The Lifeskills' Microsociety Program
Overview |
School Only Currency |
How is the currency earned? |
Creating Income |
How is the currency spent? |
Savings
The Three Levels of Lifeskills’ Savings
The Lifeskills’ Society facilitates three means by which savings can be nurtured.
- The Lifeskills’ Learning Account provides a repository for student currency that has been earned by individual students engaged in Lifeskills’ activities.
Students are motivated to use their learning account for the following reasons:
- Depending upon the society, very attractive interest rates are paid for savings held in the student’s learning account, eg: at East Maitland Public School, an attractive 10% per month is paid.
- Students are paid by “non negotiable” cheque for many activities, eg: students who present recyclables are paid by cheque. The only way to “clear” the cheque is by depositing it into a learning account. Students can then withdraw the amount progressively, up to the maximum daily withdrawal allowance, ie: at East Maitland Public School, students can withdraw up to M250 ($2.50) per day.
Interest payments are similarly made by way of a non negotiable interest slip.
- Each week, at a whole school assembly, goods are offered to students by way of an auction. Competition for these valued goods is intense. Competition for these goods inflates prices astronomically. Students will often knowingly pay in excess of ten times their real value.
The only way to access these highly prized items is by way of auction.
Payment by the successful bidder can only be made by way of a direct debit from their learning account.
Students with little savings in their learning accounts are accommodated through the use of the “fair go” auction. Many items of lesser value are occasionally offered to students at the one auction. A token nominal amount is declared, eg M50 ($0.50). Students’ learning bankbooks are then “placed in a hat”, owners of the learning bankbooks who then have their bankbook drawn from the hat, receive their item and then have their account debited for the token sum by the student bankers.
- Students at some Maitland schools are also encouraged to open a savings account with a local building society. A banking facility for students, through the local building society, is available each Wednesday at school.
Incentives to open a savings account and to use it routinely are made available by both the Lifeskills’ Society and the local building society.
- The third means by which money is managed and saved is when the management team or government of the society manages the income and expenses of the society. Real income ($AU) needs to be spent over the term of the office bearers (directors/ministers). Office bearers need to budget and provide for the immediate and future needs of the society.
Office bearers need to ensure that the hard earned currency of its members has sustained purchasing power.
