and it will be credited to the account of the person who provided the services.
Can social service agencies use Time Banking to deliver services for less?
Certainly you can, and many agencies have found that Time Banking does help reduce costs because clients become active participants and service providers for one another. But, even more importantly, the reciprocity that is naturally built into our Time Bank helps clients to become more engaged in directing and creating positive outcomes for themselves and all the members of the program. This sense of ownership and empowerment is often of far greater value to an agency than delivering services at a lower cost because their clients are creating their own path toward meeting the program's goals.
What if someone falsely bills me?
No one can bill you for your Time Hours. You are in control of what you spend your Time Hours on. If you ever provide services and Time Hours are not promptly credited to your account, all you have to do is contact your Coordinator who will straighten things out.
Theoretically, it is possible that someone could cheat headquarters can't remember anyone doing it. There is always a corresponding credit and debit for the same amount in your account and someone else's account for every transaction. No one is anonymous in a Time Bank, so people don't cheat.
What happens if you go into debt?
Having a negative balance is not a big deal in a Time Hour account. After all, people have to receive in order for others to give
Our Time Bank software doesn't allow a negative balance (it may in th near future) so if you need to spend some Time Hours you don't have, simply contact the coordinator to borrow some hours.