This is MK LetNet’s ‘Thank You’ to their volunteers and members this Volunteers’ Week 2025!
Milton Keynes Letnet (Local Exchange and Trading Network)
My name is Valerie Gommon and I am Chair of MK Letnet which is a local community organisation that started in 1983, so we are now in our 42nd year, and I joined from Day 1!
Although not strictly “volunteering”, members do “favours” for each other and are paid in our local currency of ccs (concrete cows). So, for example, Catherine might give Jane a jar of marmalade, Jane pays Catherine 5cc. Carol might need help on her allotment; she organises a working party and pays everyone 20cc for helping. Charlie, who is disabled, needed his flat decorating and members worked together to decorate the flat. The ccs (concrete cows) earnt by members can be spent with other members to buy things like lifts, garden produce, DIY help, massages or anything that other members offer!
There is a kind of banking system, and transactions are recorded and statements are regularly sent to all members.
Letnet is so rewarding, many of us have become good friends, sometimes almost like family, and support each other in times of need (for example after a hospital admission or having a new baby) and also have a lot of social events to enable members to get to know each other.
We offer free membership for the first year to encourage people to see the benefits of joining us, thereafter the membership fee is £5 per year.
If this sounds interesting to you, take a look at our website and consider joining!
