Clonakilty Favour Exchange is a visible, welcoming, trusting, egalitarian, open and moneyless skills share community.
Below is a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Click on whichever are of interest to you – or read them all by scrolling down the page from here.
1. How do I join?
2. I don’t know what skills to offer or how much time I will have?
3. How do I ask for a favour?
4. How do I find members who can do the favour I need?
5. What do I do if members don't reply to a request?
4. How do I find members who can do the favour I need?
5. What do I do if members don't reply to a request?
6. I don't know the member who is asking/offering a favour?
7. How do I register favours I have done?
7. How do I register favours I have done?
8. How can I get to know other members?
9. How can I share my skills with other members?
10. What is the CFE monthly Favour Fayre?
11. The CFE Lift-share community
12. Share Squads
13. The CFE logging group
11. The CFE Lift-share community
12. Share Squads
13. The CFE logging group
14. Who runs the Favour Exchange and how can I participate?
15. Your favour balance/account
16. Communicating within the Favour Exchange
17. How can I edit my profile page?
18. What should I do if I am not available?
19. Problems
1. How do I join?
Click on the blue ‘Join CFE’ button on the top left hand side of the website. A form will be displayed which is easy to fill in. When you have provided your information, press the submit button and it will automatically be sent to the clonfavour@gmail.commailbox where one of our CFE community facilitators will upload your details. NB You will also need to email us a picture of yourself separately – essential for registration so that members can recognise one another. Alternatively, we can meet and take your picture and upload it for you. Then you will be ready to rock ‘n’ roll with the favour exchange!
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2. I don’t know what skills to offer or how much time I will have?
All members of the favour exchange are equal – there is no skill that is valued more than another. CFE is about community building and sharing abilities in practical, mutually supportive ways. If you are willing to give lifts, to pick up groceries or to cook e.g. - your skill share will be important to the favour exchange. Still stuck for ideas? Have a look at the ‘Offers’ page – click on the green tab at the top of the website. There are over 400 different skills listed there which may suggest some ideas for how you would like to participate.
There is no such thing as a person who does not have some valuable ability to share with other members.
If you are using the favour exchange well, then it will be time-neutral. Remember you get back the time and effort you put into it. Once again, the key to worthwhile involvement in the favour exchange is asking for favours. That is how people will best get to know you.***
3. How do I ask for a favour?
There are four main ways to ask for a favour: by email, text, phone or in person. Contact information is provided for each member on the website on their individual member pages – which can be found in the members’ area – accessible via one of the green tabs across the top of the website. Everyone expects to be asked to do favours so please don’t be shy! Asking for favours is the best way to get to know other members and to realise the benefits of being part of the CFE community. Texting your request where possible is an immediate way of making a request.
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4. How do I find members who can do the favours I need?
We have tried to make it as easy and flexible as possible to find what you need. There are six ways to do this:
i. If you know the name of the person whose skills you are looking for you can search for that person using the search bar. Click on the blue ‘Search for skills and people’ click-box on the left hand side of the website. The ‘Offers’ page will then be displayed which includes a google search bar into which you can key the name of the person you want to contact. Press carriage return/Enter and a list of the items which mention that person will then be displayed, including their personal page – usually the first item on the list. (Ignore the google ads which appear just above your search results.)
ii. If you don’t know who can offer the skill/help you need you can use the same search bar to search for that skill. Just key in what it is you are looking for (gardening, cooking eg), press the return key and a list of the people offering that skill will be displayed.
iii. On the ‘Offers’ page (click the green tab near the top of the website) there is also a comprehensive list of all the skills that members are sharing. At the time of writing, there are over 400 different skills listed there. It’s worth browsing this list so you have an idea of the range of things members can do. Remember too that the list is added to as more people join, so it’s worth checking it out from time to time.
iv. There is also a directory or index of general skills categories to help you to find who and what you need. The index is located on the left hand side of the website beneath the ‘Squirrel Search’ button (more about this below). As each new member is added their skills are registered within the categories on the index. The index also shows the number of people registered within each category. You can click on a category (accountancy, animals, pets etc) to display a list of those members and what they are offering.
