About the Service Co-operative

The Service Co-operative is the system for co-ordinating the participation hours of members. It is also where one can access the services offered by other members. Only members, projects and the Community Earth Organization can benefit from these participation hours. The minimum participation hours per timetable period (of 28 days), is decided yearly by members via a vote on the local sphere.

How Participation & Benefit Hours work

If the minimum participation hours agreed to is 16, then 16 hours also becomes the maximum total benefit hours that each member can request within the same timetable period. Please note that this benefit does not guarantee that 16 benefit hours will be received in any given timetable period but rather that the opportunity is there. Members are neither encouraged nor discouraged to volunteer extra time since that time will not entitle them to more benefits.

Members can be called upon by other members, projects and the organisation itself or any mixture of these, and implicate themselves in projects in order to fulfil their participation hours.

If a member is unable to use their benefit hours in any given timetable those hours revert to 0. This means that it is not possible for members to accumulate hours. However, since a member always volunteers a minimum amount of hours they are always given the possibility to benefit from the same minimum amount of hours within their timetable period.

Functionality

The skills offered under a members profile can be searched through the Service Co-operative via the world wide web or by calling a Service Co-operative agent and asking for such a search to be done. This information may also be available in paper form at local Community Earth Centers for quick browsing.

Members then decide between themselves if any transaction occurs. A member offering a service can be referred to as a Service Provider. A member in search of and requesting hours from Service Providers can be refereed to as Service Demanders. Community Earth Organization and its projects can also be referred to as Service Demanders, whether a member has been asked by them for a service or if the member schedules themselves to complete their participatory hours.

There are two (2) common methods to engaging participatory hours and updating the Service Co-operative…
1.When a transaction occurs, the Service Provider needs to update the Service Co-operative. They do this by filling out a receipt in their profile upon which a copy of it is automatically sent to the Service Demander for confirmation. Confirmation or denial of the confirmation must be given within a week otherwise the Service Co-operative will be notified of the problem and an agent will look into the matter.
2.A Service Demander and Service Provider can also agree to an exchange at a future date (a week or more in advance), the Service Demander must go on their profile and fill out an intent of engagement for an x number of hours. This information is sent to the Service Provider automatically and he/she then confirms that it is correct. At this confirmation the hours are scheduled within the Service Co-operative database. If no confirmation is given it will be considered a denial and no calculation will be automatically adjusted without it. Note that if members use this method they do not need to fill out a receipt as mentioned in the method in the above paragraph as the intent of engagement automatically calculates this when the time has come. Of course, if the transaction did not actually occur a Service Co-op Agent should be advised.

Where as a project manager or directors of the organization can engage members via the regular methods this is seldom done unless special tasks are required. Instead, members should implicate themselves before hand by deciding which project(s) they wish to participate in and therefore more likely to enjoy. This can be done by searching each projects needs and contacting the managers of those projects to schedule hours. Eventually members will also be able to schedule their hours directly into hour slots that each project managers will post. If a member has an idea of a service that she/he can do for a project that is not listed they should contact the project manager with this in. If members are not so enthusiastic they should contact the Service Co-operative by phone and an agent will try to match the member with a project in need of services. Either way the common two methods of updating the Service Co-operative remain the same.

Members can contact the nearest center if there is a problem or they are unable to make their scheduled appointments. This should be done at least two hours before any such meeting is to take place. Failure to do so can affect membership.

If by the end of a members 3rd week, they have not completed their minimum participation hours and there is no scheduled hours already calculated for the last week, a Service Co-operative agent will contact that member to see where and how they can complete their hours.

If a member has no computer access, is unable to access the local Community Earth Center or for some other reason cannot access their profile themselves, that member can update and execute the above steps over the phone via a Service Co-operative agent.

Enter the Service Co-operative