Worknow_Aotearoa_NZ

People are assets

I was moved today by a simple thank you from a friend…

thanks Renee for showing me I’ve something to offer

Perhaps I’m still a bit emotional from watching Avatar yesterday but her simple note made me cry because it reassured me that this concept – that People are Assets -  can and does make a difference in lives and communities.

This talented lady is currently my go to person for anything regarding the preservation of food. She is talented,  fun and generous with her time and knowledge.  She continues to teach and inspire me.

We volunteered together to provide a preserves workshop last year, in which she shared her time and knowledge about preserving. The connections made from that initial volunteer effort have lead to further connections and opportunities, in an ongoing movement toward community resilience.

It is people like this that make our communities stronger, happier and healthier places to live and enjoy life and I am immensely grateful today for these people who sustain my capacity  to live [work] & hope.

Sailing is an investment of time that I consider a rather noble pursuit but then I am biased because my dad was an avid sailor -  John Lee, Skipper of the Leeway – and he was easily one of the hero’s of my life.

leeway: To slip sideways downwind while moving forward.

Yet this adds weight to the fact that I’ve heard several people talking about sailing this year, from simply learning how to sail to planned journeys around the world.

And it is their sense of purposeful adventure and discovery that has inspired my thoughts on the direction of my personal endeavors as well as our company this year.

Time to change tack

I resolved earlier this year to keep a written journal, a common device of those sailing the oceans.  Indeed, I much prefer the creative process of writing ones thoughts vs blogging and I struggled immensely over the past week to find the inspiration to add value to our blog conversation so far.

Beside commenting on articles that inspire conversation or challenge my thinking it seems 2009 provided all the time needed to convey our vision, values and service. Upon reflection I realise that I have said all I need to say about Worknow and it is simply time to change tack.

Tacking – Basic sailing maneuver refers to turning the bow of the boat through the wind so that the wind changes from one side of the boat to the other side.

While we maintain our heading, we now power up the sails with the stories of those with whom we collaborate and whose bearing impacts on the work that we do.

Indeed, it is only through the collaboration and support of people, with the vision and creativity to apply Time Trade as a tool to encourage volunteering in their own community, can we hope to reach our way-points.

Ready About

I hope to increasingly use this blog to share the story of those that serve our communities in the most direct sense of the word. I hope, like me, you will find their stories inspiring and thought provoking.

Most importantly I hope to convey the conscious, collective community spirit under which these people and teams operate in order to inspire and encourage us all  to volunteer our time and talent on a regular and ongoing basis.

Using the simple tools now at your fingertips just imagine what we can achieve, what change we can effect and the difference we will make when we work now, together for causes that benefit us all.

Letter to IRD Re:Tax obligations for volunteer work experience

Dear Sir / Madame,

Thank you for your letter dated 24th September outlining the legislation upon which your advice is based. I now seek clarification on two points please.

1. We intend time trade to be a tool to promote, support and encourage people to volunteer in the community. For example;

• Sue Smith volunteers with the SPCA to walk a dog one afternoon. After the work is done the SPCA provides feedback for Sue’s online talent profile with the comment “Sue did a great job, she was on time and works well with animals” . They also credit Sue 1 hour for the 1 hour she volunteered.

• If charitable organisations use time trade as a means to provide recognition of volunteer work and offer constructive feedback on volunteer contributions will such an exchange be liable to any type of tax or GST?

2. We want to facilitate volunteer work experiences for young people and believe time trade provides a means to promote, encourage and reward volunteer work experience. However, if a business offers students Volunteer Work Experience for example;

• to shadow and learn from a business person
• attend meetings and take minutes or
• work with employees and contribute to a business project

And then use our time trade system to

1. place constructive feedback about the volunteer and;
2. credit the volunteer time in recognition of the time they volunteered

Would such activity be liable for Tax and GST?

Can you please clarify the treatment of these time trades for all tax or gst purposes. I appreciate your help to understand where our tax and legal obligations are on these matters. Thanks for your time.

Kind Regards,

Renee Lee
www.worknow.co.nz
renee@worknow.co.nz
+64 21 18 300 50

IRD Response Received 18 January 2010

On the basis that:-

• volunteer workers are freely undertaking volunteer activity within New Zealand chosen either by themselves or a group of which they are a member and
• volunteer activities do not form part of a business activity ordinarily carried on by the volunteer and
• a benefit is provided to the community or another person for which there is no intention of private pecuniary profit for the person

NO TAX LIABILITY ARISING

• the crediting of time to the volunteer and
• the posting of feedback on their volunteer contribution

IS NOT considered to give rise to an INCOME TAX or GST liability to the volunteer undertaking the work.

