Focus group discusses ideas for improving local currency

SHEFFIELD – BerkShares, a local currency initiative for The Berkshires, began in the fall of 2006. Since then, more than 400 local businesses have signed on to accept the currency, and more than 2.7 million BerkShares have been circulated to date.

Still, there is a lot of room for improving this local currency program. On Monday, the board of the BerkShares organization convened a focus group for community members and business owners to discuss ideas for improving BerkShares and moving the initiative forward.

One discussion participant, Sierra King, said it would be helpful to offer more information in a pamphlet or “starter kit” to businesses that accept BerkShares. Another participant suggested enlisting a local celebrity to help promote BerkShares.

Discussion participants overall agreed it’s important to make people more aware of BerkShares, what they are and what the point of using them is.

“The message that the broader business community doesn’t get is that this generates money locally, and these are the numbers, and every dollar spent will generate this much money in your community. I think that’s the overarching message. I think once you get that message out, then the ‘why’ is obvious,” said Declan Sheehy, BerkShare board member and director of development and outreach at the American Institute of Economic Research.

One goal of the BerkShares program is to create a local economy that is self-sufficient and diverse. There needs to be “enough businesses taking enough BerkShares so that they can all circulate them to each other,” explained BerkShares Coordinator Alice Maggio. There also needs to be more diversity in local production, since right now our local economy is very dependent on imports

One way to boost local production, as Ms. Maggio explained, is to “create a loan program, in BerkShares, that can make loans to businesses that would be doing that, producing something here that hasn’t been produced here in awhile.”

Another idea floated during the discussion is to develop a smartphone app that would allow people to search for an item that they could purchase locally using BerkShares. As BerkShares Board Member Dominic Palumbo described, “You could say, ‘I’m looking for a sweater,’ ‘I’m looking for a 6×6,’ ‘I’m looking for a sandwich,’ what’s close by that takes BerkShares?”

Posted by Dana Drugmand on May 16, 2013. Filed under Community News,Featured,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry