Davis Dollars are taking root in community
By Lola Davis
A community currency designed to support the Davis economy is bigger and better just one year after its launch, supporters say.
Nicholas Barry, a 2007 UC Davis graduate who now works in Sacramento, launched Davis Dollars last fall, marrying his interests in economics and community development.
He describes the organization’s mission statement as “strengthening the community and the local economy and empowering individuals.”
With the help of some interns, Barry cranked out the design and details and had a website, www.davisdollars.org, up and running by the following May. The first 100 bills were printed in April.
The main idea of the organization is simple: Individuals may purchase Davis Dollars with U.S. dollars in a one-to-one exchange rate, or they may start with none and earn Davis Dollars by providing services.
The local currency doesn’t in any way take the place of U.S. dollars. It does exactly the opposite: Davis Dollars offer a new system of local spending for community members.
“(Davis Dollars) increases the amount they spend locally, not by decreasing the amount they spend elsewhere; it just gives people more to spend,” Barry says.
“Now they can shift their U.S. dollars toward things like paying rent and gas and things like that, and they can spend more of their Davis Dollars downtown.”
Although the mission and core ideas of Davis Dollars have remained the same, a few things have changed in the past year. Since last October, Barry and his associates have been working hard to persuade more people to try out the new form of spending.
“With any community currency, if they’re successful they often go through a period of slow growth where not many people are using them, and then they go through a period of really rapid growth,” Barry says.
Davis Dollars has “started to hit that fast growth,” he adds.
Valerie Francisco, a media relations intern for Davis Dollars, said more businesses are participating.
“We had 20 when I first started, which was only a month ago, and now we have 27 businesses,” she says. Many of those are locally owned businesses that see benefit in keeping shoppers’ dollars in town. Among them are Watermelon Music, The Hotdogger, Redwood Barn Nursery, Good Humus Produce, Davis Massage Center and Ken’s Bike & Ski.
Davis Dollars have been promoted via advertising at UC Davis, at the Farmers Market and by word of mouth. The Davis Downtown Business Association has been a supporter, helping disseminate information.
Another change has been the exchange rate. It costs $10 to buy 10 Davis Dollars, but a business cashing in those dollars would receive only $9.50.
“That … difference both helps us cover our costs and also gives people an incentive to keep Davis Dollars in circulation,” Barry explains.
He adds that “we get a lot more people buying Davis Dollars, using services and posting services on our bulletin board.” Those services can be “sold” for Davis Dollars.
Some of the most popular services available for purchase using Davis Dollars include baby-sitting, musical instruction, tutoring and individually sold goods.
These services have been a large part of Barry’s goals to strengthen the local economy. During a business-related trip to Slide Hill Park before Davis Dollars officially launched, Barry discovered a family that was looking for baby-sitting services, then later found a person across the street offering baby-sitting.
“They hadn’t made that connection, so the one big way the economy can be strengthened is providing a way to connect people to services that they’re looking for so they’re mutually benefited,” Barry says.
The service exchange also allows community members to improve their skills. Barry further describes this as perhaps “a small stepping stone toward people who want to launch their own small business.”
Davis Dollars is the first product of the Davis Empowerment and Community Organization. Barry hopes to create more initiatives under that umbrella group. Some ideas are online banking and a business incubator, which he describes as “an organization that would help people get community groups off the ground and running.”
The incubator would further back up Davis Dollars’ mission statement, because Barry sees it as more than just a community currency. He views the overall goal as “helping strengthen the ecosystem of organizations and services that exist in Davis.”
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=101629
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Posted by Special to The Enterprise
on Nov 30 2011.
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