Post edited 4:36 am – February 26, 2011 by Richard Todd Chinnock

Proposal for Founding Member Process
 

 

To be considered at our Post Retreat

Meeting on Sunday, February 6, 2011

 

1. INVITATION:  We get into a conversation with someone we know (or have asked to speak with) and we use the elevator speech we developed for our own use (our personal elevator speech).  My elevator speech includes:  "To me it is obvious that the money is the problem and if we do something about how it is issued we can return control of the money from the Wall Street too big to fail banks to our community, where we can discover together what we want.  When we have our own bank and we decide what to fund then society will reflect our local community values and we can heal the environment, etc."  At some point we point out that we believe our CGB can change the game.  It is not something that one can grasp in its enterity just like that.  If you are intrigued, come to a meeting ….
    

    

2. FIRST MEETING IN WHICH WE GET ISSUE AGREEMENT, OUTLINE THE SOLUTION AND SHOW WHY IT IS VIABLE:
    

    

   1. The meeting begins with a simple welcome and we go around allowing each person to say why they came and what they hope for, including the presenters and already Founding Members who brought someone.
       

       

   2. ISSUE AGREEMENT:  The Presenter uses some of what was put forward as a basis for questioning how things are, bringing it to the problem of representative democracy.  This can then easily lead into the question about doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.
       

       

   3. SOLUTION: We need real power at the local level, which being able to fund what we decide we want would give us.  We need real money, money with merit.  Real money is what we issue to capitalize what we decide is of benefit to us all, would be for the Common Good.  All banks create money when they lend it, and our CGB will be able to do that also, just like all the other banks do.  We will also have a sophisticated barter system that lets us account for all the purchases and sales among us without using Federal Reserve money.  Mutual credit systems are well known and developed and our CGB will allow our mutual credit system to create money and spend it locally and for things not available locally.  This raises many questions which we know from experience need study.  Here we can ask the more experienced members to talk about their confidence that it is all understandible, but it takes time.   How do we find out what would benefit everyone, or would increase the Common Good?  This is where real democracy comes in.  Our experience of democracy is very limited.  Our Common Good Economy is based on our ability to create community and uses a democratic process that will lead us surely towards consensus.  Each depositor in the bank also buys stock in the bank, but each depositor gets only one vote, and we also appoint a proxy whose vote will count for us if, for some reason, we don't vote.  Our democracy is designed to get us what we determine we want.  We start with face to face meetings, always.  We are asking the question:  What do we want.  These meetings are expertly facilitated so that what is living in the group, what people want, can come to expression.  When it is reasonably clear from that process that we want a number of things we put them to a vote to establish their priority.  Each local Common Good Community does this as often as they decide to.  How often do we want to determine the criteria for lending?  What should the choices be?  When we vote, we rank the choices and the most preferred choice wins.  Again, our democratic system that leads to consensus requires study, and you will have plenty of opportunity to become familiar with it.

       

   4. VIABILITY:  We believe that as we create common good communities and we gain experience with asking each other what we want we will be tapping into a tremendous resovoir of potential and possibility.  You will become part of The Campaign for a Common Good Economy.  And you will be able to take as much initiative to assure the success of the campaign as you like.  The campaign is clear that we have a very powerful solution to the problems we identified, that we have an absolute right to issue the currency for what we decide democratically we want, and we are conducting the campaign by building Common Good Communities that are learning the ropes of what they will be doing by doing it. If you like what you are hearing here and you can see the potential, then it is reasonable to say that we will surely find the people like us who want to take responsiblity for changing the game and shifting the paradigm.  As you come to understand real democracy, real money and real power we want you to join us as a Founding Member.  Founding Members make a donation to fund our Campaign for a Common Good Economy.  They also pledge to lend us interest free the money we will need to charter the Common Good Bank.  And Founding Members pledge to buy stock in the CGB when we have our charter, which then becomes the basis for our lending, our "reserve".  So, if you give us a $100 donation, you will also plege to provide us 5 times that or $2,500 as an interest free loan to pay for all the costs associated with chartering a bank; and you will be pledging to buy $10,000 in stock.  This commitment will provide us with $250,000 to conduct the campaign, and we want the donation when you sign up, $1.5 million to comply with all the requirements to charter the bank, and we will want that when we have enough pledges to proceed, and $10 million in capital, which will allow us to lend $100 million and generate profits of around $1 million in the first year.  We will want you to make good on that pledge when the bank has its charter.  We expect to repay the loan in about 2 years, and you will be able to sell your stock after 2 or more years and for what you paid for it plus the inflation rate.  In the next meeting we will give you a more comprehensive orientation to how the Common Good Bank works and how it interfaces with and competes with the existing economy.  In the meeting after that we will learn about the structure of belonging and creating Common Good Communities.  After that meeting we believe you will have understood enough to become a Founding Member.
   5. CHECKOUT:  Go around the room and ask each person to say something about what they experienced.  Thank them for coming and be encouraging about coming to the next meeting.
       

       

3. SECOND MEETING:  ORIENTATION AND EDUCATION: The Science of money and the Science of Democracy. How the Common Good Economy works. How the democracy works regarding the Common Good Bank and in the local Common Good Community, including how we discover what we want that will promote the common good. How the Common Good Bank works, what we determine and what the bank determines; how the stock works, and the role of the internet. Mutual Credit and the local Common Good Community and the interface with the CGB and how the accounting for the national money and mutual credit works. How to read and understand you Common Good Bank Statement.
    

    

4. THIRD MEETING: BUILDING THE COMMON GOOD COMMUNITY: The Science of the Campaign for a Common Good Economy. The Structure of Belonging and the Ward Republic idea. What do we need to do to build a Common Good Community in the Berkshires and the Pioneer Valley? Understanding ourselves, believing in each other and honoring our gifts and virtues. Why the way we conduct our affairs is what will assure that we get all the benefits and ideals built into the CGB model. The science of a campaign and the meaning of: “We will take the High Road to the High Ground and Hold it.”
    

    

5. RETREATS: Each group as it develops will be offered two retreats: The “Science of Money (which includes the democracy because that is the expression of our sovereignty and the sovereign issues the money” and the “Science of Campaigning and Community Building” In the course of our first few retreats I would like us to be writing our text books.
    

    

6. SUMMARY: The Campaign for a Common Good Economy is on three tracks. Introduction to new people (first meeting), Orientation and Education (second meeting), and Implementation (third meeting). The retreats train the leadership, with everyone being encouraged to be a leader.