23/10/2013 13:25:00
Present: Marijke, Dymph, Stella, Christiane, Timo, Esther, Berto, Oscar,
Willem, Carin, Joseph, Bart, Paul, Tim
Intro: Nieuw Economisch Denken
- Berto: practical clarity on alternatives
- Christiane: beginning to think about “value exchange”, rather than
“money”
- Dymph: “give and receive” should be the point. You do what you can do
well and what you like.
- Timo: think deeper about “alternative economy”. What does it really mean
- Esther: werkplaats in Wiite Vrouwveld: “Werkhuis” wants to try different
ideas. Wants to make ideas concrete.
Marleen: for her its quite simple. If you give you will receive.
- Oscar: interested in structure behind it.
Stella: new value system: money is only one kind of value.
- Carin: partner of Joseph. Has dream of a better world: more equality. One
of her clients bought her a book for € 0.50 that fit very well with her
interest, after she gave her a price reduction as she could not afford the full
price.
- Joseph: economist, has much experience and interest in (alternative)
currency systems. Has worked with Coin. Money is a solution for something,
so you need to know what it should be the solution for! You need to know
the purpose/the cause: what you believe in. Bank money is created through
debt. Need to go to a world of plural currencies.
- Willem: had diverse businesses. The human factor has been left behind in
the economy. We have a wrong connection to “mother earth”. Money is one
cause of our illness. We have to break through a wrong way of thinking.
We’ve been working on this for a while, now is the time to take next steps.
- Bart: there’s many volunteer-based activities at Landhuis (etc) but to
make it more powerful we need a more effective system. Doesn’t expect
solutions, but a beginning of a further spread.
- Tim: lives in Mandril and works at Maastricht University Green Office, as
research coordinator, and is interested to connect these kind of initiatives
with student research.
- Marijke: not sure how to really make a larger impact with small scale
currencies.
- First need to know what kind of ‘huishuiding’ we want, and what kind of
huis (which people are involved)
Brixton Pound works well, but why doesn’t it spread more?
Slow growth, like natural growth. Continous growth is like cancer.
A system for balanced and stable relationships only grows when there’s a
growth impulse.
What we can expect:
 new way of thinking is base of new economy.
 Forming sub-groups to try things out
 core question: why is a new way of thinking important and how can
it be put into practice?
A new core understanding (kern) of what value means is needed.
We should not talk too much about what’s wrong with the current system,
we should focus on what we want, desire and like to create. Focus on the
connection.
→ if we’re in a comparison thinking, we’ll always lose.
Basic pattern of transition:
 1: what is my passion, how does it show
 2: enter into dialogue (to reach shared understand) Be
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conscientious about the image of the message that is
communicated.
3: reconsider the essence of ‘Eigendom’, ownership and property
4: look at how, where and what are the forms of organized and who
controls what.
5: What are our value propositions and how is value created
6: what does ‘mother earth’ teach me and how do I learn from it
group session results:
1st Group:
- explore new possibilities, create a space for and experiment with
possibilities. Personal factor: for some people its easy to be active, but not
everyone is so flexible, so create a possibility for these people to be involved
too.
- Create a basic structure (like ‘vrijplaatsen’) that can be made more
complex.
- Needs to foster more community feeling of togetherness, mutual support.
- Think about the analogy of the differences of rules and internal logic
between family and public life as an example how the domains of the old
and new economy should be separated (they can work in parallel spaces)
2nd group:
- different kind of needs need to be respected (basic needs, togetherness,
attention, respect, own worth…)
- find out how to integrate normal and alternative money. Should they be
able to be exchanged and if so how should it work
 example of Amsterdam Noord: Albert Hein accepts alternative
currency (Makkies) for ten % of the shopping bill.
3th group:
- enable people to use their passions to further your self-esteem. So people
are recognized for their value, being members of a group. Compassion,
empathy. Self-development (rijpen)
- Various remarks
 landhuis project? (no, its more than Landhuis: it’s about the people
of Maastricht)
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A new economic system needs to include the creation of matching
mechanisms and brokering system: for supply/demand of different
forms of (skill/talent) contributions by participants. For it to spread
and further develop we need to create a formal system for it.
An overall (umbrella) system can result from integrating the
successes and learning of different experiments. Think of the Visa
development (Dee Hock)
3 crystallization points with role model function
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Buurt tv: 4-5 vrijwilligers ..? vrijwilligers zijn niet vrijblijvend..? a
project to allow people to participate.. Needs further structured
development.
Different kind of values, different kind of needs need to be included
Werkgemeenschap: has existed before, for instance in monasteries
(kloosters)
SamenTuin.. includes presence and hence value of people with
handicap
Proposal approved: Organize this process in 2 lines:
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Line 1: “adoptieprojecten”: 4 groups who try it out, support each
other. Next month we meet again to present experiences of
different initiatives/projects so they may further develop. The
projects are:
o Landhuis
o Buurt TV
o werkgebouw
o CFC (Cultural Freezone Collective)
* Buurttv and Werkgebouw will merge together for now.
* Tim and Bart will inform and ask members of CFC to coöperate in this
project.
 Line 2: zoektocht naar mogelijkheden: verdiepingsavonden.. Need
to mutually educate each other about theoretical framework, as
well as looking at various possibilities that may be overlooked by
people involved in trying things.
We have to get away from old (ruil) thinking. Look at money more as a
transaction medium or as ‘oil’ to smooth the exchange processes.
How to trigger people to do things from within, or rather, let them feel to be
invited to participate.
Closing Round:
- Dymph: Wants to meet up soon with the Landhuis group.
- Carin: wants to present about sociocratische circle method the next time.
- Joseph: U theory: a future wishing to emerge. We start doing and slowly
we find out what we are doing. Have trust in the process of emergence.
- Timo: we are all still strongly in the money thinking. It's difficult but
necessary to change our thinking of economy and self-development. To get
some theoretical background ( http://www.credt.eu/)
- Berto: the next meeting should be facilitated/prepared better. Bart: it was
just a first call to see what the ideas/motivations are. Make it as a public
process that people can feel invited to. Berto: but maybe we should keep it
on core group level for now: don’t spread too fast. Bart: but just keeping a
closed group wont work either. Josesph: need to keep it an open movement
to walk our talk.
- Tim: let him know about questions, related to this process, that could be
interesting for students to research about.
- Timo: radio documentation
- Stela: Great start. Nice to see the process develop further.
Next Meeting: 28 Nov
- Home work for Winkelhuis; Buurt TV; Landhuis and CFC Vrijplaatsen
present their current status so we do better understand:
1. What is current situation (the IST ) status of project/initiative
2. How does it work, function?
3. What is it that we want, would like?
4. What are the barriers and obstacles we face or are struggling with
5. What is missing?