1. Two
Birthday Cakes
When was the last time
you celebrated a birthday without any family? Well, this week I was
turning 49 and for the first time in my life I wasn’t anywhere
near my family. In fact, if I was in Melbourne, Australia, and drilled
a hole through the centre of the earth, I’m sure I’d come
out in Welland, Canada. So I couldn’t be any further from my
family than I was today.
It was Monday, January
26, so I’d been in Welland for almost all of the last 6 weeks.
And they had been very sure to include me in their Christmas and New
Years Day celebrations. But my birthday?
My focus that day was to
design some new LETS literature for LETSniagara, so I was on the computer
all day (until 2.15am!), but I was pleasantly surprised at dinnertime
when the Sheffields brought out a small chocolate cake with 2 large
candles on it and began singing ‘Happy Birthday To James’.
It was a quiet evening with only about 5 of us there, but at least
this special day hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Then on the following Saturday,
MaryBeth invited a large group of friends and LETS members to come
and meet me before I left for Kitchener. But unknown to me, this was
my Surprise Birthday Party! A much larger cream-layered cake came
out at dinnertime, this time with 49 candles on it.
I was speechless.
Before leaving Australia on my world tour, I never imagined being
treated so thoughtfully by my LETS hosts. It was totally unexpected.
MaryBeth (left)
and Amber hold my cake while I blow out the candles.
But the highlight of the
night wasn’t going to be me. It was Chonie, MaryBeth’s
3 year-old grand-daughter.
“Come on Chonie,
show James your surprise”, MaryBeth tempted.
But Chonie was being a
little shy. Nevertheless, eventually she plucked up the courage, and
put on her little performance.
“I am a genius”,
she sang, bringing my Archimedes character to life, and giving a few
quick stomps in lieu of the finger-clicking which she was unable to
manage at her age, “I am a genius, I am a genius. Doo-doo dum
doo-doo dum!”
Well, as you can imagine,
she brought the house down.
“She’s been
doing that all week”, MaryBeth said, “ever since she saw
your play last Friday”.
What a lovely realization.
Not only had I impacted both adults and teenagers, but now The Glory
Of Athens had also made an impression on the toddlers!
And maybe, with a little
more practise, Chonie could even become a future understudy!
MaryBeth gave
me a traditional Sheffield teddy for my birthday.
2. Designing
LETS Stationery for LETSniagara
This week was
spent redesigning the LETS stationery for LETSniagara.
And if you're
not happy with your group's stationery, then you should have it redesigned
as well.
For your LETS
group to function properly, you must have the appropriate LETS stationery.
So here’s
the basic pieces of LETS Stationery I found to be critical when I
got involved with LETS about 10 years ago ...
Registration Form
Membership Card
Cheque Book
Brochure
Directory
Newsletter
And if the stationery
your group is using is out-dated, or hard to read because it’s
a copy, off a copy, off a copy, etc. … then it’s time
to renew it. It’ll be worth your while as it’ll make a
very positive impression on prospective new members.
This stationery
was designed on MS Publisher, so you don’t need any fancy software.
You are welcomed to use these ideas when creating or updating your
own LETS stationery.
To view sample
.pdf images of the artwork for these items, click on the links below.
Welcome
to HamLETS
where we don't need cash because ...
we're bringing home the BACON!
HamLETS
Registration Form CLICK HERE
HamLETS
Membership Card CLICK
HERE
HamLETS
Cheque Book CLICK HERE
HamLETS
Brochure CLICK HERE
How To
Prepare Your LETS Directory
The most important
item your group will provide to its members is the LETS Directory.
Without it, your members are left in the dark, without any way of
contacting other members to trade. And if you have one which is difficult
to use, then your members won’t want to use it. So here’s
the best way I’ve seen to prepare your LETS Directory, so it’s
easy for your members to use, and encourages them to contact other
members to trade.
LETS
Directory
As proposed by James Taris
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR LETS DIRECTORY
The Directory
should be in 2 parts:
SKILLS
DIRECTORY: Alphabetical listing of all member offerings
MEMBERSHIP
DIRECTORY: Numerical listing (by m’ship number)
of all LETS members
A.
SKILLS DIRECTORY
This directory should be in category order.
E.g.
Accommodation
Art and Crafts
Baby-sitting
Bicycle Repairs
Bookkeeping
Computer Services
Etc.
All entries should
have:
Detailed description
of offer
Member’s number, name and town/suburb
... And that’s
all! The rest of the information can be found in the Membership Directory
SAMPLE
ENTRIES
(Under
COMPUTER category)
DTP Designing: business cards letterheads,
with compliment slips, forms, brochures, flyers, etc.
077.James (Grand Pork)
(Under BUSINESS
SERVICES category)
Copywriting: Advertising copy, sales
letters, phone scripts, etc.
077.James (Grand Pork)
(Under TRY
ME category)
Try me: I’m happy to consider
anything else (for upto 4 hours)
077.James (Grand Pork) |
B.
MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY
All entries should
have:
Membership number
Name (first name or code name is OK)
Town/suburb
Phone number
Email (if pos.)
List of 6 goods and/or services offered
Level of expertise
Trading price: services at 100% LETSpoints (plus cost of materials
in cash if nec.)
This makes contacting
very easy and trading enjoyable.
SAMPLE
ENTRY
077
. James
(Grand Pork)
(123) 456 7890
james@pig.sty
DTP
Designing: business cards, letterheads, with compliments
slips, forms, brochures, flyers, vouchers, etc. (No newsletters
or directories. These take too long.)
- professional DTP service, only accepting work via email
30 Bacons/ hour
Copywriting:
Advertising copy, sales letters, phone scripts, etc.
- over 20 years exp. in business and sales, only accepting work
via email
25 Bacons/ hour (min. 2 hours)
Try
me: I’m happy to consider anything else,
so send me an email and I’ll see if I can help.
10-30 Bacons/ hour (max. 4 hours) |
TIME
TO DO IT
So now it’s
just a matter of getting your Directory designer to phone, or email,
all of the LETS members in your group with the good news that a new
LETS Directory is being compiled and will be sent out to them as soon
as it’s completed. You can even send them a copy of this if
you like.
Then tell them
what it’s going to include and why it’s such a good idea
to have it that way.
Then just keep
asking questions until they give you all the information you need.
And if you don’t
have someone to work on your Directory yet, then just send this out
to your members and ask for someone to do the job. They’ll get
paid for their work (at 10 Bacons/hour) so that will be a good way
for a new member to get their account quickly into credit.
This
article is taken from the ebook,
400-Day LETS Odyssey
About
the book
|
James
Taris web sites
JamesTaris.com
LETS-Linkup.com
Rich-Bastards.com
Honey-BeeBooks.com
TheGloryOfAthens.com
TravelWithoutMoney.com
ChineseArt-ChineseArt.com
ShanghaiPhotoGuide.com
ShockProofMaterial.com
2pups.com
