Posted at: 10/04/2009 11:12 PM
Updated at: 10/05/2009 7:50 AM
By: Lorilyn Prestidge

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Time Trader Celebrates Its One-Year Anniversary

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- How would you like to baby sit and in exchange be able to have someone clean your home?

Or watch someone's dog and be able to have your dinner prepared for you?

Well, that's the idea behind a Rochester time bank that is celebrating its one-year anniversary.

The time bank, called "time trader" is growing at an incredible rate.

Members of the Rochester time trader are celebrating their first anniversary, and after one year this time bank has more than 160 members, many more than originally expected.

"I thought, you know, what if I can get a hundred members? I'd be quite happy, but we did set our goal quite high at 150 and we exceed it so it's just great," said Kelli DeCook, the supervisor of Rochester Time Trader.

Time trader is based on an old saying, “time is money.”

The program allows you to trade in a service that you like to do, such as dog walking, for a service you want, like getting a massage.

"I was sort of in at the very beginning, I guess you could say," said trader Michael Berg.

Berg helped someone move and got his truck re-wired for it.

"An electrical engineer from IBM did it, so he was well over-qualified, I guess. But it's helped us to be able to use our truck to go camping and things like that. So, otherwise we would have to shell out all the money for that," said Berg.

And in a time when money is tight, the Rochester time trader group is growing.

"We definitely have seen more members joining time trader due to the economy because they’re looking for alternative resources. Ways to get needs met, that maybe they used to just spend money on but now they’re just looking for ways to stretch that dollar," said Kristy Norman, Coordinator for Rochester time trader.
 
And with a year under their belt members are looking forward to many more.

"As my kids get a little older there be some opportunities for them to like you know rides horses or learn things that otherwise we might not think of because, you know it’s not something we come across on a day to day basis," said Berg.

There are time banks all over the United States and internationally, including three other banks in Minnesota.

And although the Rochester time traders say it is easiest to trade in time locally, you can trade with other banks.