Scholarships for complementary currency designers

[Michel Bauwens]

(via Helen Titchen Beeth)


From: Kathleen Battke

Date: Fri 16 Jan 2009 19:49:05 GMT+01:00

Dear friends,

The economic self-destruction process we are experiencing now, this crisis is definitely too valuable a chance for us to waste – and many of us do their best to ease the pain of transformation in and around us.
Gaia U wants to support visionaries of more efficient and healthy moneys to realize their complementary currencies projects in an entrepreneurial way by part-scholarships. We are especially encouraging people who have sound ideas for an educational currency to apply.
Please spread the word.

Thanks, and friendly winds for all (y)our work,
Kathleen


Wanted - Money Changers:
Gaia University announces part-scholarships for 2009
especially for currency experiments

A Crisis is too valuable (and too expensive!) to be wasted – this is why we at Gaia
University Germany have decided to use the present implosion of the financial system to
support the emergence of money diversity. Many committed citizens (particularly in Germany) have designed
and experimented with (mainly regional) complementary currencies. If such systems were
established now on a larger scale, they would help to incite new regional economic
momentum. They function best as a supplement to the Euro for local exchange of products
and services, and they strengthen the community glue at the local level. Furthermore, they
spur on some creative economic solutions in certain sectors e.g. Health Care, Elderly Care,
Education,…. Gaia University Germany, founded in 2007 with a strong connection to the
green money movement, immediately started up with a study program entitled “Sustainable
Money Design”.

Scholarships

To use the current crisis as a possibility, Gaia University Germany has launched two part-
scholarships in order to enhance the diversity in monetary transactions. With 50 percent of
the fees for the first year, we will support the pioneering work of money designers or of
already started projects. Especially we are interested in the support of sectoral
complementary currencies (Education, Life Long Learning, etc). A pool of qualified advisors
are ready to help.

To qualify you would need…..

- life and project experience suitable for this complex task
- readiness to think, experiment and implement
- experience in free-flowing but still committed “liberating structures” of
methodologies like Action-Learning, or the readiness to explore them wholeheartedly
- courage to invest in and formulate your own vision
- ability in sustainable work and methods

The way to apply for a scholarship:
1. Apply for participation in one of the two Starter Workshops being offered by Gaia
University Germany this year (20.2.-1.3. or 28.8.-6.9.)
2. Submit the Career Review as first Output in the study plan, if possible already before
the Starter Workshop
3. Meet with the Directors of Gaia University Germany for a personal interview at the
end of the Starter Workshop or after the evaluation of the Career Review in regards
to possible scholarship to be granted (Here the size of the grant for the year’s fees
will be negotiated, at most 50%, according to the situation of the applicant)

It is seen as a sign of entrepreneurial responsibility that the applicants are ready to finance
the Starter Workshop themselves. The part-scholarship will then be supporting their further
studies. If interested, please, let us know in an application letter as soon as possible or per
E-mail to [e-mail]. More information about Gaia University at
www.gaiauniversity.de or www.gaiauniversity.org.

- - -
Kathleen Battke M.A.
Director Research und Communication Gaia University Germany
PostMastersDip. Organizing Learning for EcoSocial Regeneration (GaiaU)
[phone], Mobile [phone]
[e-mail]