Trade Secrets: Kim Kubicke and Kila Donovan, two of the Asheville LETS group’s three founders.by Liisa Sullivan / photo by Scott Lessing

By now, most of us are tired of hearing about the gloomy state of the economy. We’d rather hear about ways to fix it and move on—or perhaps about clever ways to get things we want without shelling out so much cash. If you find yourself willing to get a bit creative, check out Asheville’s Local Exchange Trading System, or LETS.

Launched in June 2007, Asheville LETS facilitates trading and skill exchange between members, which helps restore local economic control. If you can offer a skill of any kind—from cat-sitting to cooking lessons—you can trade that skill for points within the system. You can also offer up items like cookies or firewood for points. Then you use points to trade for other local people’s skills, or to “buy” their stuff.

Membership in the group has grown steadily, from around 160 members last March to 265 currently. In all, they’ve made nearly 6,000 exchanges. “Members are taking on larger roles within the system and it’s beginning to breathe on its own,” says Kila Donovan, a co-founder of Asheville LETS who also co-owns Firestorm Café and Books. For example, they’ve started organizing fundraisers (to pay for administrative costs) and holding potluck dinners and workshops.

A small Canadian town in British Columbia launched the first formal LETS in the early 1980s, and according to an international LETS group directory, LETS-Linkup, there are more than 1,500 LETS systems in 39 countries. “We shouldn’t have to depend on currency tied to global economic instability to provide for our friends and families,” says Kim Kubicke, another co-founder who works as a server at Salsa’s.

Values for each item or skill in the system are set by participants, and members may accept the price or negotiate. “We suggest that members consider ‘charging’ five LETS per hour for work they enjoy doing,” says Kubicke, noting that, in some cases, people have placed unrealistic values on their services but usually readjust if no offer comes in. Most members offer services at between five and 12 LETS per hour. Current offers on the group’s website include tax services at 12 LETS per hour, homemade bread at three LETS plus 50 cents for ingredients and guitar lessons for 11 LETS per hour.

Last May, Donovan, along with the third founder of Asheville LETS, Scott Evans, and several others, opened Firestorm Café and Books, a worker-owned community event space in downtown Asheville. Firestorm has become something of a home base for LETS meetings. And while no one ever wishes for a recession, the group does hope that in 2009 more people will begin to explore local, alternative economic systems. “LETS is a lifeboat in economic uncertainty,” says Donovan. “It allows people to share what comes easily.”  

For more details go to ashevillelets.org.