Sharing is the Answer » Work http://sharingistheanswer.com Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:27:16 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Return of the Holiday Party: How Sharing Makes it Happen http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/12/09/the-return-of-the-holiday-party-how-sharing-makes-it-happen/ http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/12/09/the-return-of-the-holiday-party-how-sharing-makes-it-happen/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:33:17 +0000 janelle http://sharingistheanswer.com/?p=330 Yup, it’s that time of year again–holiday time. But it’s also recession time, and businesses are spending less–and an easy place to cut costs is to reduce the costs of company events. One of the casualties of the recession has been the traditional company holiday party–but sharing is helping the tradition make a comeback. According to the New York Times, smaller companies can present parties on a budget by sharing the costs of venue and food with other companies. For example, a Philadelphia catering company offers Snow Balls, described as “all-inclusive, shared corporate holiday parties,” as the solution to the difficulties of entertaining during the recession. A New Jersey hotel is offering similar options. The benefits extend beyond giving the employees an event to go to–organizers point out that the companies and their employees have the opportunity to network with the other businesses sharing the venue. Certainly, connecting with others is one of our favorite benefits of sharing, at holiday time and throughout the year.

]]> http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/12/09/the-return-of-the-holiday-party-how-sharing-makes-it-happen/feed/ 3 A Big List of Sharing Ideas from Green Fest http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/11/23/a-big-list-of-sharing-ideas-from-green-fest/ http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/11/23/a-big-list-of-sharing-ideas-from-green-fest/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:17:12 +0000 janelle http://sharingistheanswer.com/?p=313 sharing stuffHere’s yet another list of sharing ideas! We collected these ideas on post-it notes from visitors to our booth at the San Francisco Green Festival. We asked people to tell us their ideas for sharing and ways to create more sharing communities. We aren’t totally clear on what all the ideas mean, but we figure that no ideas should be left behind. Here’s they are:

  • Book swaps
  • Goat sharing for lawn mowing and clearing of brush
  • Sewing collective
  • Share a vegetable box
  • Art days
  • Share farm equipment, wood chippers, and snow blowers
  • Sing more
  • Work lunch co-op
  • Have “Soup Night” – a weekly event: invite friends, share poetry and music, and eat soup!
  • Wellness attention
  • Massage cooking
  • Neighborhood home improvement groups
  • Share ideas and eco-ideas
  • Energy raising (neighbors doing energy-saving retrofits for each other)
  • Water raising (neighbors building rain catchment barrels and grey water systems together)
  • Garden raising
  • Frequent potlucks on our street
  • Dance together healthy! (Barefoot Boogie Dance Jam, Berkeley)
  • Gather to can tomatoes
  • Saying “hi!”
  • Chicken feed co-ops
  • Turn loneliness into community; turn consumerism into tool-sharing; turn foreclosure into shared housing
  • Start a neighborhood compost rotation
  • Sing together (you can’t have harmony unless you share the song)
  • Share boundaries (land)
  • Share clothes
  • A shared metal workshop (there’s on in Mountain View, CA)
  • Corner grocery store
  • Love
  • Neighborhood garden
  • Create/enforce, morals, values & traditions in our youth
  • Be a friend
  • Share artwork
  • Share garden produce
  • Clothes party suare
  • DIY classes
  • Share a household and all of its contents
  • Gather to make butter or soap
  • Shower together to save water
  • Poop together (your guess is as good as ours…maybe something to do with doing a community composting toilet project?)
  • Chicken sharing
  • Acceptance of others: supportive love (“I love you and there ain’t a thing you can do about it.”)
  • Automatic sharing
  • Of course, LOVE
  • Block parties
  • Jam sessions (make fruit preserves and music together)

    • sharing rides

    sharing rides

  • “Sharing bags” – fill a bag with gifts, give it to someone, and then ask the person to fill it with other things and pass it on.
  • Meal sharing
  • Share a wood workshop (put everyone’s tools in one place, use the space for your projects and/or gather to work on projects together). Check out the Sawdust Shop for an example of a community wood working space.
  • Stay soft and open
  • Cohousing
  • Coworking
  • Ecovillages
  • Eliminate zoning. It has done more harm than good.
  • Carpool
  • Not apart from, but a part of…
  • The power of conversation. See World Cafe.
  • Share a dog (I don’t want one full-time)
  • Grow and share food locally
  • On Halloween: hand out info and/or non-boxed candy
  • Share office space
    • ]]>     http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/11/23/a-big-list-of-sharing-ideas-from-green-fest/feed/ 0     Sharing in Every Realm of Life http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/04/13/sharing-in-every-realm-of-life/ http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/04/13/sharing-in-every-realm-of-life/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:14:14 +0000 janelle http://sharingistheanswer.com/?p=358 There are ways to incorporate sharing into almost every realm of life. Here’s a sampling of ways to share:

    CAR:

  • Find a friend or a neighbor who would like to share a car and make a schedule to take turns.
  • Join an established car-sharing program, such as City CarShare or ZipCar.

    • RIDES:

  • Set up or join a carpool to work or school.
  • Find out if there are casual ridesharing programs in your community.
  • Start a vanpool.

    • FOOD:

  • Trade leftovers with a neighbor or share regular meals.
  • Take part in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs.
  • Start a community food garden in your neighborhood.
  • Share fruit harvested from your trees.

    • HOME:

  • Buy a home with a friend.
  • Consider living in cohousing.
  • Retrofit a large house to accommodate two households.
  • Live cooperatively in a group house.
  • Share a vacation home.

    • GOODS:

  • Start a tool-share with friends or neighbors.
  • Share other household goods and appliances, such as a vacuum cleaner or laundry machines.

    • TASKS:

  • Start a neighborhood home-repair group.
  • Cooperate to compost in your neighborhood.
  • Share errands, such as dry cleaning.
  • Trade tasks with a neighbor — prune her tree if she fixes your bike.
  • Start a time bank.

    • BUYING:

  • Form a group to save money by sharing bulk purchases.
  • Join a buying club or cooperative.

    • SPACE:

  • Take down the fence and share yards with your neighbor.

    • WORK:

  • Work part time and share your job with someone else.
  • Form an employee-owned cooperative.
  • Have shared lunches with coworkers.
  • Try coworking.
  • Share an office space, a studio space, workshop, or commercial kitchen.

    • CARE:

  • Start a childcare co-op.
  • Share a nanny with another family.
  • Share pet care with a pet-owning neighbor.
  • Cooperate to care for elders.

    • SKILLS:

  • Host a skillshare — a gathering where people share their special skills and learn from others.

    • FUN:

  • Share recreational equipment, such as kayaks, and camping and sports gear.
  • Share season tickets for sports or theme parks.
    • ]]>     http://sharingistheanswer.com/2009/04/13/sharing-in-every-realm-of-life/feed/ 0