Local money gains followers

Tucson Life Cache was started in January and is in the process of creating a computerized ledger system for this new local currency where members can keep track of credit and connect with one another. Organizers hope to have the system operating by the end of August, said Julius Gordon, a member.

Local currency is different than bartering because members of the group do not have to have the exact goods one another need. It is similar to any other currency system, only these credits can be used only in the Tucson area, Gordon said.

"We're trying to create a system that is more favorable to everyone. Products don't have to match up exactly. It's more flexible," said Mary DeCamp, an archivist for the group.

The group has 70 members but hopes to grow and add more local businesses, Gordon said. Once there are enough businesses, the group plans to begin printing paper currency called Tucson Dollars to make it easier for businesses to participate.

There are now more than 100 local currency groups in the United Sates, including several that print their own currency.

There are over 1,000 local currencies around the world, Gordon said, and they are especially popular in Europe.

Members of Tucson Life Cache do not need anything tangible to sell, but can also offer services. Member Jean Jessup said she will be offering her bookkeeping and videography skills.

DeCamp said she believes in local currency because the current system funnels money to the already wealthy while other people's marketable skills go unused.

"We have an opportunity to take the power back and enrich our daily lives," DeCamp said. "I'd like to see a different system where people do feel good about what they are doing and live a more sustainable life."

Gordon said he hopes a community currency will also inspire people to eat locally grown and produced foods. There are already 15 local growers signed up in the network.

The Tucson Life Cache credits will not be equivalent to the dollar, although members may be allowed to purchase credits with U.S. dollars at the beginning, Gordon said.

Buyers and sellers will set their own prices on goods and services. Sales done through Tucson Life Cache must still be recorded for income-tax purposes.

It is free to join the group, but there is talk of adding a 1- or 2-percent carrying charge in order to pay a staff to run operations, DeCamp said.

The Life Cache organizers are hoping to learn lessons from the experience of Tucson Traders, a local currency group that operated from 1996 to around 2005.

The original group started with a ledger system and in 1998 printed paper currency — called Tucson Tokens — in $1, $5 and $20 denominations, said Dan Dorsey, a Tucson Traders co-founder.

Around 2001, Dorsey said, the founders transferred management to another group that later discontinued the paper currency and went to an online credit system before disbanding.

Dorsey said Tucson Traders had about 200 members at its peak but fell victim to volunteer burnout and lack of market penetration, particularly among vendors of basic goods and services.

"Too many massage therapists, not enough car mechanics," Dorsey said.

Dorsey, a sustainability consultant who runs the non-profit Sonoran Permaculture Guild, said he's been advising the Tucson Life Cache organizers to help them avoid some of the pitfalls the Tucson Traders encountered.

DeCamp said the Tucson Traders experience is why Life Cache wants to have a paid staff.

Another major goal of Tucson Life Cache is to create a stronger community. DeCamp said the current monetary system is a sterile transfer of money between strangers, but she hopes that with a local currency, people will begin to build better community relationships.

Eventually the group would also like to set up a community bank where members can lend to one another with Tucson Life Cache credits, DeCamp said.

For more info

• To learn more about Tucson Life Cache, go to www.TucsonLocalCurrency.org, call 777-7190 or send e-mail to TucsonLifeCache@gmail.com

The group meets the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the city's Ward 6 Office, 3202 E. First St.