Gems R Us - No matter where you go, Gems are starting to shine every where!

Nearly 3 months ago the Skills Exchange was launched in West Bridgford and is now changing lives all over town.

This scheme has proven to not only to provide brilliant services and skills, it has brought 30 people together in a very short span of time. Most of these people started off by saying that they had nothing to give.... now, this group is thriving all because people have been in the position to appreciate eachothers gifts.

The set up is very simple and can be copied all over the world. No real funding is needed, no administration, no management team in sight.

You will need the following:

Access to a computer
Open a google email account
Someone to set up a shared Google document, this is a spreadsheet where invited members can input and update their skills and services, invite the members and hand out the tokens;
A quantity of tokens (I obtained 1000 for £10)
Before you launch find around 15-20 people with a variety of complimentary skills.

The closer the people live to each other the easier it will become.
Maximum number 80 you will then see that the group is getting too big and just like with a colony of bees the hive will split and start again.

Individual members organise get togethers, varying in size from just a handful of people for a cuppa, to bigger meetings to introduce the new members to the group. Yesterday we were invited by a family to come and share a Mexican evening with them. 10 people were present, just right to be able to speak with each an everyone of them and start trading.

The trading is simple; 1 GEM (a token) for every hour given.

If you like to see the sort of things that we have been up to have a look at the website:
www.skillsexchange.blogspot.com you can access everything other than the google document as this is a members only page.

Enjoy!
Karina