Community Exchange NewsCommunity Exchange News is the Newsletter of the SANE Community Exchange System
| Community Exchange News |
| No.7, 13 January 2004 |
Community Exchange News is the Newsletter of the SANE Community Exchange System |
Contents:
The Talent Exchange - where your money is your talent
News: Inter-Group Trading Implemented
At the beginning of 2004 the ability to trade with other Talent Exchange groups was implemented. This makes the Talent almost as versatile as the Rand: you can trade with any member of any other Talent Exchange group anywhere in the country. It will only become totally as versatile as the Rand when everyone in the entire country is on the Talent Exchange. We're getting there!
Inter-group trading works pretty much the same as local trading, but instead of trading with a named member you trade with the virtual member in your group that represents the group of the remote member. For example, if you want to trade with someone in Johannesburg you will trade with "Johannesburg Virtual", a 'member' that appears as a normal member in the Cape Town membership list. "Johannesburg Virtual" takes on the offerings of the entire Johannesburg group and displays them as any member displays his or her offerings.
Remote trading will serve as a significant boost to new groups, as they will not have go through the painful stage of limited and uninteresting offerings that startup groups faced up to now.
To find out more about remote trading go to www.ces.org.za/docs/remote.htm
Due to the christmas period 'closure' no decision has yet been taken on a new logo for the Talent Exchange.
New logo designs submitted by members are available for viewing from the web site. Please have a look at them and submit your comments to admin[at]ces.org.za. If you have any designs of your own please send them to this same address.
A number of 'votes' have already been received but please keep them coming. We want our logo to be one that is selected by the majority of members.
At a meeting on 13 January 2004 a decision was taken to start a Talent Exchange in McGregor. The database has already been created and the new group will be launched shortly after a meeting and presentation in McGregor in the next few weeks.
Trading in the Pretoria group is beginning to take off, with T7,728 traded so far.
Big trading events are planned for the new year, the first of which will be held on 24 January. We have grown large enough to stand on our own, and this event will be the first where we will not be a mere participant at another event. The idea is for this to be a trading/educational/social event where members can trade and get to know each other, and learn how to use the system. There will be more to follow.
The 24 January event will be held at Community House, 41 Salt River Road, Salt River from 10h00 to 16h00. We are appealing to all members to help make this first Talent Exchange Market Day an exhilarating and valuable experience as we explore new ways of relating economically to each other.
The space available will consist of:
There will also be a number of display boards around the premises where members will be able to advertise there wants and offers.
For planning purposes please let us know in which way(s) you envisage participating in this event.
For your diary subsequent events are being planned to take place in Wynberg on 21 February and in Kalk Bay on 20 March.
Don't forget that the Talent Exchange web site is available from the following four web addresses:
www.ces.org.za
www.talentexchange.org.za
www.talents.org.za
www.sane.org.za/ces
The following statistics give the position of the Talent Exchange at the end of 2003. The Talent Exchange started at the beginning of February 2003 so the end of January will become our 'financial year'!
Total number of sales in 2003: 1,114
Total value of sales in 2003: T132,589.10
Average value of sales in 2003: T119.02
Site statistics: Trading takes a dip
December saw a decline in trading and new member applications as many members went on leave. Contrary to expectations that there would be an increase in trade over the christmas period, most members abandoned the Talent Exchange for the more familiar shopping malls! This highlights one of the main problems of the Talent Exchange: inconvenience. We hope to tackle this issue in the coming year.
As at 10 January 2004:
Sales 2003:
Month Sales Talents Total February 3 295.00 295.00 March 8 394.00 689.00 April 9 1,768.00 2,457.00 May 21 2,802.02 5,259.02 June 80 6,091.82 11,350.84 July 113 10,493.65 21,844.49 August 194 19,949.01 41,793.50 September 263 26,404.88 68,198.38 October 179 35,284.47 103,482.85 November 151 18,504.75 121,987.60 December 91 10,601.50 132,589.10 January 27 (10 days) 5,389.17 137,978.27 Total 1,141 137,978.27
1. Remote Trading
The most notable addition to the web site is of course the ability to trade with remote members. This has been covered in the first item of this Community Exchange News.
2. Offering Time Limits
One of the problems with the Offerings List, particularly when it comes to goods, is that there is no way of knowing if the offering advertised is still available. To improve this situation it is now possible to specify how long you would like the offering to display for. You will notice this when adding a new offer. If you would like your offering to display forever (e.g. you are offering a service) you just select the 'forever' option, otherwise select an option that will automatically delete your offering after the required time period.
Please make use of this feature as it annoying for members to find out that your offering has already been sold or is no longer available. Please also delete all old offerings that are no longer available as this new feature does not apply to old offerings. To delete an offering simply go to your personal record [My Record] and click on the [Offerings] button. This will list your offerings and by clicking on the title of the offering in the 'Offering' column, you will be able to edit/delete your offerings.
3. Trading Sheets
From the '6. Trading Documents' option on the home page you will be able to reach 'Trading Sheets'. These are sheets that can be used at trading events and by shops where goods are being sold for several other members. In such situations Trading Slips become a nuisance and Trading Sheets are much more useful.
4. Planned Documents
Following shortly will be online 'invoices' and online 'receipts'. The Talent Exchange plans to provide all the documents you will need to trade in a professional way.
There are now two ways of searching for offerings: you can do a local search that produces results from your group only or a global search that produces results from all groups.
To perform the former type of search enter your search word(s) in the 'Search' box on the green band at the top. You can search not only for offerings but for members by first name, surname or account number.
To perform a global search go to the Offerings page and enter your search query into the 'Search Groups' box at the top right of the green box.
Remember, when adding your offerings ensure that they contain enough keywords for people to search on. For example, if you are offering a specific form of treatment make sure to provide enough descriptive material that would cover every possible way that people might search for your offering.
SANE CES Administration
admin[at]ces.org.za