QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

How do I register?

Since the LOVE:Bank is a local exchange, registration is open only to residents, businesses and organizations in the city of Lake Oswego, Oregon, and surrounding areas. Please check this map: Lake Oswego and Environs: Cities & Zipcodes
 
You must be 18 years or older to register for a LOVE:Bank account. You agree to be solely responsible for all transactions performed through your LOVE:Bank account, and bound by our Registration Agreement Terms.
 
If you meet these conditions and agree to these Terms, you may apply for a LOVE:Bank Account by completing our LOVE:Bank Online Registration Form.

Registration validation & activation is a 3-step process:

1. First we will send you a LOVE:Bank validation email to the email address that you have provided on the Registration Form. The email will confirm your registration and ask you to click the enclosed link to complete your email validation. Please check your Junk mail folder if you do not receive this LOVE:Bank email validation shortly after submitting the Registration Form.
    
2. Click the link in the validation email. When your email is validated, you will receive a Welcome email and we will review your registration information to confirm eligibility.
    
3. Once we have successfully completed the review, we will activate your new LOVE:Bank account and send you a Congratulations email.

What does L O V E stand for?

Lake Oswego Value Exchange – a new way to exchange our offers and wants (time, skills, goods and services) to meet our local needs with local resources. LOVE stands for strengthening our community bonds by building social capital, interdependence and reciprocity.

Note: the following answers may include Wikipedia citations. For more information, please click the -Wikipedia link at the end of an answer to go to the full article.
 
Social capital refers to the richness of connections between us and the benefits we all gain by participating in complementary circles of mutual support. -Wikipedia
 
Complementary means completing each other – exchanging what we have to offer for what we need – to build independence through inter-dependence.
 
Complementary currency is the medium of exchange that we use to complete our transactions when money is insufficient to meet our mutual needs. -Wikipedia
 
Mutual Credit and Time Banking are complementary currencies we exchange through the LOVE:Bank to support our exchanges of offers and wants.
 

What is Mutual Credit?

A type of complementary currency in which the currency used in a transaction can be created at the time of the transaction. Typically this involves keeping track of each individual's credit or debit balance. Although the effect is like a loan, no interest is charged, and since mutual credit allows for trading and canceling balances with others, debts can be paid off indirectly. One economic advantage of mutual credit is that the currency supply is self-regulating--the money supply expands and contracts as needed, without any managing authority. -Wikipedia
 

What is Time Banking?

A reciprocal service exchange which uses units of time as currency. A Time Bank, also known as a Service Exchange, is a community which practices time banking. Essentially, the "time" one spends providing these types of community services earns "time" that one can spend to receive services. Communities therefore use time banking as a tool to forge stronger intra-community connections, a process known as "building social capital". -Wikipedia
 

What is unique about the LOVE:Bank?

The LOVE:Bank provides a unique combination of Mutual Credit and Time Banking to maximize the social benefits of both methods, including:

• offering Friends (residents, businesses and organizations) the means to exchange without the need to spend scarce dollars,
• giving elders, students and un(der) employed people gainful opportunities to participate in community building exchanges,
• offering people a choice of which type of complementary currency to use in their transactions,
• expanding our local economy to enhance our mutual sustainability and quality of life.

What is Free LOVE?

A "proof of concept" to demonstrate how community-based complementary currency, free of compound interest, can provide free LOVE:Bank Accounts, free advertisement space and free exchange of offers and wants to:

• stimulate our local economy,
• satisfy unmet needs with surplus capacity,
• be a source of abundance rather than scarcity,
• contribute to the long-term sustainability of Lake Oswego.

Since our objective is to encourage the maximum use and benefits of complementary currency in our community, we do not wish to discourage people from participating by charging fees for the services provided. For complementary currency exchanges to flow smoothly there must always be some people taking a debit for others to receive a credit. In other words, individual account balances will swing negative and positive as we buy and sell. It is OK – indeed necessary – to have a negative balance sometimes.
 
Complementary currency serves as a potent medium of exchange – but a poor store of value. We encourage the smooth flow of exchanges by discouraging currency hoarding. This is accomplished by Friends agreeing to a tithe of 0.2% per week (10% per year) on their average positive and negative Mutual Credit Account balances. For example, if your average balance for the past week was +L$100.00 or -L$100.00, the tithe would be L$0.20. There is no tithe on your Time Account balance. Tithes help CareWheels to fulfill its mission, cover the costs of administering and operating LOVE and discourage currency hoarding. They may be tax deductible.
 
A person who is actively engaged in giving and receiving will have modest balances and commensurately small tithes. In this way, positive and negative currency hoarding is discouraged. This cost of hoarding currency is called demurrage. -Wikipedia

How does the LOVE:Bank help to fulfill CareWheels' mission?

By implementing the lessons learned in our first decade of service, CareWheels is:

• Developing the tools needed to connect people into a network of interdependence, by empowering them to co-produce and incentivising their volunteerism.
• Deploying a free Internet-enabled Mutual Credit and Time Bank system, employing the principles of reciprocity, local sustainability, and the Golden Rule.

 
These activities help generate social capital - increasing the number and quality of relationships - which promotes our health and well-being by strengthening community, reducing isolation, increasing opportunities for meaningful, rewarding work and long-term sustainability.