Ithaca Hours, the local currency system, holds its annual membership meeting on Wednesday, November 14, with a special offer.
Come to the meeting to start or renew a membership and receive double the annual membership benefit.
Ithaca Hours issues a local money for Ithacans to earn, and to spend with other people and at participating businesses.
Annual membership costs $10, or one Ithaca Hour. Members normally receive an annual benefit of two Ithaca Hours, worth twenty dollars. But sign up at the annual meeting and receive four Hours, worth forty dollars.
The Hours organization offers the premium to encourage people to come and meet one another, and to learn about the system. (The organization itself benefits from enrolling a lot of people in one shot, and from disbursing benefits in person, rather than by mail.)
Free desserts are provided by member businesses such as ABC Cafe, Ithaca Bakery, Maxie's, Juna's Cafe, GreenStar Coop, Eve's Cidery, Macro Mama's, and others.
Ithaca Hours started in 1991 and has about 600 members. There are over 10,000 Hours in circualtion in Tompkins County, worth over $100,000 U.S.
The currency is known around the world. Most recently it was mentioned in an article in the New York Times as one of Ithaca's most positive community features.
The Hours organization was visited this week by community organizers from New Orleans hoping to aid post-Katrina restoration by building a community currency system modeled on Hours.
Hours' annual meeting is 6 - 7:30 pm, Wed. 14 Nov., in the Borg Warner Room of the public library on E. Green St.
For more information, see the Hours website at http://www.ithacahours.org/.
Stephen Burke
for Ithaca Blog
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