v. Having tried all of the above, if you still can’t find the type of skill you need, don’t give up! We also have an ‘Asks Notice Board’ where members can directly post requests for other types of skill. Click on the green ‘Asks’ tab (among the tabs running across the top of the website). This will take you to the notice board which gives easy-to- follow instruction on how to post your request or ‘ask’ there. The page is moderated regularly to keep it up to date. If you have any problems with posting to the Asks page, please email clonfavour@gmail.com and one of the coordinators will help.
NB – we request that members only use the Asks notice board for things they cannot find through the other means described above. It is especially good for asking for things – items that you might need to borrow, eg, or for unusual skill shares.
vi. The Squirrel Search is a support offered to new members to help them find people who can meet their initial requests for skills – and to help them learn how to use the favour exchange. But anyone can email The Squirrel at any time if they are unsure about how to look for what they need. To contact The Squirrel there is an easy to fill in form found by clicking on any of the ‘Squirrel search’ tabs prominently displayed on the website.
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5. What do I do if members don’t reply to a request for a favour?
We ask all favour exchangers to be especially mindful to reply to requests for favours. You have joined the favour exchange ‘economy of goodwill’ and the assumption is that you will share your skills whenever you can – and that others will do the same for you.
There can sometimes be good reasons why people do not reply to requests for favours: illness and holidays, for example.
Allow a reasonable period of time for a reply to requests – we suggest waiting up to 48 hours before sending a reminder. If you have not heard back after a further 48 hours - and to help us keep the membership information fully up to date - we would be grateful if you would email us at clonfavour@gmail.comto let us know. We will then check to see what the problem is, if any.
If you are asked to do a favour, please do reply as promptly as you can and try not to allow requests to go unanswered – if only to say that you cannot help. Nobody is obliged to share skills if it’s inconvenient. When you are one of a few people who may have been asked for a favour, we ask you not to assume that the others will reply. An unnecessary and unexplained silence can seem rude and offensive. It is also discouraging and risks undermining the hard work that other members are putting into making the favour exchange community work well.
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6. I don’t know the member who is asking/offering a favour.
CFE is a good-will, good-neighbour community and care is taken to provide members with as much information as possible about who is sharing what. All favour exchanges are the responsibility of the members between whom they are arranged. If you don’t know the member who has asked you for a favour or responded to your request, have a look at their membership page. If you can’t find them there, email clonfavour@gmail.comfor information. There can sometimes be a short delay before new members are registered on the system.
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7. How do I register favours I have done?
The default position is that the person who does the favour registers the work done. There is a general contact and favour registration form on the website that is easy to fill in – be sure to include details of who you did the favour for, the date on which you did it and how long it took you. Remember 1 Favour = 15 minutes.
*Go to the Members Area on the website (see tab on top right hand side of the web page). *Scroll down the page and click on the ‘Contact us or register favours’ button.
*This will take you to the CFE favour-logging and contact form which is very simple to fill in.
*NB The contact form can also be used for any message or query you may have.
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8. How can I get to know other Favour Exchangers?
Don’t feel shy of doing this: everyone who has joined expects to be asked and is just as keen to get to know you as you are to get to know them. If everybody waits to be asked to do favours, no sharing can happen.
If everybody is asking for favours, the community is rocking!
CFE is as much about building a networked, mutually supportive community as it is about sharing practical skills. In addition to asking for favours there are a number of ways to get to know and meet people:
Morag’s Wednesday Coffee Meetups: Every Wednesday at 11am at O’ Donovan’s Hotel in Pearse Street, you can drop in for coffee and a chat with Morag who is there to answer any and all questions you might have about using the favour exchange. It’s a great way to get to meet other exchangers and have a demo of the website from Bev.
