A little bit About Us
LETS - 15 Years On and Still Going Strong
Maleny LETS (Local Energy Trading System) was formed in 1987 as an initiative of the local community following a trip by Maleny locals Jill Jordan and Ian Smith to Canada where Michael Linton had an active LETS and was promoting the idea as a means to strengthen local economic development.
The system is simple. The Bunya IOUs or units can be thought of as what the LETS community owes to you, if in credit or what you owe to the LETS community if you are in debit. A kind of "community consideration" as we LETS members often refer to it as. This community consideration is the strength of any LETS or local currency system as it can not drain away or leak out of a region and there is never any shortage of it. There is never any excuse for not working or "Can't because I need money to do that!" There are alway things that need to be done - just pay Bunyas to someone to help out; or if you really need it soon - just pay Bunyas for it. Then start your plan on what you can offer the community to repay your consideration. Since Maleny LETS started over 10 years ago the 1100 members have traded nearly 2 million Bunyas. The current 400 active members still trade about 20,000 Bunyas each month. That's a lot of energy and trading that would not happen without a LETSystem, or if done with federal currency have made everyone that much cash poorer.
Other ways that LETS is more than just a local currency is that to assist a member to trade or earn units the LETS has a notice board for offers and requests. Everyone has some skills and talents that they can offer to earn or repay their community consideration. The LETS "yellow pages" listings help members to list the many things that we all can do. Often people only think of themselves as one thing - their primary job or occupation. We are all multi-talented and LETS can help us recognise this and try new tasks and different jobs. For this reason many LETS say they are Local Employment Trading Systems, but the Maleny group feels that employment is too narrow and we are doing more than employing people but are moving, growing and distributing the energy around our community.
But LETS are even more! The LETS encourages social links within a community too. The listings enable people to get together to trade and of course make new friends along the way. Maleny LETS also fosters community networking and trading by having a LETS Market on the first Wednesday in each month at 9am in the garden outside the LETS office, which is at the rear of the Maleny Credit Union building at 28 Maple Street. The LETS Market is a great way to sell any surplus produce or off load those unused items. The market trading is 100% LETS units, so you know that you can get things for Bunyas only and save your cash for other things.
Of course all these great features of a LETS cost something. So Maleny LETS does have a small joining fee and annual fee to provide dollars to help run the system. In addition there are transaction fees of 5% up to a maximum of 5 Bunyas and notice board, statement and newsletter charges, which are all in the local Bunya units. From these fees Maleny LETS run an office 11am to 4pm each day to service LETS members and provide new members with information and advise. Drop in when passing, meet the staff and if you are not a current member, then consider joining the best local wealth creation system there is - LETS. | 
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