Timebanking in the Spring

Spring is a particularly good time to participate in the time bank. Between spring cleaning, starting up the garden, and getting outside more as the weather warms up, there are many opportunities to help our community and ask for help ourselves. My yard is a mess after the winter, and I will certainly be asking for help myself.

Dawn

Transaction Blitz

When the new software goes live April 1st, we are going to ask everyone to go push transactions. Are there projects you've been wanting to do? This is the time to ask for help. And when you are asking for help, look around to see what requests you can help with. Spring cleanups, yard work, baking food projects... all the things the time bank is good at. This will give us all a chance to practice with the new software.

Our goal for this spring is to get to 60% engagement. I would like to see 60% of our members filing transactions. This means giving and receiving favors from our neighbors, but this also means recording these favors as transactions. Sometimes we focus on our unique talents when we think about the skills we have to offer, but we often help our friends out in ways big and small without stopping to think about it. 

60% might seem like a big goal, but last year we had 30% engagement. 167 out of 550 members recorded a transaction last year. So 60% is a big goal, but not a crazy one.

The individual record last year was held by Cameron Mack with 57 transactions. Those of you who know Cameron know he is always quick to help, but he is also meticulous about following through to record his transactions. We have other active volunteers who don't appear on our top lists because they aren't as careful about recording their work. 

This blitz is definitely about service, but it's also about the process of recording our transactions, about giving and receiving credit for our community-building work with each other. I think 60% engagement is an achievable goal.

We will have prizes and recognition for the blitz at our summer picnic. We will have time bank t-shirts for sure, and other cool things we are still working on.

You'll hear more about this from us after the software updates on April 1st.

One of the flagships of the Kent Community Time Bank has been our monthly potluck held on the second Friday of the month. It's a place where we can get together regularly to share food and get to know each other in a social setting. We find that sharing services works better when we know each other personally. We want to understand how we can structure the potluck to best serve the community's needs. To that end, we ask you to fill out this confidential survey to tell us what would make you more likely to attend. Thanks for sharing your feedback!

KCTB potluck survey

The potluck committee, under Wendy DiAlesandro's leadership, is one of the most successful subgroups in the Time Bank. Lately, some of the most active members have been pulled away by life activities, so it could use more help. If you've been looking for a way to get more involved, this is a great way to do it. It's a friendly group of people and a great way to earn time credits. Some specific tasks that help include setting up beforehand, cleaning up afterwards, committing to cooking a main dish, or helping us think of ways to improve attendance. If you are interested, please reply to the newsletter, and we'll get you in touch with the right people.

Regular Events

We have two standard monthly events in addition to extra activities on an ad hoc basis through the year. Every month, we have a community pot luck usually on the second Friday of the month where we bring food to share with each other. We also have a craft night usually on the last Thursday where we work together, laugh, and share our skills. We find that more people respond to requests when they know each other, so come out to these events and socialize with fellow timebankers.

If you have yet to formally join our community, we also have regular orientations. While many events are open to non-members, you have to attend an orientation and formally join in order to participate in exchanging services through timebanking itself. So if you haven't joined us yet, please do so soon! Our regular orientations are going to change from a monthly to bi-monthly schedule.

Monthly Pot Luck Dinner

Friday, April 10 at 6:00 pm at the Fred Fuller Shelter House at 600 Middlebury Road.  

Theme to be determined

Monthly Craft Night

Thursday, March 26, 2026, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Standing Rock Cultural Arts at 300 N. Water Street, Suite H., Kent, OH 

Join us for a fun low-pressure evening of working on projects and socializing.

Orientation

We are now moving to a bi-monthly schedule to make better use of our volunteers' time. The next one will be April 12th at the Kent Free Library. 

Annual Plant Swap

I am delighted we will continue with our tradition of a plant swap on Saturday, May 16th at the Fred Fuller overflow parking lot. The rain date will be on May 30th. Please mark your calendars.

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Kent Community TimeBank 

(A TimeBank hub under The Crooked River Alliance of TimeBanks - 501(c)(3))

MAIL TO: 1675 E. Main Street, Suite 177, Kent OH 44240

330-474-9492

WWW.KCTB.ORG

 kctbinc@gmail.com