The Speed Exchange. The CFE Speed Exchange is our own version of speed dating. The difference is that you get to know a lot of other members in a single evening and come away with at least one favour offered and one favour to do at the end of the evening. Terrific fun, our first speed exchange in Spring 2012 was the subject of an article in The Sunday Times and the journalist who came to cover the event, Louise Roseingrave, was so impressed that she became a member herself! Speed Exchanges are held approximately twice a year.
Social Events: Members frequently organise social events such as our first Halloween beach party 2012 for which we teamed up with the West Cork Sand Circle Group for an after noon of brilliant fun, games, food, storytelling and more.
The Monthly Favour Fayre – explained in more detail below this is the Favour Exchange market where goods and produce can be swapped or exchanged for favour currency. Great fun and a great way to join in and meet other members.
The Favour Exchange Academy – members offer courses, workshops and demonstrations to groups in return for favours (more below).
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9. How can I make other members aware of the skills I can share?
There are many things you can do to help ensure other members are aware of you and the skills you are offering to share.
Browse the list of members to familiarize yourself with who is in the community – you will almost certainly find at least a few people there whom you could email or phone to say you have joined and that you are offering skills which they might be interested in.
Arrange to meet other members for coffee – or come to the weekly Wednesday Coffee Meetup in O’ Donovan’s Hotel, 11am.
Ask to be included in the ‘Fabulous Favours Famously Featured’ item in the CFE newsletter which is sent out to all members approximately once a fortnight. This a fun feature which showcases different people/skills.
Join in as many activities as you can:
*Be a part of the Favour Academy- offer to do a group workshop (cleaning tips, cookery demo, car mechanics, gardening, therapy, accounting, flower arranging etc).
*Have a stall at the monthly Favour Fayre (2nd Sunday every month)
*Come to the Monthly Members Meetings and join in with the running of the favour exchange. Bring suggestions of your own, if anything occurs to you.
*Be sure to come to the Speed Exchange (see above) when it is happening – an excellent way to meet people and to make others aware of what you are sharing
*Join in any social events such as the terrific Halloween Beach Party organised jointly with Clonakilty Sand Circles in 2012
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10. What is the Favour Fayre?
The CFE Favour Fayre is an exchange of goods, produce and skills that takes place from 2-4pm on the second Sunday of each month in The Venue and courtyard behind O’ Donovan’s Hotel in Clonakilty. Any CFE member can have a stall or booth at the fayre to exchange cakes, vegetables, ready-made food, toys, books, art, various therapies and advice booths etc.
Don’t have a stall? No problem, come anyway and draw down favours from your CFE account at the Fayre Favour Bank - and exchange them for whatever you would like. CFE has a favour token especially for the favour fayre only: the Favour Tiddly Wink comes in denominations of one and two favours (worth 15 and 30 minutes of time respectively.). No money is involved at all – the fayre is a means by which goodwill and skills can be swapped for tangible items.
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11. The CFE Lift-share
For regular journeys and one off lifts, CFE has a Lift-share community which members can avail of. To find out about this go to the Lifts page (click on the green Lifts tab at the top of the website) where you will find a list of all those making regular journeys and also of people who are offering to give lifts on request (to or from the airport e.g.). NB the person giving the lift will earn favours equal to the amount of time the lifts take plus petrol costs as agreed. The AA formula for calculating petrol costs is linked to on the Lifts page. (A general rule of the favour exchange is that when a person incurs any actual cost for materials, petrol or whatever, the recipient of the favour will pay them. Time is always shared for favours only!)
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12. Share Squads
At present share or help squads are organised on an ad hoc basis where a member needs a group of people to get a job done in a limited period of time (house move, gardening, cleaning etc). It is planned in the future to organise standing groups who can be contacted directly via the website but for the time being members can identify other members who could help them by using the search bar (explained at 4. above) – and contacting them directly.
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13. The Logging Group
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14. Who runs the Favour Exchange and how can I participate?
The Favour Exchange is an open and democratic community. Any member can participate in running it if they wish. It requires a lot of work to run CFE effectively so there is always a need for help with this – and favours are awarded by the community for the time given to it. There is no obligation on any member to do this work but clearly the more people who do become involved the better it is for the community as a whole. Any offer of help will be very much appreciated.
