A History of Ithaca HOURS
Paul Glover
HOURS were created by our
community's need and pioneer spirit. During the 1991 recession I designed
prototype HOURS and began asking people to sign up to accept them. The
first 30 people agreed. Had these folks said "that's a dumb idea"
or "you could get in trouble," or had they just laughed, then
maybe there'd be no HOUR money.
Had there been no Farmer's
Market here, with lively vendors who saw HOURS as yet another way to
barter, HOURS would have had a small food base. Catherine Martinez took
the first leap of faith there, becoming the first person to accept an
HOUR, for her samosa.
Had the owners of two popular
local movie theaters (Rich Szany & Lynn Cohen) not started taking
HOURS from the beginning, at full price, then there's have been no dramatic
retail use of HOURS. Had Greg Spence Wolf not stepped in to earn HOURS
cleaning these theaters, then maybe the theaters would have stopped
accepting HOURS.
Had the Alternatives Federal
Credit Union not lent its fiscal credibility to HOURS, by accepting
them for fees, acceptance of HOURS would have been slower. Michael Turback
of Turback's restaurant (the fanciest in town) accepted HOURS for full
price. James Cummins of Littletree Orchards did likewise. These and
dozens of other pioneers pulled lots of HOURS into circulation and spread
them around.
Thousands more Ithacans have
established HOURS by accepting them and spending them, and by explaining
them to family and friends. Tens of thousands of conversations have
defined local money and have carried it forward.
History is made by public
action like this, rather than by special leaders. The general public
selects and rejects leaders daily, before knowing their names, without
waiting to vote. History pushes individuals forward to meet human needs.
That's why credit for HOURS belongs to the community. Thus my own role,
regarded as pivotal, merely was the tool of the community's need. To
emphasize this, I've declined to be interviewed on TV and most radio,
in order to require media to showcase HOURS as a community process.
During research into our
local economy in 1989, I noticed that a little county in South Dakota
printed coupons for downtown merchant X-mas promotion, the first I had
ever heard of local currency. Two years later, early in 1991, while
drawing pictures with my girlfriend's nieces, I sketched a cartoon "Ithaca
Money" note. A few weeks later I saw a sample "Hour"
note issued by British industrialist Robert Owen in 1847. This Hour
was negotiable only at Owens' company store and based, I discovered
in 1993, on Josiah Warren's "Time Store" notes of 1827.
During May 1991, local student
Patrice Jennings asked to interview me about the Ithaca LETS system.
This conversation strongly reinforced my interest in barter, and Patrice
suggested we revive a grassroots trading system. Local merchant Tom
Koslowski encouraged the idea of local currency when it was mentioned
to him. A few days later, Annie McCasland, my landlady's daughter, entered
my room saying she had just heard an NPR report about Deli Dollars,
organized by the E.F. Schumacher Society of Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Within a few days designs
for the HOUR and Half HOUR were complete except for signatures. Patrice
and I began to encourage participation. Approached at GreenStar Co-op
with photocopied samples and a signup sheet on clipboard, Gary Fine,
a local massage therapist, said "sure," and signed. Then came
Jan Nigro, songwriter/musician; Mary Loehr, writer and cook. The first
dozens all agreed, without waiting for a business plan or guarantee.
Emboldened, I began to ask for small donations to help pay for printing
HOURS. During the next four months, 90 people provided 262 offers (++)
and requests (--) for the first issue of Ithaca Money.
Jim Rohrrsen of Papa Jim's
toys became the first retailer to actually enroll to accept HOURS. Fine
Line Printing completed the first run of HOURS October 1991. These notes,
1,500 HOURS and 1,500 Half HOURS, were nearly twice as large as subsequent
notes. Ithaca Money #1 (now HOUR Town) was printed at Our Press in Chenango
Bridge, NY on October 16, 1991. The next day I issued myself 10 HOURS
as the first of four repayments for the cost of printing HOURS (David
St. George of Fine Line accepted 10% of his payment in HOURS). The day
after that, October 18, 1991, 382 HOURS were disbursed and prepared
for mailing to the first 93 pioneers.
That same day, on October
19, I bought a samoza at the Farmer's Market with Half HOUR #751 from
from Catherine Martinez-- the first use of an HOUR. Neither of us knew
what a Half HOUR was worth, since the $10/HOUR rate was then merely
suggested. Several more Market vendors enrolled.
