The Brixton Pound

Discussion
1

Anyone got any experience with this complimentary currency?

There seems to be evidence that complimentary currencies circulate for 3 times longer in a local community than national currencies.

Could we/should we accept memberships or other payments this way? Are there any places we could spend them as an organisation? Olly’s Fish Bar doesn’t quite fit the bill. So it seems unlikely at the moment. But worth considering if we can be involved in some way,

Businesses in Lambeth can pay their business rates in B£, but we’re in Southwark.

A major sticking point is that we would find it hard to spend it. Most of our local spend is Costcutter and Herne Hill Builders Merchants, (with members spending in Pizza Pelone and…Canopy. None of these are in the scheme at the moment.

2

First, I love the idea, however I am not sure it’s right for us…

  1. We can’t collect memberships this way with GoCardless, and the administrative load of collecting cash, converting it to GBP and then updating the membership system is too much admin for us, not to mention members having to obtain BP to pay in the first place.

  2. There aren’t really other payments, I can think of.

  3. As you mention our supply chain doesn’t accept this currency either, not that most of those places are places Makerspace buys things from.

Also our rates are like £150 PA.

I think it’s a nice idea, but in reality it’s not feasible.

3

That’s what I think too, but am putting it out there for us to consider and think about.

There may turn out to be materials we can source locally somewhere down the line.

Even the process of considering that we don’t/can’t buy stuff locally from a non multinational company might be useful.

4

Sounds like a great idea.
If we can get involved somehow that would be great.

The devil might be finding a way in.

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5

Well, we need things like printer paper, toilet roll, cleaning products etc.

If these can be sourced locally from a brixton pound user we could trial that.

6

We’d need to actually collect some though to make this useful. Otherwise we’re just doing a complicated forex for no real benefit to anyone.

7

What what? Don’t understand.

If we buy our supplies from a local firm that definatlt helps them and society.

Is your question about if these schemes work in general or if we can make a difference?

8

We will need a whole bunch of materials for making: laser ply, laser MDF, consumables.

Most materials are to be brought in by individual members though.

Most consumables will be bought online or from Screwfix…

But: let’s look at it: there’s a hardware shop in Brixton that accepts B£, maybe we form a relationship with them?

As I’ve said earlier: it’s useful and interesting to stop and look at where our stuff comes from…and consider what part we play in the local economy.

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9

I think Pete means that someone would have to pay us in B£ for it to make sense.

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10

My point is, if we buy stuff locally (which I agree we should) it makes no real difference if we do it in Brixton pounds or English pounds. That is unless we too are collecting Brixton pounds and have them in hand. If we don’t, we’re just swapping between currencies for the sake of it and that isn’t any help to anyone.

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11

The added benefit though might be that we’re FORCED to be local if we buy into the currency.

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12

There’s about B£100k in the system at the moment. More people who use it the more traders will want to accept it.

13

RE: it being a pain to have membership paid this way. Perhaps if a member wanted to do this they could pay a year in advance, then it would just be a bit of a pain once a year. We’d have B£240 in the bank and could experiment with the system?

14

Hmmmm. See your point.

We Could buy stuff in brixpound.
But not selling stuff.
So it’s a one way street.

Well maybe it’s just a token (pun intended) gesture then. Convert xyz pounds every month to spend on consumables…

…that’s seems ok???

We were going to do the same with a changed debit card. Same thing isn’t it??

15

Well…they have a ‘pay by text’ system so potentially laser cutter time, consumables/components that members use a lot of could be paid this way?

As well as membership.

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16

Cool

17

…token gesture!!!:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:

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18

Re: laser cutting payments, My initial thoughts are this sounds &&&£ing awesome.

No cash lying around.
Easy payment.
Easy clear visible instructions.

The money goes straight into buying local goods.

Great idea.

19

Yeah, but whats the point, they pay a year ahead, we now have B£240 and convert it to GBP…

There’s no where for Makerspace as an organisation to spend B£.

20

My understanding was that members don’t pay for consumables.

I think a conversation about the financial viability of the laser cutter needs to be had going forward, but thats for another place. (I don’t see the point in collecting <£100 in cash)