Warrandyte Chat » RakeLETs

First Community Rakeathon in Kruses Road

admin — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:58:14 +0000

Welcome Matthew and Eleanor

Kruses Road Community Fireguard Group held its first neighbourhood Rakeathon today to welcome new residents to the community.

With 20 members of the group plus Mathew’s parents Nick and Barbara and about 13 of their friends all helping out the atmosphere was terrific.

Works got off to a prompt start at 10am and piles of leaves and fallen timbers were rapidly stacking up before going into a 4” chipper Matt had hired.

A short break around 11:45 for tea and cakes was very welcome before getting straight back into it.

Elle and Barbara were very busy in the kitchen preparing a magnificent lunch at 2:00 pm with Nick manning the barbie.

A change of shift at the same time meant that momentum was kept going and many of us pressed on through to 4:30pm leaving the family with some final tidying up.

For a first time event we must be absolutely chuffed that it went so well. It was not without opportunities to learn for the next time but all agreed that working together was a great motivator, fun and good for the community as a whole.

Clearing our properties and the Victorian Government

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:18:36 +0000

Thanks to Jim Child’s Council Watch for posting these items:

Brumby to give owners right to clear bush property an article in the Herald Sun on 21/08/09

Click here to see PowerPoint presentation

the presentation which identifies Warrandyte and North Warrandyte as “The highest risk areas for this fire season“

North Warrandyte RakeLET’s

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:37:04 +0000

We are looking forward to a productive community activity this Sunday with some fun thrown in.

Have a look at all the details on the NW RakeLETs page

In preparation for the event I have subscribed to the Community Exchange System. Everybody active on the day will be able to register their contribution. I have chosen the ‘monetary unit’ to be the North Warrandyte Rake, where 15 minutes of labour earns 1 Rake. Other service exchange rates can be ‘negotiated’ around this base rate.

It is possible to exchange your hard earned Rakes with other schemes!

Site now available for registration http://www.community-exchange.org/docs/join2.asp

Select Your Country ‘Australia’

Select Join Exchange: ‘North Warrandyte’

Making a Community Rakethon work?

admin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:16:23 +0000

Introduction

I have been talking to some of you regarding the suggestion made by Troy at the meeting in April to organise a community “Rakeathon”. We agreed that:

It sounded like a good idea, helping to
- reduce the fuel load in the immediate vicinity
- build the community
- getting the job done more efficiency
- have a bit of fun – and an excuse for a party at the end of the labours
But the suggestion posed some problems
- how do we decide who gets the help?
- how do we get sufficient momentum to make it happen and make it sustainable?
- how do you make it as fair as possible for those that are involved?
- what is in it for me as an individual?
- what if my block is clear already? Chris and I have spent about 20 hours recently doing a major clear-up

Proposed Approach

Who?

I am aware of two households changing in the next month. How about we welcome the new residents with an offer to help them clear/rake their blocks? It would certainly assist in getting them integrated as quickly as possible.

Others could also ask for help from the group in clearing/raking as required.

Accounting and Repayment?

In my opinion, a Rakeathon would work if organised between a handful of adjoining blocks but would fail if we attempted to instigate it across the whole of our fireguard group, given that it would take a great deal of altruism. However, maybe there is a way that we can do this in a way which is both equitable and fair?

I was looking for a method similar to ‘baby-sitting circles’ and came across the LETS scheme which provides a standard accounting method which has been implemented in thousands of locations globally. Did you know there are LETS schemes working in our area? In Diamond Valley and in Warranwood both of these schemes require a joining fee and an annual membership.

We could join into one of these schemes, opening a host of services for us to access, or we can create our own local scheme focus sing on our very local community. Since, the web based accounting system necessary to manage one of these schemes is freely available through the Community Exchange Program we could set one up for our area and not require people to pay fees.

I feel the LETS approach resolves the problems listed above:

Anyone can ask for help at any time – the request is met as soon as a number of people agree to do the work
By exchanging alternative services it creates a momentum – you can trade your points for anything that is available in the group eg. babysitting, animal care etc. it doesn’t have to be raking
The work you do for ‘the community’ is recognised by the community and you can ask for repayment in many forms

Please contact me if you are interested in doing this