Membership Agreement

Brixton LETS: Members Agreement

1. Brixton LETs is a non-profit organization whose rights and authority are vested in the members who delegate that authority to the Core Group who act on their behalf according to the Constitution, which is the governing document for the scheme. The Core Group accepts all who may seek to join in good faith, but may also reserve the right to deny membership to an applicant in exceptional circumstances at their discretion.

2. Brixton LETs provides an information service through which members can exchange goods and services, and maintains a central account of those exchanges for the benefit of members in an agreed unit of account called bricks. Members may be individuals, couples, businesses, voluntary organisations or projects, who can delegate authority to a representative to act on their behalf in respect of managing a group account. Individuals may have an individual and a business account where appropriate.

3. Members agree to Brixton LETs holding relevant personal details on computer and online and making available to other members those details relevant to the purpose of exchange, according to the provisions of the Data Protection Act. This will include an indication of members' location without giving out their street address. Members also agree to the directory of goods and services being visible to the general public for publicity purposes without contact details of individuals being displayed.

4. The brick is considered to represent the nominal value of £1 for the purposes of trading goods. ____ bricks are considered to represent one hour's work, which is considered to be the standard rate per hour for those who wish to use it.

5. All accounts start at zero. Members are not obliged to be in receipt of any credit before issuing another member with credit from their account, subject to any limit that may be set by the Core Group from time to time.

6. No interest is charged or paid on balances but members are expected to manage their personal accounts in a responsible and fair manner in terms of reciprocal activity, and within limits which may be specificed from time to time. A member going outside these limits, may expect to have a voluntary limit placed on their account until it is brought to good order.

7. Members may engage in any transaction entirely in bricks, or on a part brick, part cash basis, especially where there are sterling expenses that need to be defrayed, but only bricks are recorded on the system. Transactions may be for the purpose of obtaining goods or services or donating to other accounts, at the discretion of the account holder.

8. Only the account holder can authorize the transfer of units from their account to that of another, and this is done directly by each individual where electronic transfer is used. However this task may be specifically delegated to a personal buddy by sharing an email account and password, or by default to a member of the Core committee by means of a signed paper cheque, or fixed value voucher.

9. The Core Group is authorized to charge a joining fee in sterling and to vary the amount of that on a cost-of-service basis as the situation requires in consultation with the advisory group - currently £10 or £5 concessions, and also to waive or reduce the fee in cases of hardship at the discretion of the membership secretary, and instead to levy the equivalent in bricks.

10. The Core Group is authorized to charge service charges in bricks on a cost-of-service basis - currently one brick per month - and may vary that rate in consultation with the membership or advisory group. These bricks are paid to individuals to carry out specific tasks in relation to the Core of the scheme.

11. The Core Group is authorized to accept donations from grant-giving organisations or individuals and to authorise the equivalent in local currency to be placed in a project account to be used for community purposes. These project accounts form the basis for LETS Work Together activities and a Project Leader may be delegated to manage each of these accounts.

12. No warranty or undertaking as to the value, condition or quality of services or items exchanged is expressed or implied by virtue of the introduction of members to each other. Brixton LETs publishes a list of the resources and services made available to members but cannot be held responsible for the actual goods and services offered. Members should therefore seek to determine for themselves the quality or standard of workmanship offered before agreeing a transaction, by asking for references in the normal way.

13. All members will have access to the balance and turnover of all other members' account on an ongoing basis, and in order to ensure transparency in the activities of the Core Group, where substantial activities are carried out by individual office-holders on behalf of the scheme, these will be recorded in separate accounts for the duration of that office-holding thus enabling budgets for specific activities and projects to be set.

14. The vast majority of LETS activity is of no interest to the Tax or Benefits authorities. However, those members who are engaged in business activity are individually responsible for their own personal tax liabilities, and may for this reason have separate personal and business accounts. Brixton LETS has no liability regarding members' tax or benefits entitlements, and has no obligation or liability to report to the tax or benefits authorities or collect any payments on their behalf.

15. The Brixton LETS administrators may decline to record (or in extreme circumstances may reverse) an account or directory entry considered inappropriate for legal or other reasons. In the case of dispute between members arising from any cause, which cannot be resolved with the help of an individual office holder, members are entitled to have recourse to the Mediation Group.

16. No member is obliged to accept any particularly invitation to trade, or to engage in any transaction whatsoever with other members. However, they may be encouraged by an office-holder to engage in trading activities in order to assist them in managing their account.

17. The Core Group may act on behalf of members in seeking explanation or satisfaction from a person whose activity is considered to be contrary to the interests of the membership. The Core Group, in consultation with the advisory group, may suspend membership in the case of delinquent accounts and as a last resort may remove members from the system.

18. On leaving Brixton LETs, members with commitments outstanding are obliged to balance their account (if necessary in sterling). Positive balances may be bequeathed to other member or project accounts. Alternatively, the organisation may apply through LETSlink for the transfer of a members's balance to a group elsewhere, if this group is willing to accept the individual into membership.

19. Members have the right and are encouraged to attend any meeting of the Core Group and to participate in decision making. Members have a right of appeal to the Advisory Group on all Core decisions. There will be a formal opportunity to hear reports from office-holders at an Annual General Meeting.

20. This agreement may be updated, changed or modified at the discretion of the Core Group after due consultation with the members. Proposals for major changes or innovations in the administration of Brixton LETS will be formally notified to all members for discussion at an Annual General Meeting, or Special General Meeting before a final decision is taken.

21. Membership in Brixton LETs implies acceptance of the conditions of this agreement.

If you are happy with the above please continue and complete the Joining Form.
If you still have queries, you can contact a relevant core-group member, or better still, attend a meeting and raise your concerns - feedback and ideas are always welcomed. Dates of meetings are advertised here.