The time credit is considered to be a form of reimbursement of time and or costs that may have been incurred by the volunteer in undertaking the volunteer work, which is accordingly TAX EXEMPT

Trust & Collaboration

Companies and leaders in today’s knowledge economy are beginning to recognise that traditional command and control methods of leadership are no longer the most effective way to inspire the best from people. Instead there’s a growing recognition that networked collaboration is the way of the future.

Ok, I am bias because collaboration is one of our founding values and I have issues with 80’s management theory. Words like power and  control, creep me out.

But no use complaining right, one must act hence our new venture - Worknow - where we connect talented people willing to trust and collaborate with each other and support flexible forms of work such as contract, project, freelance, and volunteer work.

Now, I noticed recently my tendency to sing about co-operation when contemplating ways to collaborate which raises two questions.

Are collaboration and cooperation the same thing?

They are defined quite differently by www.dictionary.com 

co⋅op⋅er⋅a⋅tion[koh-op-uh-rey-shuhn]

NOUN

1. an act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit; joint action.

2. more or less active assistance from a person, organization, etc.: We sought the cooperation of various civic leaders. 

3. willingness to cooperate: to indicate cooperation. 

4. Economics. the combination of persons for purposes of production, purchase, or distribution for their joint benefit: producers’ cooperation; consumers’ cooperation. 

5. Sociology. activity shared for mutual benefit.

6. Ecology. mutually beneficial interaction among organisms living in a limited area.

VS

col⋅lab⋅o⋅ra⋅tion[kuh-lab-uh-rey-shuhn]

NOUN 

1. the act or process of collaborating.

2. a product resulting from collaboration: This dictionary is a collaboration of many minds.

Yet, I always “assumed” an interdependence becasue by my understanding effective collaboration requires co-operation. But now to the next question, which speaks even greater volumes about my education…

Why this song? “Co-operation, makes it happen. Co operation, working together”

 Clearly it was a song lyric from somewhere and when I goggled the lyrics I was not at all surprised to find that its actually one of the regular skits from an influential childhood programme…go on, take a guess. Here’s a clue. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12…

Yes, apparently my entire philosophy around collaboration stems from the Muppet’s on Sesame Street. Which in turn supports my belief that early education is a great place to develop a more collaborative and entrepreneurial culture.

Co-operation … makes it happen

Co-operation … working together

Dig it!

Co-operation … makes it happen

Co-operation … working together

Muppet In Shades:

I saw these crazy dudes

And they went out on the street

They were cleanin’ out the empty lot

And makin’ it neat

I said, “Man is this cool

What you tryin’ to do?”

They said, “Makin’ a garden

For me and for you.”

They said:

All:

Hey man, join us

Come on, let’s go

Together we can make a pretty garden grow

Girl: I’ll dig a hole

Guy: And I’ll plant a seed

Together: And we can add the water

That all growin’ things need

All:

Co-operation … makes it happen

Co-operation … working together

Dig it!

Co-operation … makes it happen

Co-operation … working together

metrolyrics.com

Not only do I heed the advice of muppets, I’m also involved with community gardens.  Scary, influential stuff our early childhood education.

Without a doubt I believe the time I spent volunteering, after bailing on law school, helped me secure my first real job.

Working for the YMCA as a Gymnastic Instructor and Recreation Assistant was volunteer work experience in the traditional sense. Being new to the workforce it provided me with opportunities in leadership and team work and allowed me to communicate and work with people of all ages.

Personally, the experience is significant in terms of my lifelong aspirations, it highlighted the value of recreational education and the powerful, positive influence of role models on young people. It made me feel like a contributing member of society and in terms of my CV it reflected my willingness to work.

Volunteering for any of the many charitable organisations that support our communities is a great way to build basic work experience and skills.

But if you’re interested in developing more specialist skills, in line with you passions, interests or education then the potential to volunteer your time applies also to company’s that interests you.

It’s a great way to learn about the realities of the workforce to gain an inside look at an organisation and help you to acquire work experience. For a select few it  can even lead to jobs.

Indeed several people that I have spoken to in local community organisations say that when taking on new team members they look first to those that have volunteered time with them. Which makes sense right.

Ideally, we’d all like to land the paid internships but in such a competitive market why let those fortunate enough to score places gain extra advantage when you can as easily build work experience alongside them in the same industry with the increased flexibility of a volunteer position.

By creating your Talent Profile here at Worknow, we can help you find and match you talent, skills and interests with both volunteer and paid work opportunities. Register today

Talents, we all have them

This simple fact is the basis for forming Worknow. Whether as a freelance contractor, outsourced supplier, trades person or community volunteer we simply wanted to make it easier for people to find, connect and work together.

