Time Bank is a community-based strategy in which people who voluntarily decide to spend at least one hour of their time assisting others gain at least an hour time credit, as an appreciation of their effort. These people can in turn use the time credit they earn from the voluntary work to hire assistance from other individuals.
Professor Edgar Khan, the founder of the Time Bank concept, asserts that every person’s time is equal despite the difference in activities that people engage in using these times. This paper describes the concept of Time Bank using Time Rial (Cahn 206).
Time Bank and Its Importance
The innovation and initial development of Time Bank are accredited to its founder professor Edgar Cahn. The concept of Time Bank was developed by Cahn as a strategic system that was meant to assist communities continue with their normal daily operations despite the acute reduction in government funding that was meant for the development of social programs within these communities.
The reduction in government funding resulted in lack of enough money that could be used to address issues of social and public welfare. Cahn, through the concept of Time Bank, assisted the communities to create a “new type of money” that could be used to complement the little government funding (Cahn 206).
The components of Time Banking as showed by its application in the United States include: recognition, which requires people to recognize that each one of them has something valuable to give out; acknowledgement, which requires people to accept that some types of jobs are beyond monetary evaluation; reciprocity, which requires people to cultivate the spirit of giving back; interdependence, which requires that people depend on one another for mutual benefits; and lastly, respect, which requires everyone to act in a decent manner and be able to give back what he receives. These components significantly enhance the workability and importance of the concept of time banking (Westman 337).
There is an established way through which the offers, requests and credit balances of the participants of the system are organized to enable a smooth running of the system. The organization is done through Community Weaver, which is an online based system. Apart from the web-based software system, the time banking aspects can also be organized through a central office with coordinators, who connect the offline participants with other members to enable them to make requests or receive offers (Westman 338).
There are a number of benefits that can accrue from using Time Bank in Saudi Arabia, where communities do not know much about the concept. The concept assists individuals to exchange services and skills by using an alternative currency known as time credits that are earned during social work (Luo 74).
The members of the community, through this community system, earn one time Rial for every one hour that they take assisting other members within the community. Therefore, earnings are the first benefit that those involved in the system accrue from it. They literally earn Rials for working, although the work itself is voluntary in nature (Westman 340).
The second benefit is realized when the volunteers use the Rials they obtain from social work to acquire services that are beyond their capabilities. The system works in such a way that the volunteering members receive one Rial from the services they offer to others and spend it to acquire favors, lessons, and/or services from other people. Someone can easily offer and acquire services without having to spend real money. This is why the system of Time Banking is sometimes referred to as advanced bartering (Cahn 208).
Apart from offering and acquiring basic services, the concept of time banking benefits the participants with a complete time exchange that is characterized by exchange of different characteristics and qualities among the participants. The participants get to learn new skills, make new friends, and uncover their potentiality and gifts. As a result, the system reduces the dependency of communities on government’s funding and grants (Westman 340).
The services, skills and gifts that are exchanged in time banking are very important components for establishing a healthy and working society. A healthy society is marked by basic things such as the presence of proper childcare and eldercare systems, a good transportation and communication network, affordable household repairs and involvement in community work.
These are realized by the exchange of services such as cooking, homework help, small business development, housecleaning, companionship, yard work, and tutoring services (Westman 340).
Steps Involved in the Time Rial
The implementation of the Time Rial project can be done through four steps. The first step involves ensuring that all the members get to know each other. Time Rial cannot work when the participants do not know one another. A proper knowledge of everyone involved makes it easy to place orders and receive time credits. By knowing one another, the members can effectively make friendly exchanges, which are fundamental in establishing a stronger and interactive community (Liao-Troth 92).
The second step is assisting the members to identify those individuals who are in need of their help and those who are also able to help other community members. Many people in the community engage in activities that benefit their neighbors without knowing it. Consequently, Time Rial is the most appropriate tool that can be used to ensure that such activities benefit those who really need assistance and can reciprocate with other services (Liao-Troth 92).
The third step is to ensure that all members are equally assigned tasks that they can perform best. In life, it is expected that people have daily activities that they have to concentrate on to attain their basic needs. Some people struggle with heavy duties that they have limited knowledge about.
Through Time Rial, people get an opportunity to interact and get to know what other people like the most and what least matters to them. In such exchanges, people can let others do for them what they do not like doing and instead help other people in doing what they prefer working on the most (Liao-Troth 93).
The fourth step involves convincing people to embrace the importance of the community-based Time Rial. Life becomes less tough to the entire society when people get help from their neighbors and they too return what they receive voluntarily. The main purpose of Time Rial is to create a network in which people can get other individuals to do for them what they don’t like.
Sometimes tasks that some people regard as the most difficult are the easiest to others. In such cases, Time Rial is quite important as it allows for easy exchange of tasks among members of the community (Liao-Troth 92).
Importance of Time Rial to a Professional
The proposed Time Rial has great significance to professionals especially those planning to begin practicing their careers for the first time. Firstly, the aspect of Time Rial can assist professionals to design vocation programs that they can use to determine the portions of the work, which are supposed to be handled by each individual. The criterion of designing a work program that assigns work to individuals helps to avoid situations that occur as a result of different people doing the same work repeatedly (Cahn 206).
Secondly, the Time Rial project can assist professionals to determine the amount of pay that suits an individual’s efforts and dedication in a particular industry. In many cases, people are normally under-rewarded or over-rewarded because their efforts are either underestimated or overestimated. Time Rial can help to minimize this problem by helping the professionals to recognize the capabilities of every participant in a particular field of production (Cahn 207).
In conclusion, the concept of Time Bank is important to most people as it helps them to respond positively to reductions in government funding to their areas. A Time Rial is a community-based strategy in Saudi Arabia in which people voluntarily decide to spend at least one hour of their time assisting others while gaining at least an hour time credit in the process.
The main importance of Time Rial is that it makes it easy for people to exchange services based on what each one of them knows best or least. In this system, people leave activities that they cannot handle to people who have the ability and will to do them and take over those that match their capabilities.
Works Cited
Cahn, Edgar. No More Throw-Away People: The Co-Production Imperative. Washington, DC: Essential, 2000. Print.
Liao-Troth, Mathew Allen. Challenges in Volunteer Management. Charlotte, NC: IAP Information, 2008. Print.
Luo, Zongwei. Advanced Analytics for Green and Sustainable Economic Development: Supply Chain Models and Financial Technologies. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference, 2012. Print.
Westman, Jack. Breaking the Adolescent Parent Cycle: Valuing Fatherhood and Motherhood. Lanham: University Press of America, 2009. Print.