WOMANSHARE is an ongoing experiment in a way of living. It is a community process which asks for a different way of thinking about time and money with values that may establish different priorities such as caring for each other, building community and taking care of ourselves. During the life of WOMANSHARE's existence various challenges have arisen. The following suggests some that might arise if you decide to start your own form of WOMANSHARE.

1. Consider structure
A new service exchange system will have to decide on its structure, especially if it plans on applying for grants. Will it be a non-profit community based organization? a grassroots cooperative? Will it have an alliance with a sponsoring organization?

Early in the evolution of WOMANSHARE, we decided that we would remain unincorporated and not employ staff. We would rely on the resources of time and talent within the group and live with the small budget that came from an annual membership fee. As a self-sufficient cooperative, WOMANSHARE wanted the freedom of not being dependent on outside organizations.

There was one exception. A responsibility of an innovative organization is to share its experience with the community at large. In 1997, a non-profit organization interested in community development acted as an “umbrella” for a small grant for WOMANSHARE to do such educational work. This grant gave us money for expenses but not staff time.

2. Consider leadership and governance
For a long time, the two founders, along with a few others, assumed the day to day administration and communication work. In the early years there was a passionate surge of cooperative effort. However, WOMANSHARE took an enormous amount of time and effort to develop and that energy could not be sustained over time. A quick run-down of some of our tasks would include:

• Keep financial records and pay bills
• Maintain WS credit accounts and issue reports
• Keep up to date information on members – skills lists, address lists, dues payments, etc.
• Keep and update WS files and archives
• Keep members informed via regular mailings and voice mail.
• Organize member events such as monthly potlucks
• Respond to queries for information from around the world

The Coordinating Committee (CC) was the original body that was the hub of WOMANSHARE.. Its most essential function was to keep WS humming by coordinating event schedules, maintaining an overview of WS’s committees and task forces and recommending issues for discussion or jobs that needed doing. (see “Committees” section for a further description of CC duties).

From the beginning, members were invited to come and sit in on CC meetings and, if they chose, to bring an issue they felt needed to be addressed. As could be expected in any evolving organization, there were some members who believed that the coordinating group was becoming elitist and was making all the decisions. At the same time, members did not offer to take on leadership responsibility. Yet despite the issues and, at times, hard feelings, the CC functioned well throughout the first six years of WOMANSHARE’s existence.

Changes in governance
A crisis occurred in ’97 when, for various personal reasons, the founders decided to withdraw from active leadership. In response, a series of five Town Meetings were held, including a week-end retreat, in which questions of governance and structure – i.e. whether to have a centralized or decentralized structure – were discussed in detail. In 1997, WOMANSHARE opted for decentralization.

Committees were established to carry out the many administrative and communications functions. The committees reported to a Council, a group with no fixed membership which met on a monthly basis.

WOMANSHARE has always believed in decision-making through modified consensus – a process that requires setting parameters, and a willingness to spend time listening and discussing until consensus was reached.

This proved to be a challenge for the Council. Much time was taken up by discussion of issues without resolve – including discussion of who could make certain decisions: a given committee? the council? the membership at large?

Decentralization was a promising and worthwhile idea, but the system seemed unwieldy, and for a time WOMANSHARE seemed to be losing its energy and membership.
But we did not lose heart. We are now seeing a revival of spirit. We are taking in new, enthusiastic members. The WOMANSHARE idea, and the bonds we have formed, have proved strong and resilient.

3. Consider how to pay for the organizational work

If a new group chooses not to hire a staff person to do most of the administrative work, it needs to think how the work will be done and paid for.

It is a tenet of WOMANSHARE that women should be compensated for all their work - whether in exchanges or the administrative work for the cooperative. Each member receives WOMANSHARE credits for WOMANSHARE organizational work whether it is committee work or clerical work in the office. That is why we charge “Time Dues” of 6 hours a year, meaning that each member is obligated to put in 6 hours of work. The problem that arose was that there were many more hours of work to be done than the sum of the members’ time dues to pay for it.

Trading in WOMANSHARE is a balanced equation: a debit on one side and a credit on the other. It works. Time Dues pay for the administration and committee work up to a point, i.e. 100 members times 6 “Time Due” hours equals 600 hours a year to spend on organizational work. We needed at least 2000. Eventually we found we were handing out credits that came from thin air – there was nothing on the other side of the equation. The result was “inflation”. Some of WOMANSHARE’s most committed members who were putting in countless hours to make WOMANSHARE hum were accumulating large credit accounts. As a result they were sometimes hesitant to offer trading services to other members. In addition, they often could not find enough opportunities to spend all their wealth.

We discovered that it was not uncommon for other exchange systems in the country to find themselves in the same situation. We recommend that each group monitor for a possible inflation problem and look at solutions that are available:

1. Increasing the number of “Time Dues” hours per member.
2. Consider making some of the organizational work a gift.
3. Create a capital fund. Members with more credits then they think they can spend can donate to that fund. Credits in the fund can be used to pay for organizational work or to give to people who can’t for some reason earn credits.

It’s Worth It!
WOMANSHARE members have forged a community of great wealth in the opportunities for creativity, for personal growth, for companionship, for support and for fun. We have found that there is an abundance of gifts living in each of us to share with each other.