Time Trade especially, is based on recognising that we all have talents that could be used to help others and recognises that networking technology has made it easier than ever to match need with talent.

From teaching someone a new laungage, to walking a dog, weeding a garden or lending a listening ear – someone somewhere, often closer than you think, needs exactly what you have.

What one talent could you share to help others?

Time, most precious

Time is our common, finite resource, which is what makes it such an effective measure of value. What you choose to do with your time, defines who you are and what we are suggesting is that by giving it away helping others, you not only become a contributing citizen but by law of karma, you may find it comes back to you when you most need it.

We are Social Creatures, we need Community

We believe todays networking technology can help harness the collective potential of communities, groups and dispersed teams. Indeed our Worknow team is evidence that todays social networking tools can bring people together to collaborate and create new projects, business and we hope work.

A social network [online community] enables participants to make themselves known to one another and to communicate more effectively. It allows one to establish their identity online, to post their credentials, and to provide other information for others to see. It also can track correspondence and behavior within the network, establishing one’s reputation and enabling an impersonal medium to serve as a tool for building a matrix of trusting relationships that can lead to collaboration and coordinated action on many levels Tom Greco

We are gathering a community of talented people willing to collaborate and build shared intelligence in more entrepreneurial and flexible ways. I invite you to join our journey today by adding your talents to the collective potential.

I chose to study extramurally so that I could apply my business education across a range of business settings and discover where my talents lay.

However, when I finally completed my degree and set out to find full-time employment (my apprenticeship in business ownership) potenial employers began to question why I had already worked in so many roles.

Back in 2003, before it became widely recognised as a common Gen Y work trait, my CV already listed more roles over five years than my mum held over a thirty year working life:-

• Gymnastics Instructor, Tauranga YMCA
• Holiday Programme Leader, Tauranga YMCA
• Civil & Criminal Law Clerk, Tauranga District Court
• General Administration & Customer Service, FIL Agrichemical
• Part Time Financial Administration, Harmer Parr Financial Planners
• Market Research Contract, Private Interests
• Junior Reporter, Oceansider Community News
• Frontline Sales, Greenpeace
• Business Developer, Bartercard NZ
• Bay of Plenty Marketing Representative, Hewlett Packard

The problem was full time study combined with working 30+hours a week, rather than proving a strong work ethic or general intelligence, indicated to potential employers a lack of loyalty or worse. Fours year study, did little to prove my discipline or perserverance, all it served was to get me on a level playing feild with every other graduate.

WorkNoWorKnow

It’s a conundrum that many students face.

• First we must choose either to Work Now which research shows will hinder future long-term prospects or
• Forego earnings and take on student debt in order to be in the “Know” and compete for jobs that require no more than a high school education.

On choosing the second option – education and the pursuit of knowledge – we still must Work Now to get by in more than survival mode. Yet in most cases the type of work we can get  – hospo, cleaning, labouring – does  almost nothing to reflect our true intelligence, or inherent talents.

And in some cases, like my own, even a series of respectable contract jobs can have negative connotations for employers, which begs the question; would I have been better to choose No Work over Work Now?

But of course if you choose the No Work option and elect to focus on study then when you step out in to the working world, which is where the education path leads for most people, you will lack the “work expereince” needed to land the jobs that you’ve studied so hard and long to attain. In the words of Tom Petty

Situation no win
Rush for a change of atmosphere

Work Study Transition

Of the three option 1) work or 2) study or 3) work and study it is easy to recommend that the best option, by far is #3

• Do try and find contract work relevant to your degree while studying so that you can gain the work expereince you need to apply your education out in the work force.
• If you can’t find paid work expereince, then volunteer with a company that interests you. Volunteering looks great on anyone’s CV and can open doors to work opportunities that are not advertised on seek, trademe jobs or student job search.

Employment is not our only option. Business creation, while higer risk is the much more rewarding alternative.

Here at WorkNow we encourage and support a more entrepreneurial work ethic. Whether you’re starting out and need work expereince or have honed your talent and skills and just need to connect with the right work opportunities, we can help. Register today with our talent community and foster your collective potential.

Connecting Young People with Work

With John Keys announcing a $152 million package to create new work, education and training opportunities for unemployed young people we’re feeling even more confident that our vision around helping the youngest working age generation transition into work will find support on many levels. Well, we hope that it does but at the very least we’re reassured to learn that our mission aligns with the concern of our current Prime Minister who said yesterday:-

I am concerned for our young people.Those aged 18-24 are the fastest growing age group on the Unemployment Benefit, representing a third of all those who receive it.

The number of young people who wanted a job but couldn’t get one has more than quadrupled in the past year, leaping from less than 4000 in June 2008 to nearly 17,000 by June this year.

