Community Exchange NewsCommunity Exchange News is the Newsletter of the SANE Community Exchange System (CES) group
| Community Exchange News |
| No.3, 10 September 2003 |
Community Exchange News is the Newsletter of the SANE Community Exchange System (CES) group |
Contents:
Site statistics: CES growing rapidly
These statistics speak for themselves.
As at 10 September 2003:
Members: 265
This number would be higher if we counted those who have been removed from the system because of non-activity. We are 'recycling' the account numbers of people who joined but never accessed their accounts after five or six months.
Total number of sales since the start (Feb 2003): 588
Total value of sales: T50,524.50
Number of members who have traded: 143 (54%)
Average value of transactions: T86
Sales 2003:
Month Sales Talents February 3 295.00 March 8 394.00 April 9 1,768.00 May 21 2,802.02 June 80 6,091.82 July 113 10,493.65 August 194 19,949.01 September (10 days) 160 8,731.00
News: New features on the site
A number of new features have been added to the site in the past month. The most useful is perhaps the drop-down list of members when entering a transaction. This reduces the chance of entering the wrong account number of buyers.
Online Trading Slips allow you to send a Trading Slip to someone who has provided you with something and you are not able to meet face-to-face to exchange a paper Trading Slip.
Member balances now render very quickly. The previous slowness was caused by the system having to re-calculate all balances from the base trading details. As the number of transactions increased the time it took to calculate the datails increased in proportion. Now the system keeps running totals for each member and this allows balances to be shown very rapidly.
You can now view Today's Offerings and This Week's Offerings to see the latest offerings added to the system.
The CES web site can now be reached by using the following two addresses:
http://www.ces.org.za
http://www.talents.org.za
The old address http://www.sane.org.za/ces still works.
News: New CES groups in Joburg, PE and at Oude Molen
New CES groups have been started in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and at Oude Molen in Cape Town. All these new groups use the same familiar SANE CES web interface. Different account numbers show members the data for their areas. Each area has its own set of members, offerings and wants lists and trading information.
We are working on linking these groups so that in the future all groups will be able to trade with each other.
If you no longer wish to receive the Offerings and Wants Lists, the Newsletter (Community Exchange News) and Updates by email, you can now stop all email from the CES to the email address shown in your account profile.
To switch off email log in to your account, click on the [My Record] button at the top and in the Edit your Account Details box, check the 'Stop email' checkbox. You will receive no more email from the CES Administration until you remove the check again.
If you wish to disable your account but not close it, it is now possible to do so. You may wish to do this, for example, if you are going away and do not want to be available to other participants.
Log in to your account and click on the [My Record] button at the top. In the Edit your Account Details box, check the 'Hide account' checkbox. This will prevent your name from displaying on the Members List, your offerings from appearing on the Offerings List and your wants from appearing on the Wants List. To stop regular mailings from the CES, you will need to check the 'Stop email' checkbox as well.
Most members have entered their offerings but many of them look so uninspiring that they are unlikely to attract any custom.
Think of your offerings as adverts for what you do. Would you go to someone who describes what they do with just one or two words, or to someone who offers the same but with many words that convices you that they will do a good job.
Go back to your offerings and make them look attractive. There is no word limit on what you can say so convince us that you are the best person to come to for what you offer.
You can edit your offerings by seeking them out on the offerings list. Your offerings are shown as green, meaning that they are clickable. Click on your offerings and you will be taken to the edit offerings form where you can jack up your 'adverts'.
A 'virtual' member has joined the CES, called 'Projects'. The idea behind Projects is to provide funding (in dirty old Rands) for CES members who are involved in community projects. Projects will buy Rands from you for Talents, and then keep those Rands in a bank account. When a member or group of members of the CES request funding to purchase goods and services not available on the CES, Projects will 'sell' them Rands for Talents. In this way needy projects can be funded in a very innovative way.
If you would like to bring your red debit back towards zero sell Rands to Projects. In this way you will be credited with Talents. Even if you are in the black you can sell Rands to Projects to gain more Talents.
Contact the Adminstrator at info(at)ces.org.za if you would like to buy Talents (and reduce your red at the same time!). Full details of 'Project's' activities will be made available so you will know where the money is going.
SANE CES Administration
admin(at)ces.org.za