Exchanging goods and services without using money: this is the purpose of local exchange systems. In the north of the Loire, there are around sixty members of Grains de Sel du Roannais.
For an annual fee (€6 for a member, €8 for a family), everyone can participate in this system excluding any commercial relationship. A local exchange system which aims to be an alternative to the dominant economic model.
A fictitious currency
The principle is in fact based on the observation that each individual has skills or time, which it is possible to exchange for other skills, services or objects. It is therefore a mode of operation which returns to the historical sources of a process of mutual exchange. Each member can contribute their knowledge and know-how, or part with objects they no longer need, by using a fictitious currency, aptly called grains. Prices are set freely, by mutual agreement, between the members, called the Selistes, for each service rendered or each object, recorded in this form of unit of value. So, for example, a person can receive 60 grains per hour to look after children, and spend it on buying books.
Offers and requests for services
The association’s website allows members to make offers or requests, especially for certain services such as gardening, babysitting, vegetables, or tools, etc.
An animation team distributes responsibilities in a collegial manner.
Roannais Salt contributes, in its own way, to maintaining social ties and solidarity, to defending more human values, in a society governed by money, by being accessible to all those who wish to enter this virtuous circle.
Practical
The headquarters of the Grains de Sel du Roannais association is located in Le Coteau, at the Maison des Sociétés, 13 rue de la Glacière. Email: [email protected]
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