Sent on November 5, 2006
The article following was on front page of the business section of the Sunday’s Albany Times Union. We expect additional media attention as the holiday season turns people’s attention to where and on what their money is spent.
By separate email we are sending you a full list of all businesses currently accepting BerkShares. This is done to make it easier for you to locate other businesses to recirculate your BerkShares. Please also note the possibility of giving BerkShares in change. Many people new to the BerkShares are looking for an opportunity to trade with BerkShares.
A full page ad listing all current BerkShares participating businesses will appear monthly in the Shopper’s Guide beginning in this week’s edition as a supplement to the September printed BerkShares User Guide and Directory. The web site always is the best source for the most updated list.
Thanks for your participation,
Susan Witt, Administrator
BerkShares, Inc.
P.O. Box 125
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(413) 528-1737
info@BerkShares.org
http://www.berkshares.org
The BerkShares Board of Directors
Art Ames, Asa Hardcastle, Louann Harvey,
Susan Ingersoll, David Lazan, Christopher Lindstrom, and Jennifer Sahn.
http://blogs.timesunion.com/business/?p=350
Keeping the currency local
November 5, 2006 at 6:00 am by Eric Anderson, Deputy business editor
Those of you who have visited Great Barrington and the southern Berkshires in the past month may have noticed some unusual currency being spent in local businesses.
The currency, called BerkShares, has been available in the southern
Berkshires since Sept. 29. About 115,000 share units are circulating. Using the local currency, its backers contend, keeps wealth local and supports busineses that are local.
The currency is similar to the Ithaca Hours that have been in use in Ithaca,
Tompkins County, for the past decade. Each Ithaca Hour is worth $10, the average hourly earnings of
Ithaca residents when the system was launched.
The folks behind BerkShares say the currency was accepted at more than 180 local businesses as of Friday.
BerkShares’ approach is somewhat different from Ithaca Hours’, in that it’s backed by federal dollars, with 10 Berkshares costing $9 to purchase. But the businesses that accept them do so on a one-to-one basis. That means you can pay for that $30 meal with 30 Berkshares, which would have cost you $27 to purchase.
Berkshire Bank, Lee Bank and Pittsfield Co-Op Bank in Great Barrington offer the currency, as does Salisbury Bank in South Egremont and Sheffield, according to BerkShares’ Web site.
The local currency project is sponsored by the E.F. Schumacher Society based in Great Barrington, which is named for the British economist who advocated decentralization and wrote the book, Small is Beautiful.
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