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I sent for the starter pack from LETSLINK, and it contained very comprehensive information. I got 2 people who were doing a computer course with me to join, and then 2 other friends.
LETS Gwynfryn is so called because I live in a tiny village called Gwynfryn, and I chose Gwynfryn Groats for the currency - I think Noel Edmunds' House Party may have been influential there. About half the systems users live in and around the town of Wrexham, the others living in surrounding villages and countryside, and the area is quite large - at least 100 square miles - and disparate! (not a spelling error!) In fact we need more members within this area so that local groups can start up.
The nearest recorded system was the Wrekin when I started LETS Gwynfryn, and I contacted John and Mandy who came to my house and suggested ways of expanding. here were only 2 other members at that meeting, but we increased to a modest 9 by May of this year. We then decided to have a publicity campaign and got a couple of articles printed in the local papers, and set up an information desk in Wrexham library, where we recruited about 13 members. This also led to a radio broadcast about LETS in Welsh, which a member of the library staff did for us!
John and Mandy kindly came to talk to a public meeting at the end of the week's recruiting in the Library and great enthusiasm was generated. Helen Melvin, who has been running the Dyffryn LETS for about 2 years, attended, and I have subsequently joined her happy band! It is interesting to compare her system with Gwynfryn's - we're different philosophically, geographically, demographically and administratively, but both systems work and so far are solidly sustainable.
There have however been niggly little problems with LETS Gwynfryn. To illustrate what I mean - one of the users arranged for another to come round to clean the cooker. They got on very well. The cooker was duly cleaned, and subsequently the job was paid for in home made cakes. Great, a straight exchange is fine, but no Groats cheques were made out! These users have become firm friends and help each other out, but now ignore the LETSystem! There are also times when work is done for ordinary money alone. In these cases then on Groats cheques are used, the value of trading within the system is nil in these cases, members accounts remain static, and there is the danger that the system becomes merely an introduction agency for willing helpers for the UKP 10 joining fee! I'm still working on this problem.
Other niggles are usually due to the widespread area this system covers - the difficulty of getting people together for social gatherings for instance. I feel this is very important - we need to know and trust other members especially if they are going to do things like baby sitting.
One problem which now seems to have been solved was that there was too much for me to do administratively on my own, so I asked everyone if they could help out, and we now have a core group and the work of admin, directory, newsletter, posting and development of the system are now shared between 5 of us.
The advantages of the system outweigh the hassles by miles. The hundreds of offers and wants in our directory for instance. Members have been paid in Groats for such things as surplus cows milk, surplus fruit & vegetables, baby sitting, ironing, re-roofing a flat roof, de-fencing a garden, other navying in the garden, typing CV's, making cakes, computer tuition, hedge laying, lawn mowing, lifts to work, painting & decorating and repair of video recorders, also for the sale of bedroom furniture, paraffin heaters, materials and jam, organic fruit and veg from the LETS allotment project etc. etc.
As far as development of the system is concerned we are trying to get the local councils to become ordinary members, and in the wider context, Helen Melvin and I have spread the word at the Clwyd County Council Anti Poverty Forum, where useful contacts have been made.
I was delighted when several people at the Wrexham Centre for the disabled joined LETS Gwynfryn - some of these are unsighted, others wheelchair bound, and others quite able bodied, but all regard themselves as talented and skilled enough to offer valuable things to the system - listening skills by a CRUISE trained unsighted lady, alterations and hemming, singing and piano playing for entertainment, to name just a few.
Everyone has needs, and LETS can fill so many gaps. I find that most people who are LETS members are kind and giving, but I am especially pleased that we have been able to help disadvantaged people in our local community.
Jane Rhys-Roberts
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