This training is being offered in the spirit and pattern of a sharing economy - a way to tangibly practice collaboration in the difficult realm of money.  It also provides an opportunity for learning more about collective management of finances with transparency and generosity. 

The Concept

Sharing economies can take any number of forms so there is no right way of doing it and there are probably many different motivations for practicing it.  One of the primary intentions in choosing to offer a sharing economy for this training was that it has the potential for transforming the interaction between participants and the organizers/hosts from transactional to relational.  It is the hosting team’s belief that such a shift is important in reclaiming the collective as it makes everyone responsible for the event’s economy.  Participation in a community or a truly collective experience invites a different level of involvement than the traditional consumer transaction where ‘you pay me money and I deliver a product’.  In this training, we are all being invited to discover what it mean to collectively live in community, if only for a few days.

The concept of this sharing economy is simple: we want to cover the costs of the training including a small fee for each member of the hosting team and for the organizer and a little generosity to the larger hosting community.   And we want everyone to share in making this happen.  So, each participant is encouraged to give what they can and maybe a little more.  In the spirit of sharing, all of the budget and financial information will be transparent and available to everyone.

Fixed Price

Of course some people work for organizations that are willing to pay for their attendance and the organization has need for clarity of the price.  Some participants may also not be interested in exploring a sharing economy.  So, we are offering a standard fixed price for anyone who prefers this option. This means paying the full fixed price at the time of registration.  Even though these participants will not be directly affected by the sharing economy, they will still have the opportunity to observe it in action and hopefully gain deeper understanding about their own relationship to money.  Everyone is also invited to practice generosity by contributing more than the fixed price which will help more participants to be able to attend.  Whatever you choose, please know that this is all voluntary and totally without expectations and that no one else will be aware of how much you are paying.

Principles

If you would like to know more about the principles that were used in designing this sharing economy, you can read them at the end of this page. 

Regional Differential

Not all economies are created equal and people’s incomes vary widely between regions.  In an effort to honor this, all of the prices for this training contain a ‘regional differential’.  Essentially this means that people from less economically advantaged economies are being asked to pay 15% below cost while those from more economically advantaged arms are being asked to pay 15% above cost.  For sake of simplicity, we have labeled these different regional economies as lower GDP economy and higher GDP economy.  This is not intended to be rigid or to be based upon a participant's address or passport.  We assume that you know which economy you live in and will pay accordingly.

Further Reading

Note:
The hosting team has had mixed feelings about the using of language of "GPD" and has been wrestling with similarly but different loaded language such as "Eastern & Western". In the spirit of simplicity and transparency, we have decided to work with the dominant terminology and also acknowledge our internal discussion publicly.

Shared Economy Principles

Sharing responsibility for covering the costs of this training in a spirit of generosity and fairness is a practice opportunity for the collective.  Since shared economies are relatively new and an area of interest to other collaboratives, this is an opportunity for harvesting and sharing learnings.
  • The community of participants and hosts will be collectively responsible for creating a healthy economy for this training.
  • A healthy economy covers all costs incurred in the training and expresses generosity.
  • Every participant pays what s/he is able.  No one is excluded based upon ability to pay.  Those who are able to pay more support those who are cannot pay as much.
  • The budget and financial summary is transparent and open to everyone.
  • A minimal amount per participant is needed in advance to enable the training (First Installment).
  • There is a recognition that some organizations and some individuals are unable to deal with the ambiguity of a shared economy and require a fixed price and/or invoice in advance.  A fixed price (higher and lower GDP adjusted) has been established to meet this need.  This amount needs to be paid in advance (no second installment).
  • Everyone else is encouraged to make a first installment payment to cover fixed costs and accommodations.  If a participant is unable to pay the full first installment fee, they can request financial assistance which will be dependent upon available support from generosity of other participants.
  • At the training, everyone will be invited to pay a second installment after being provided a full summary of the financial situation.  Those who paid the fixed amount are welcome to contribute more but this is not an expectation.
  • The suggested contributions and fixed prices are based on the assumption of 40 participants.