Draw by owners – Whatever procedures you follow to draw cash $ from the till or petty cash apply exactly to cw$.

Payments to staff – It is neither legal nor useful to offer staff payment in cw$ rather than in legal tender. It is legal and probably very useful to augment existing payments with additional pay or bonuses in cw$ – but this MUST be by staff consent.

Note that such payments increase the tax liabilities of staff, and so should always be provided with enough Canadian $ to meet the tax and other deductions incurred.

The issuance of cw$ – having your trading account in the negative – is equivalent to issuing gift certificates redeemable at your business. While your account is negative – in “commitment” – you are obliged to honour cw$ presented by customers, in accordance with the terms of acceptance you have offered.

Your money is the measure of your word.

General FAQ:

Who is “we”? Who is in charge of the Community Way initiative?

Let’s start at the beginning here. When you signed on to the community way initiative your business made a commitment to our community that it would continue to accept cw$ as partial payment (according to the rates you specified) for goods or services you offer, equal to the amount of your donation to one/several of the beneficiaries, also known as a cso.

Our recommendation was that this amount be cw$1000 per full time employee (fte) at the business.  Our request was that you contribute a further cw$100 per fte to the development of the initiative. Although we administer the use of these funds, we do not currently benefit from them personally. (Other than the benefits we reap from participating in the initiative of course.)

These funds have primarily been used to:

• print the cw$ bills currently in circulation (Total = cw$50 000 in denominations of cw$20, cw$10, cw$5 and cw$1)
• develop basic marketing materials for participating biz and cso
• promote the initiative at and through local events e.g. The Big Time Out

Suggestion: As these costs are ongoing we are always looking for more contributions towards these purposes and welcome any new and existing businesses in the community way initiative to consider making their initial donation towards the open money development group (omdev).

1. Every cw$ directly supports local community service organisations – remember that each cw$ was created through a process of donation to a local cso.
2. The money stays local – since cw$ are only valid at businesses that accept them, people using the money can be confident it stays in our community.
3. When you buy cw$ you get to spend the money twice – converting CAD$ into cw$ happens when cw$ are purchased from local community service organisations, allowing the cso to cover other costs and the buyer to spend money at participating businesses.

Participating businesses:

At its heart the community way initiative is a loyalty program for businesses. You issue the money and members of the community come spend it at your business, at a partial acceptance rate of course. Just like any other loyalty program it will yield results equal to the amount of effort you put in. For example, Sure Courtenay Copy Center has gained a significant increase in clientele from the local non-profit sector looking for affordable copy, printing and design services, who can now spend their donated funds locally. The Broken Spoke has gained lots of exposure and new drop-ins from people looking to try their coffee at 100% community way and have become popular as a meeting place for small non-profit meetings and informal events. And so on.

Participating businesses should note that your initial donation of cw$  serves as a commitment to our community that you will continue to accept cw$ at your business until you have received an amount equal to your initial contribution.

Suggestion: Arguably the best thing you can do to make cw$ work harder for your business is introduce the initiative to your friends, colleagues and acquaintances. The more businesses that join, the more cw$ are put into circulation and the more outlets there are for members of the community (and you) to spend the money. If you would like someone to help you explain the initiative, please feel free to contact the open money development group at cvcw@lets.net.

Beneficiary community service organisations:

For beneficiary organisations it is an effective fundraising tool, and the same principle applies; the more you put in, the more you get out e.g. Project Watershed managed to exchange cw$1000 into Canadian dollars at The Big Time Out. (View the article: Project Watershed Rocks at the Big Time Out)
Fundraising is never an easy task, however, out of all the methods available to cso’s community way offers high returns on investment especially since once set up it could be an ongoing source of funds. Writing grant applications is a long and arduous process with no guarantee to pay out. Hosting an event, while fun and not always purely about fundraising, is only viable because of the number of volunteer hours put in. CSO’s have the potential to gain a lot from cw$ but have to put in the effort upfront learning how to use the system and deciding how they want it to work for them.

Community way can work for a cso by:

• Supplementing Canadian dollars being spent
  • cw$ can be used at any participating business e.g. purchase food for your event with 50% community way at Fluid Bar and Grill
  • other business/individuals that are community minded but not ready to join may take cw$ from your organisation (it’s worth asking)
  • directors/staff/volunteers may accept community way for reimbursements of expenses
• Being sold for Canadian dollars (normally referred to as an “exchange”)
  • Have a cw$ jar at your table when you attend events. Visitors to your booth can put in an amount in Canadian $ and retrieve that amount in cw$
  • Start a pledge program and encourage members, volunteers, staff and the general public to buy a certain amount of cw$ every month based on how much they can spend. It is not hard to spend $20 a month (5 coffee’s at the Broken Spoke) and if you have 50 people buying $20/month that’s a monthly income of $1000.
  • Encourage vendors at events you are attending to accept cw$ and then sell cw$ at that event. This way people can spend their money right away, getting first hand experience in spending their money twice.
• Paying for jobs that nobody wants to do or has time to do
  • Having trouble getting volunteers to do certain jobs? Offer them a full or part cw$ honorarium, wage or salary.
• Supporting local businesses who in return support your organisation
  • Use cw$ as matching funds for grant applications
  • Develop or expand upon a business relationship