There are a variety of ways to become involved:
Logging/banking favours
General administration
Chairing/minuting the Monthly Members’s Meeting
Registering new members
Outreach
Membership Support
The Favour Fayre
Organising various CFE events (social, Speed Exchange etc)
Website maintenance
Editing/monitoring CFE facebook page
Editing/monitoring CFE twitter account
Editing/monitoring CFE Community Calendar and/or ‘Asks’ Notice Board
All the above are determined via the Monthly Members’ Meeting, held on the first Tuesday of each month at 7.30 in The Boardroom over the Courtyard Bar in Clonakilty. All are welcomed – find out who is doing what and have an input in the planning process.
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15. Your Favour Balance/Account
Your favour balancecan be viewed by going to the Member’s Page (click on the green tab at the top of the website). Scroll down the page and you will see the ‘Favour Balances’ tab. Click on it and a full list of member balances will be displayed.
If you have any queries about your favour balanceemail clonfavour@gmail.com.
CFE tries to maintain an upper and lower limit on the number of favours members can withdraw or accrue at any one time. All members are immediately entitled to 25 hours or 100 favours when they join – and equally we suggest members don’t go over 25 hours in credit. The aim overall is that the membership is exchanging at a steady rate. Don’t worry if your balance goes down over a period of time. There will be no cross letters or reprimands! If your favour balance goes deeply into the red for a long period of time, one of the coordinators may contact you to suggest ways to help bring it back up again. (Share Squads, help with coordinating the favour exchange or organizing a group workshop are a few of many effective ways to put back what you have taken out.)
If you have a need for a lot of skills/favours for a particular project (decorating your house e.g.), then you can apply to the Members’ Meeting in advance to explain why you need the favours and how you plan to return them. There is no formality involved - an email request to clonfavour@gmail.com will be plenty. We will then submit your request to the next Members’ Meeting for approval –you are always welcome at the meeting. This process helps us to keep track of the exchanges occurring within the community and to prevent anyone from taking advantage of it. This type of request helps to keep the exchange rates up and is also a good way of getting to know other members.
There is also a quarterly administrative levy of 5 favours per member. This levy is applied to return the time given to helping with coordination/administration. Submissions made for administration or support work for CFE are submitted openly to the Members’ Meeting for approval – again, all members are welcomed.
No member may credit their own account with favours for work done – this is always done by an impartial third party.
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16. Communicating within the Favour Exchange
You can also send queries and suggestions to the coordinating group at clonfavour@gmail.com
A fortnightly newsletter is emailed to all members with news of everything that is happening.
Text alerts are also used to alert members to interesting events.
As above, all members are very much welcomed at the Monthly Members’ Meeting which is a great opportunity to have your say in how the community runs.
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17. How can I edit my personal profile page?
Use the contact form on the website to send in the details of any changes you would like to make to your personal profile page. Click on the green Members’ Area tab near the top of the website. Scroll down to the ‘contact us or register favours’ tab and click on that. A form will be displayed which you can fill in and submit. Edits/changes are done within a week – usually much sooner.
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18. What should I do if I am going away for a while?
If you discover that someone is away, please let us know on their behalf if possible.
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19. Problems
A disagreement between members over work done is for the members themselves to resolve. NB all exchanges are undertaken at the discretion of the people offering and receiving the favours. It’s important to check member profiles and to discuss what is being done before it is done.
If you experience any other type of problem, please notify us via the contact form (described at 17 above).
If you do not receive a reply to a request for a favour, please let us know via the contact form. We suggest you allow 48 hours for a reply and another 48 hours for a reply to a second request.
We ask you to remember that this is a favour exchange and that members are interacting as a matter of goodwill and in community spirit – whether giving or receiving favours.
Do your best, be your best!
If you think there is a special reason for involving the coordinators in any disagreement, please contact us and we will consider whether we can help resolve the matter.
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