By Callum Ludwig
A cost-effective community group are opening up their offerings with a Trading and Community Market Day on Saturday 19 October at the Healesville Living and Learning Centre.
MERLETS (Melbourne’s Eastern Region Local Exchange Trading System) is a group of locals to the east side of town who take part in a Community Exchange system where goods and services are exchanged without money.
Yarra Valley Coordinator of MERLETS Kath Gannaway said they’re really trying to build the numbers in the Yarra Valley because the strength of the eastern group is in their membership.
“MERLETS is very active in the eastern suburbs, they have a really fantastic membership down there, there was a LETS group in the Yarra Valley in the 80s that was very active then,” she said.
“I think it must have been about 10 years ago, the Yarra Valley hub started up and was reasonably active, but never had the numbers that the eastern group has, but it was going along quite well, but then it did take a bit of a hit with Covid,”
“The strength of the Eastern group is their membership, no one ever feels like they have to go to something because there is a good membership, which means they always get a good turnout for their activities, their working days or even their cafe meetings and it reduces the load on everyone.”
The Trading and Community Market Day will be open to any interested community members to come to develop an understanding of the LETS system while new members can sign up with a $10 membership fee which covers administration costs.
Ms Gannaway said there are still a lot of people out there who don’t know about the LETS concept.
“It brings people together to exchange skills and resources using a token currency, it’s a trading of skills and resources and that can be anything,”
“From the regular working bees that are held down there on Thursdays and weekends or it can be their trading days where anyone that would like to bring all the things that they no longer need,”
“It could be bunches of silverbeet, apples, anything out of their garden or just other things that they want to rehome and there can be a negotiated token price for those as well.”
There are Community Exchange Systems (CES) all around the world, with a CES server existing for both Australian CES groups and international CES groups.
Ms Gannaway said the group is a great option for people struggling to purchase the basic things they do.
“They might need a bike repair, or they might need some mulch moved in their garden and to have a group of people that can come in and help you with that means that you can achieve the things that perhaps you can’t always afford to do,” she said.
“One of our ladies has some mobility problems but her skill is driving, and she drives people to the airport or to anywhere which is a fantastic resource to have on your doorstep,”
“There’s a lot of people that do pet sitting which can the difference of whether you’re able to get away for a few days or not, if you’ve got someone that can either take your pet or come to your house and do it.”
New members who join (via CES Australia) receive 50 tokens as a welcome gift to exchange for goods and services, which can be viewed and managed in an online account similar to online banking. A mentor will be assigned to new members to help introduce them to the CES website and how to record trades.
Ms Gannaway said thinking of things they they can offer is sometimes where people stumble.
“They think they’ve got nothing to offer, but when they sit down and have a chat or come along to one of the MERLETS trading days or other promotional days, they get to see exactly some of the skills that they do have,” she said.
“It could be proofreading or sewing or just going along for a walk with somebody, there may be someone out there who doesn’t have anyone to walk with, and that’s something that they might be able to help.”
The MERLETS Group have a directory containing all members and the skills and goods they are offering which can emailed or posted as a booklet to members, while there is also a MERLETS Facebook group for members to post wants and offers, comment on LETS events or share resources.
Two MERLETS working groups also operate to help tackle multi-person jobs, a regular weekday group that meets every Thursday and a weekend group that is booked by arrangement.
Anyone in the Yarra Valley who is interested in the MERLETS group can contact Ms Gannaway at 0447 555 266.
