[GJM] Fw: Item from the Tuesday Report

[Thomas Greco -- CIRC2]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Thomas Greco -- thg 
To: COMMOFPRACTICE at LIST.UVM.EDU 
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 09:54 AM
Subject: Item from the Tuesday Report


Here below is a report of Bob Meyer that appeared in this week's Tuesday Report of Barter News following last weekend's IRTA Convention. For the complete Tuesday report go to http://www.barternews.com/tuesday.htm
Tom
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"It's time to re-conceive the very idea of 'barter exchange' and payment to realize the full potential of cashless exchange."
-Thomas Greco, Jr., 
Keynote Speaker at IRTA Convention, 
September 15, 2006

A three-year persistent focus by IRTA's (International Reciprocal Trade Association) Executive Director Krista Vardabash and the Board of Directors, led by President Lois Dale, has made an impact on the commercial barter industry.by changing the vision of possibilities within the commercial barter industry.

A door has been pushed open revealing heretofore unimagined opportunities and, predictably, the "business as usual" thinking of the past is no longer enough. 

The evolution is underway, and could well morph into a huge inter-connecting network of trade exchanges working cooperatively together. This global network would provide service to millions of business owners, enabling them to turn unused time and unsold products & services into a valuable form of capital to build and expand their companies. 

The focus on catapulting the industry forward began on IRTA's 25th Anniversary, at the 2004 Cancun convention, when former IRTA Executive director Paul Suplizio (who passionately led the organization its first 16 years) provided his lucid vision of the future. (Story on lower right side of home page.)

Then last year Bernard Lietaer, an expert on monetary systems (while at the Central Bank of Belgium he co-designed and implemented the convergence mechanism, ECU, for the single European currency system) and author of The Future of Money: Creating New Wealth, Work and a Wiser World, addressed attendees at IRTA's convention in Orlando. 

He skillfully carried the baton forward when he pointed out to the IRTA members the problems with the many world currencies, even suggesting that within five years we will see financial convulsions in world financial markets. (http://www.barternews.com/future_of_money.htm  and  http://www.barternews.com/archieve/10_11_05.htm) 

Lietaer further elaborated that the commercial barter industry had an unprecedented, immense opportunity to create an organization of such importance that it could someday rank among the elite institutions of the world. And he emphasized that it was possible to achieve, if action were taken by the assembled entrepreneurs.

"We've proven it can fly, but we're now like the Wright Brothers years ago.just at the beginning of something that's going to be dramatic." Lietaer further assured the group it could all begin with a few visionaries willing to take bold action by beginning to walk in the footsteps of Dee Hock, the architect of Visa. "We're all, the people in this room, putting the blocks in place to build a beautiful cathedral."

It was a stunning eye-opener from a world-renowned monetary authority. The attendees left the convention wrestling with his suggestion that the possibility existed to literally make a positive change in the world's financial infrastructure. 

This year's keynote speaker was Thomas Greco, Jr., an independent scholar, educator and writer, who has been working at the leading edge of transformational restructuring for more than 30 years. 

His expertise includes private currency and exchange system development, the theory and history of money and banking, statistical analysis, and survey research. Greco's books include: Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, New Money for Healthy Communities, and Money and Debt: A solution to the Global Crisis. 

His bold, succinct message paralleled that of his two predecessors, and once again he hammered home that the commercial barter industry could build the financial stabilizer for the world business community through the development of a global trade exchange network...utilizing a valuable goods/services backed currency. 

Greco pointed out to the trade exchange owners that the fastest way to amp up the worth of their own network is to work together. As participating exchanges expand their membership to include all levels of the supply chain (from retailers to wholesalers to manufacturers to basic commodity producers to consumers and workers) every member is able to pay their suppliers with trade credits. Thus becoming a global payment system for the business community. 

As this larger "Network" becomes more valuable, so will each individual exchange within the network. When established, the "Network" will be an enabling organization that exists for the sole purpose of assisting participating exchanges and their members. It will operate separately from the industry's trade associations. (emphasis added.)

With the knowledge of the past and the technology that exists today, immense possibilities are now at the industry's beckoning. After decades of effort and striving there are now trade exchanges in 42 countries around the world...widening the path to greater possibilities of success and accomplishment.

What we do today as an industry will determine what we will be tomorrow. 

Thomas Greco, Jr. can be contacted at: 
P.O. Box 42663, Tucson, Arizona 85733
Ph: (520) 795-8930; e-mail: thg at mindspring.com
Web site: http://www.reinventingmoney.com

(More on the IRTA convention in next week's report.)
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