“The Granite”: Imagining a Local Currency for Stonecrest GA
TOP (L to R): ECOs (Catalonia, Spain), Calgary Dollars (Canada), BerkShares (United States)
CENTER: Bangla-Pesa (Kenya)
BOTTOM (L to R): Baltimore BNotes (Baltimore, MD), Sarafu-Credits (Kenya), K’Mali (South Africa)
I made a post on November 11, 2021 within a Facebook Group named Stonecrest Georgia Issues and News, asking for feedback about the idea of launching a local currency in the city. Among the responses, a member of the group named Thad Mayfield expressed the most interest and suggested that it might be helpful to hold an education session for the community on Zoom to help folks develop an informed opinion about local currencies. I thought this was an excellent suggestion and asked Thad to join me in organizing such an event with experts in the subject matter at hand. This was the simple exchange on social media which lead to the “Circulating & Retaining Wealth in Our Community: Thinking About a Local Currency for Stonecrest” webinar that was held on Tuesday January 25, 2022 (the Zoom recording is available HERE, passcode .i1R3fMK).
The steps that lead to scheduling the webinar began with Thad and I reaching out to staff at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics in western Massachusetts. This non-profit organization is a leading expert on local currencies in the United States, being an administrative force behind one of the most successful and well know local currencies in the country named the BerkShare. Once we secured their involvement as subject matter experts, we then set out promoting the webinar to businesses, citizens, policy makers, and other stakeholders within Stonecrest for their registration with the event. Part of the process was issuing a press release, which led to a quite high profile news story being aired on a local television station named 11 Alive News. This broadcast along with our other social media efforts resulted in us receiving over 50 registrations for the webinar and lots of discussion about our idea throughout the City of Stonecrest, including commentary by our City Manager Janice Allen Jackson and others during a City Council meeting!
The webinar itself was an excellent example of successful community engagement and learning. While actual participant levels ended up being only about half of those registered, those who did show up were well engaged. Attention to the core presentation by the Schumacher Center was earnest, with numerous questions asked throughout the session. Several folks even made real-time financial donations to help defray the cost of producing the event! There was palpable excitement about moving forward with launching a local currency of our own in Stonecrest, as well as possibly for the wider south DeKalb County region as one participant recommended to consider.
Our next steps with this initiative will involve both scheduling another similar webinar in February 2022 for those who were not able to make the first, as well as recruiting a core group of stakeholders who want to act as the organizing body for a local currency in Stonecrest. We hope to attract interest and eventual support from Stonecrest City Council and the Stonecrest Chamber of Commerce in particular, as well as businesses and residents who would ultimately be the users of the tender. In addition to Mr. Mayfield, my goal is to partner with as many others as possible to make this idea a reality and to receive wide input on how this project would uniquely work for us as a particular community. I have imagined a currency for Stonecrest being named “The Granite” as an homage to the economic history of our region being rooted in the granite stone quarry industry. More important than whatever name is ultimately chosen, I envision this currency strengthening our local economy and reinforcing our identity as a unified city. That would be solid!
Kwabena “Cubby” Nkromo was a 2021 candidate for the District 1 City Council seat in Stonecrest GA (campaign website HERE) and is the Founder of Stonecrest Sustainable Enterprises (SSE), the holding company brand for North America Food & Farm PBC Inc which manages Stonecrest Fresh Farmers Market.