My concern is that for a young person starting out in their working life, a long period of unemployment could be very damaging. Source

Quid Pro Quo: Using Time Trade to Encourage Young People to Volunteer

When we looked at solving problems relating to work it was quickly evident that young people are the demographic most in need of solutions. So we got together to identify ways we could help them transition from study to work.

Lacking the work experience needed to gain value from our contractors’ marketplace we focused instead on ways that we could help them build the necessary work expereince, skills and references.

By incorporating unpaid work into our formula and encourage volunteering through the concept of Time Trade, we identified ways to:-

1) provide a measure of value and recognition for the development of a peer mentoring scheme, using time credits.

Enlisting alumni to mentor upcoming graduates about work life and career paths. Those graduates, in turn, trade their time to perhaps tutor fellow students who in turn again volunteer in their community and build valuable work skills.

2) provide incentive and reward to encourage more young people to volunteer, using time credits.

We believe volunteer work develops a service orientated work ethic and skills that assist the study to work transition. Some of the skills we know volunteers can develop include:-

• Leadership & team building skills
• Relationship building skills
• Communication skills
• Negotiation skills
• Creative thinking skills
• Organisation & time management skills

As Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett points out encouraging Gen Y to become involved in our communities creates win-win situations. Her comments about the Community Max Scheme could as easily apply to Worknow:-

“This is all about providing opportunities – we see this as a very positive approach to addressing youth unemployment while helping fund useful community projects… I believe this is a win-win situation.”

Where we differ is that we intend the growth of youth volunteers to be a permanent fixture of tomorrows communities hence the development of out Time Trade platform.

How to Help Others

If asked “what did you want to be when you were a kid?”, I know the answer is – to help people. While I’m not alone in aspiring to help others am I just trying to compensate for my failings? or feel better about myself? Am I really just trying to help myself?

With time trade one’s own motivation to help others comes second. It’s about putting the needs of others before yourself by focusing less on the need to be needed – who can I help?, how can I help? – and more on outcomes that can only be secured by enlisting the time and talents of those we are trying to help – how can this persons talents, skills and time help others?

“…If we want to fulfill our own commitments to make a difference in the lives of others, we need to find a way to use our ability to unleash the capacity of the person we are helping…” Edgar Cahn

People are Assets

Every single person is gifted with talents that are of value in a Time Trade community.

“…it recognises the whole person, that your life experiences, your knowledge, is an asset – everything you are, what you know and what you don’t is valuable…”

For organisations with networks of people that they already help there’s the potential to vastly expand the work accomplished by employing the time and talents of the people they help. This in turn empowers the recipients and moves them away from dependence and potential helplessness towards a sense of contributing value to one’s own community.

For example enlisting university alumni to mentor upcoming graduates about work life and career paths and those graduates, in turn, tutoring fellow students who in turn help volunteer in their community, and build valuable work skills.

“…We have to find news ways, or very old ways, of putting people to use doing things for each other…finding ways for people who don’t think they have skills to discover their own strengths…” Edgar Cahn

Time Trade is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community.

In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.

Here at Worknow we are building an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members. Our Time Trade system comes online August 2009 please register your interest today.

Redefining the Value of Work

One of the most valuable life lessons learned while building this company is that “…money does not define the limits of what is possible…”

I would not be here today if I’d let a complete lack of funds prevent me from pursuing our vision of this new venture. Or if I feared the stigma of being “unemployed”. By choosing to build my future using the only resources that are truly mine – my time and talents – in collaboration with others, I’ve discovered the freedom to follow my dreams and trust my intuitions. While I may be poor in terms of money I’m undeniably blessed and rich in the things that money can not buy; love, happiness, hope…

Our company, Jamie Josh and I, are living proof of what can be accomplished when people are willing to invest time and talent in lieu of earnings. We hope time trade and the use of time credits will help us all to redefine the value of work to include some of the values that define us as humans; our capacity to love and care for other people, animals and our environment. To share knowledge, collaborate and stand up for the things we believe in.

Every time we reward an act of helping with a time credit, we are declaring that the monetary economy does not have the power to define what real work is, that market price is not the only measure of value and that money does not define the limits of what is possible. Edgar Khan in The Time of Our Lives

I’m inspired by thought leaders like Edgar Cahn because here at Worknow we break from the definition of work as either “employed or unemployed” choosing instead the role of aspiring, social entrepreneur and incorporating the idea of time trade – into a company built to help people find and connect with work – so as to give equal value to both volunteer and paid work opportunities.

We hope that our intention will become more evident when we launch the beta site because Jamie’s created some funky elements, in the navigation and site design, to allow people to easily switch and identify between time trade and paid work options. They are after all two sides of the same coin because as my father used to say “…there’s more than one way to skin a rabbit…”