To start using cw$ you need to:

• Figure out your strategy
  • who, when, where, why and how
• Figure out your accounting system
  • In most accounting software cw$ can simply be set up as another bank account

Members of the Comox Valley community:

General marketing: We have opted to do most of our marketing for the initiative online. This allows us to provide easy access to lots of information e.g. a list of participating businesses.

Necessarily, when we do marketing for the initiative, we are promoting your business. Every news article (printed and online), newsletter, flyer, blog post, Twitter post, Facebook update, YouTube upload, etc. reminds potential participants that they can spend their cw$ at your business.

Please visit and spend some time on:
Our facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comox-Valley-community-way/146089164749?ref=ts
Further information and in-depth reading – http://www.lets.net

Or contact us directly and set up a meeting to discuss things in more detail through cvcw@lets.net.

Suggestion: If your business already uses social media and other online elements to communicate/connect with customers, you could link to these sites and let the people in the community way network know that they can spend cw$ at your business. Then send the same message to your own networks and ask them to share onwards. Community way is a valid, interesting topic for online content and press releases.

Storefront promotion:
Below are some of the materials we have created – please use them:
acceptance % sign
Tent card
Leaflet
stickers
(insert images of each element)

Suggestion: If you do not have the resources to print these out yourself you can go to Sure Copy and have them do it for you at 50% community way!

PLEASE NOTE: If there are any changes to your business details (address-phone-website), rate of acceptance or special offers, please let us know by sending a message to cvcw@lets.net.

Same goes for any further suggestions, questions or comments you may have.

So what is the state of our local economy?

How many cw$ are there in circulation and how many can I expect to see at my business?

The good news is that our community has managed to create cw$150 000 already and that all of the start-up costs for creating the system have been covered. (Printing of bills, establishment of an online accounting system, basic marketing and promotion.) As it stands today the community way system functions with almost no operational costs.
The bad news is basically that we’re not spending enough of our cw$. Whether it be used to reward staff, pay partially for business expenses or used to get a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day, cw$ only have value if you spend them!
You cannot deposit cw$ into a bank account and have them collect interest. They’re not supposed to be saved – that’s something we reserve for CAD$ which are always in demand because there’s just not enough of it going around for everyone. These cw$ are supposed to get you out into our community marketplace where you can connect with others and exchange goods/services in exchange for our very own currency, of which we can potentially create enough for everyone – good for community, good for business.

The more effort you put into promoting cw$ through your own business, the more cw$ you are likely to see come into your business. Ultimately you set your rate of acceptance, so cw$ transactions also mean CAD$ transactions. Those businesses that have been keeping an eye on their cw$ report between 2 – 5% of their business involving cw$ transactions and definite increase in through-the-door traffic.

So how does cw$ fit into my books?

What should my accountant know?

• In the till, it’s cash of a different size and colour, but it’s still cash.
• Your on-line account is just another “bank” and should be so recorded in your books.
• Considering the mental shift the community way initiative requires of those who participate in it, one can understand how it must be a challenge to accountants and bookkeepers. The fact remains that if you treat cw$ as cash coming into your business there should be a minimum of disruption.
• This has been an issue at some of the participating beneficiary organisations as well, whose accounting is often handled by voluntary members. The easiest thing is to keep it as simple as possible. cw$ = cash.
• Any accountants or bookkeepers having troubles managing cw$ transactions can contact us via e-mail at: cvcw@lets.net. We will do our best to work through your issue with you.
• Any accountants or bookkeepers wanting to share their experience or suggesions for incorporating cw$ into a business are welcome to do the same.

It is true. The Vancouver Island North Green Party has opened a community currency account so they can receive donations in cw$ in accordance with the Elections Canada regulations.

They will likely use some of these funds directly for operating costs and election expenses, but they will also be “changing” money. Basically exchanging cw$ for CAD$ to help cover costs.

This brings up an interesting point. Any business participating in the community way initiative is free to exchange cw$ for CAD$ on their own behalf. Meaning you can change your money by selling it to friends, family and colleagues. This can be an intensive process and truly the best option is to get interested parties to commit to exchange a monthly/weekly/daily amount through your business. It’s another great way for your network to support your business.