A 700-member time bank in Central Vermont

The Onion River Exchange is a 700-member time bank where members exchange goods and services instead of money. Exchanges are not directly reciprocal, meaning that one hour spent baking, cleaning, doing plumbing work or driving someone to the airport, can be exchanged for an hour of service provided by any other member of the time bank. In this video, we meet different members and learn about how they use the services of other members, and how they give back of their own time.

According to Wikipedia, time banks are active in 26 countries around the world, with over 275 in the US and almost as many in the UK.

For more information on the Onion River Exchange, please visit orexchange.org. You can also visit http://community.timebanks.org/ for a non-exhaustive list of time banks in Canada in the Unites States.

Time banking is also know as LETS (Local Exchange Trading System), and sometimes used in conjunction with local currencies which also help promote local economies.

In France time banks are often known as SEL (système d’échange local). The Selidaire.org website is a great resource for information about SEL, including a directory of organizations in France, Quebec and elsewhere in the world.