We are very sorry to report that we lost our beloved mentor and HUMANs Advisory Board
member Bernard Lietaer on February 4. The bearer of the sad news, Leander (a teammate from the very beginning of this Mutual Aid Network project), says “he kept a smile on his face.”
Bernard wrote the book The Future of Money which started me on this path of working toward cooperative economics. I feel we continue to work to apply his ideas somewhat faithfully.
He also came to Madison with co-author of Rethinking Money, Jacqui Dunne, and did some public appearances and held a day-long workshop with us that helped to shape our current vision for Mutual Aid Networks. Specifically (for fellow nerds) he encouraged us to consider adopting a C3 system (you can find more info at his website) in Madison. We ended up envisioning a way we could adapt that model to fit our own needs, including creating a Common Fund (hybrid savings pool) that could serve as a backstop if a particular organization needed to trade in their mutual credit units for national currency, instead of having to engage an insurance company as has been the common practice.
It was an honor and a privilege to have gotten the opportunity to meet Bernard, and even more to work with him.
We hope to honor him by realizing his vision, applying what we’ve learned from him to create sustainable abundance. Regenerative and equitable. May it be so.
–Stephanie Rearick
Curious about the C3 system, I clicked on the link to go to Bernard Lietaer’s site and was presented with the message “Server Not Found.” I looked up at the site address and saw that it is http://www.lieataer.com/
There is an “a” before the “t” in the link that should not be there.
Hello! Sorry if this is a very delayed reply, I don’t see these comments readily.
And I think we’ve figured out a way to make a C3-type system without having to get a big insurer involved (hybridized savings pool model which we’re calling a Common Fund)
Look at the video on the front page and some of the materials in ‘tools and training’ – you can go back in time on our blog and find reports from when Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne came to Madison, and Bernard focused a lot on C3. There’s a link to video and our notes from our workshop with him. Don’t remember the year but it’s when Rethinking Money was coming out…
Join the HUMANs to get involved in current developments and experiments, and/or to share your own…
Thanks for writing!