womanshare

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How it works

On joining, each member makes a list of what she has to share - skills, interests, resources - and what she needs or wants. These lists are provided to all members and are the basis of a directory of Womanshare offerings.

When a member wants a service, she consults the directory and finds a person who offers it. The provider then earns a credit that she can spend with anyone in the group. The recipient is debited the same amount, a debt that is cleared when she provides a service to someone else.

Womanshare tracks these hours and issues computerized reports so people can see where they stand. All work time, no matter what the exchange, is valued equally - hour for hour. We are an economic democracy!

For Example:

Joan needs to have bookshelves built. She calls Anna, who listed carpentry among her skills. Anna does the work and later uses her credits to learn bread-baking from Lynn. Now Lynn has credits she can use, and so it goes.

"My favorite experience from Womanshare happened when I got an opportunity to go on a free cruise.  Everyone dressed me in casual wear, beach wear, the long skirts - all the cruise clothes I didn't have.

I got my windows washed through Womanshare - that was almost as exciting as the cruise."

Diana McCourt in an interview, Co-op America Quarterly, Summer 1994

"My most frequent complaint as a working wife, mother, daughter of aging parents and parent-in-law, not to mention friend to a beloved circle of close buddies, is about the lack of timeÉ But I have found a solution: I now have 80 women of all ages with a splendid panoply of skills to call upon at any time to help with tasks ranging from repotting my plants to cooking my meals and ferrying my elderly relatives to their medical appointmentsÉ. My secret is an organization called Womanshare."

A Busy Woman's Wish Come True from the column 'Feelings' by Myrna Lewis, New Choices , November, 1993