Growing up in my hometown, Madison, WI, I participated in a local currency system, called Madison Hours. To sign-up, you submitted your "offers" (what services, skills, or items you had) and your "requests" (what services, skills, or items you needed) to Madison HOURS, and in return they started you off with three "Hours" (the name of the currency), which was worth roughly one hour of work.
Your offers and requests were then published monthly in a free newspaper (and are now online) with everyone else's (along with contact info), and, voila!, a system was set up for the sharing and trading of a community's skills, services, and items. (As a side note, Madison Hours allowed me to gain my first business experience as a computer trouble-shooter and consultant for local residents and businesses.)
Madison Hours was based on Ithaca Hours, and there are many variants of these local trading systems. One of the most widespread is the Local Exchange Trading System (or LETS), which allows for the exchange of services, skills, and items without the need for printed currency, and has been set up in hundreds of communities in Canada and the UK, among other countries.
...Wouldn't it be neat if we had an exchange and trading system for the Richmond area?
Thanks for suggesting this,
Thanks for suggesting this, Ben! It looks like you've already seen a related submitted idea, Launch the Wayne County Time Bank, which is a local currency/exchange already in progress here. If you feel like it's still good to have this broader idea out there, that's great, or if you think we should combine these into a single entry, let me know and we can do that too.