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In April '93, we had a phone call from a friend at NIF (Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation) to say that there was a community initiatives seminar being held in two days time at Telford and one of the speakers was to be Liz Shephard, LETS-LINK U.K. co-ordinator!
Trouble was it was full, so what we though we would do, you know being part of famous old Lightmoor New Community and all that stuff, was to ask Liz if she would care to come and look round for an hour and talk about Lets at the same time. We did and all credit to Liz, she said yes, I was to pick Liz up after lunch and she was to come to Lightmoor for about an hour. Well off I went, quite excited by the fact that, as often happens when you really want the information, it comes your way at a rate of knots!
That rate of knots suddenly changed to speed of light, as not only did I get Liz Shephard, but I also got this bloke with a pony-tail who sounded like Sean Connery, his name it turned out was Michael Linton.
Back at Lightmoor a group of about 8 of our neighbours were waiting to hear what Liz had to say. It turned out however that Liz did'nt get much of a word in!
Michael Linton spoke for about 40 minutes, asking us questions as well as answering ours, with much gusto and not a little of that dry wit!...well, he had been doing the routine for 10 years. That was the first time I heard that the LETS material being put out by Michael Lintons' company, "Landsman Community Services", was, in his own now famous words, "Copy-right O.K.?, so copy....right!"
Suddenly we were in love with LETS, the way we had just heard it was so inspiring. At last here was total empowerment, no committees, no constitutions, no management groups, no consultants, just people getting together and getting on with it.
The "It", however was yet to come. We immediately consulted with our neighbours and though some were a bit dubious, Mandy & myself were sold, and on the basis that a few of us would do the work required, we invited people to join the first LETSystem for Telford: "Wrekin-LETS", which was officially launched at a local town hall on June 22nd with the help of our since good friend, Angus Soutar who travelled all the way from Bedford to speak to the hordes of people who turned out!, well nearly 50, a small horde.
The Lightmoor players (6 neighbours from Lightmoor with no experience but plenty of enthusiasm and a lust for fun) explained the basic principles of LETS with a short play, which worked well.
This first attempt at setting up a LETSystem was done with complete faith and little know how. We simply followed the instructions on the packet of the "LETS-LINK" info-pack and off we went.
In July '93 we organised a memorable two day LETS conference here at Lightmoor, which was attended by 23 delegates from the U.K., and two from Canada, one of whom was that bloke with the funny accent and the pony tail again.
It was memorable for lots of reasons, one of them being the inception of "Islets" which was the first national Local Exchange Trading System.
Islets was initially set up to assist with development costs. Delegates at this conference were able to pay for food and accomodation totalling 400 "echos" (the Islets currency is the Echo, "shout & it comes back to you" & = £1 ) proving that you can walk your talk with LETS!
We got our first earful of multiLETS that weekend and we had to have it twice just to make sure that everyone was properly confused! somehow though, it didn't matter "Just say yes and have fun" seemed to be the thing to say.
For the Monday Evening we had arranged a public meeting at a nearby theatre for Michael to speak at and it still stands out as one of the most inspiring two hours of our LETS career, shame we didn't video it!
In August '93 we went to a two day conference for business "open for business" and "LETS meet north east" at Calderdale Yorkshire organised magnificently by Nigel Leach.
As we knew multiLETS was to be expounded on we took a camera and videoed the whole thing. This video will be be made available shortly together with the "LETS design manual" & the "m-LETS 1r3" software.
Having that video enabled us to fast forward & rewind until we were happy we had a complete understanding of multiLETS.
This led us to change Wrekin-LETS to the first multiLETSystem in the U.K., which means that our account holders now have the choice of participating in as many systems within Wrekin-LETS as they choose for just one fee using one I.D.
We now have all kinds of services from building to baysitting, as well as accountants, phisiotherapy, and a homoeopathy practice. Organic food as part of a bag system and a lot of good will from everyone involved.
The growth of our LETSystem seems to be organic and gradual it looks after itself with a little help from those who enjoy doing so, they also enjoy getting paid "wrekins" for doing it. Total trading is approaching 15,000 Wrekins, see it does work! Trading is getting stronger month by month and there are just over 100 accounts.
We also help with "Planet-LETS" which is a LETSystem for a good newspaper and has account holders in Europe and the U.K.
In order to share the wealth of information now being gathered as well as the fun & encouragement, respect & dignity, that we know LETS can bring to all, we welcome your participation in "LETS-CONNECT".
We believe LETS is the way forward to empowerment through providing our own local economies in the 21st century. We have the LETS design manual for you if you want to find out if you are doing it better than us or not.
We also have software for all of you with computerised accounting systems. Again see for yourself if your existing package does what m-LETS-1r3 does for us.
Regardless of what your politics are, you could take a view of a wider picture of what I can only describe as "The most powerful social, economic tool of our liftime" and an appropriate provider of spirit to enter a new millenium ........"A time of peace and happiness".
with love John & Mandy (the swamis)
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