Stacks of Ithaca Money were
distributed all over town with an invitation to everyone to join the
fun. The Ithaca Journal (John Yaukey) did a fine introductory article.
Radio WHCU (Casey Stevens) followed with a short interview about HOURS,
the Syracuse Post-Standard, The Grapevine, the Cornell Sun. The Ithaca
Times article was surprisingly hostile and was easily rebutted by a
letter (11/21/91). Patrice Jennings, founding member of the HOUR Board,
was featured in a TV show by WICB and on other media.
Signup coupons poured in
(the first from fiddler Laurie Hart). Alternatives Federal Credit Union,
Cinemapolis, Fall Creek Pictures, Toko Imports amd Papa Jim's toys were
the first retailers.
Only 46 days after HOURS
began, and only ten days after the Farmer's Market closed for the season,
GreenStar Co-op burned down. Local food vendors selling through GreenStar
quickly organized a Mini-Market at Henry St. Johns school, and most
of them decided to accept HOURS. This provided HOURS with a midwinter
food base right from the beginning.
Confusion arose about varied
HOUR equivalencies ($5, $6, $8, $10, $12) and soon caused us to declare
$10.00 as the standard. And it soon became apparent that a smaller denomination,
and smaller note size, were needed. The Quarter HOUR was issued six
months after we began.
Meanwhile, HOURS were being
traded and discussed, and welcomed and ridiculed. A common jibe was,
"printing your own money are you? Pretty good business-- you must
have a fat wallet!" So I showed them the disbursement sheets and
explained serial numbers. Those who praised HOURS were thanked and invited
to join us; those who criticized HOURS or found them threatening were
invited, without resentment, to join if they came to feel differently,
and many did so.
By January of 1993 I was
sending an occasional "Hometown Money Starter Kit" to people
elsewhere who had heard about HOURS and wanted to try it in their community.
The president of AFCU, Bill
Myers, approached me in July 1993 and offered me one of the credit union's
two VISTA (Americorps) positions. Thus, ironically, the federal government
provided me a regular paycheck to develop local currency. This freed
me to work without worrying about income,and it provided operating expenses.
VISTA liked HOURS so much they employed me more than three years.
When HOURS were featured
on the cover of the Mother Earth News, showing printer David St. George
at his press, one of that article's readers wrote to refer us to Professor
Robert Blain of Southern Indiana University at Edwardsville, who he
said had also promoted HOURS as money. When I wrote to Blain, he sent
back copies of his 1979 monograph "Making Money a More Reliable
Meaasure of Value." Remarkably, he had also suggested that HOURS
become the new standard of value and had recommended a $10.00 equivalency.
He started sending us stacks of his booklet, which had been collecting
dust, and they were sent out with requests for Kits.
With wider publicity, demand
for Starter Kits expanded, becoming an important part of income. The
Kit changed constantly, since the system was still being invented. Only
by August 1995 had basic systems stabilized enough for the Kit to be
published as a book.
National publicity, which
had begun in 1993, peaked in 1996, with stories in the New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, and many others. There have
been over 650 stories written and broadcast about HOURS so far (see
"Publicity").
The HOUR Advisory Board incorporated
as Ithaca HOURS, Inc. in 1998, and hosted the first elections for Board
of Directors. Monica Hargraves, director of composting for Co-op Extension
(and a former economics professor and economist with the Federal Reserve
and IMF), was selected as Board chair. Margaret McCasland (an educator
in whose house HOURS were born) was selected as Board secretary, and
has published HOUR Town since August 1999. The directory is now occasional
rather than hexannual.
Dan Cogan, a computer programmer,
was selected as first Treasurer. Greg Spence Wolf, a singer-songwriter,
and Bob LeRoy, an accountant, became co-vicepresidents. Others on the
first elected Board were LeGrace Benson (former County representative
and art historian), Jennifer Elges (veterinary student), Donald Stephenson
(environmentalist), and Wally Woods (personnel manager).
The board hosted a large
and successful Community Celebration in November 1999, and annual meetings
since.
Most of the history of HOURS
is to be told by the thousands here who have discussed them and earned
them and spent them. They have made HOURS real money. See Success Stories
on this site.
(Paul Glover
is founder of Citizen Planners (1978). He is author of "Where Does
Ithaca's Food Come From" (1987) and "Ithaca Power" (Ithaca's
fuel supply, 1988), Los Angeles: A History of the Future and holds a
degree in City Management.)