Harvest Lunch Prize Presentation 2011

Prizewinners were congratulated by Mayor of Dorchester, Tess James, at the Dorchester and South Dorset LETS Harvest Meal and homecrafts competition on Sunday 9th October in Martinstown. The competition included classes for garden produce, preserves, home baking and hand-crafted items. Winning entries included patchwork quilts, ‘dishcloths to die for’ and mead made fro a members own bees.

Harvest Lunch Prize Presentation

The homecrafts competition was part of a ‘LETS’ harvest event and trading day at Martinstown Village Hall. The event featured a shared meal, a seed swap, and a ‘free for all’ exchange of books, produce, clothing and other ‘new to you’ items. The glory of this system is that the ‘cheque book’ we use for trading here is not for real money, it is for ‘Marts’, a local currency that we use to keep track of our give-and-take. People in LETS offer their help, muscles, advice, or skills to each other, as well as material things.”

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LETS Membership Renewals due by April 1st 2011

Renewing Your LETS Membership
The next deadline for all existing member’s to renew membership is April 1st 2011 (including of course those of you who were late in paying renewals and so have only just renewed for 2010).

New members who joined on or after October 1st 2010 DO NOT have to renew again until 2012 (so effectively get up to 3 months FREE membership!).

Simply download and print the Renewal Form below and then post it to us when completed along with your payment by cheque as per the instructions on the form to the address provided.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD LETS MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL FORM >>

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Happy LETS trading!

Following comments from a couple of our members, we just wanted to remind you that as one of the main purposes of LETS is to help us all save money, that some members are not too keen on ringing people on mobile numbers as it can be very costly, so if you do have a landline it would be much better to list that as your contact number or at least to leave that number with people on any messages to make them more likely to ring back (especially as some people also don’t use email).

Please also consider that some members have not yet traded and are not used to how LETS works so please guide them along the way and encourage them to keep using LETS rather than just tell them you don’t like ringing mobiles or emailing!!!

LETS is a community group and to respect fellow members please treat them as you would like to be treated yourself, and always get back to people’s email or phone enquiries as soon as possible. It can be very disheartening if you leave several people messages and no-one gets back to you! No-one is ever obliged to trade, but LETS is after all a trading system, so we’d like all members to be trading to make it work for everyone, so if you are not available that’s no problem but please let people know so they can find someone else, or let them know if you would at least be available another time if they can’t find someone else if it is something you have listed as offering, otherwise the system becomes useless and we all know that it’s actually fantastic when you get the things you want and build relationships with other members!

Happy LETS trading! : )

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‘LETS Get Sharing’ – did you see us in the View From Dorchester newspaper?!

You may have spotted some of us Dorchester & South Dorset LETS members in the View From Dorchester newspaper this/last week (Issue 187, May 26th 2010, p3)?!

The local press popped along to our recent LETS Trading Open Day to see what we were up to! : )

View the article & photo online (Dorchester edition, p3) on http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=9g0R16SfDa20&PBID=74e0dd59-0ee1-4a36-a584-5976cfbdb4e9&skip.

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Thing Loop – New Website for Sharing Things!

Message from LETS member Anne Rickard:

I have just stumbled across this very new website, only launched in March, which is promoting what seems to me to be a good idea – it encourages borrowing/lending between friends/contacts rather than buying.  There’s a short YouTube video to watch, but the main idea is about people sharing stuff with each other rather than buying for themselves all the time.  You make a network of your own friends/contacts.  As it’s new, you may have to introduce people to it (like I’m doing here).  You can then share stuff between you and also track who’s got what at any time.

See what you think.  It appears to be secure – I have only just joined, and I haven’t put anything up for sharing yet, and I haven’t got anyone to share things with yet :o/ – early days.

It’s free to join – I know it won’t appeal to everyone, but I know some of my friends will like the idea, so I thought I’d network it.

Visit www.thingloop.com

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SW Dorset LETS Summer Trading Afternoon – Sunday 23rd May 2010

SW Dorset LETS Summer Trading Afternoon
St Marys Church House, South Street, Bridport
Sunday 23rd May,  2 – 4.30pm

Open the public.

Plants, produce, books, bric-a-brac, crafts, you name it, we’d like to see it!

Come along and trade or inter-trade with LETS members, have a cup and tea and a slice of cake, and of course a bit of a chat!

Tables £1 + 4 NETS,/Marts payable on the day.

LETS members call Susan Maclean to book a table on 01308 420605.

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LETS Welcome…

A BIG welcome to our new Core Group Members for Spring/Summer 2010:

Charlotte Seymour-Smith – is taking over as Marts Accountant from Dorchester Mayor and Councillor Susie Hosford. Look out for more details soon…

Doug Amer – has volunteered to be our new Minute Taker at meetings, and commences duty tonight at the Core Group Meeting at Jenny’s! FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE CORE GROUP MEETINGS CLICK HERE >>

…and a HUGE thank you goes to Susie Hosford for all the hard work she has done for our LETS – thank you so much Susie! : )

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LETS HELP: THE BIG LUNCH by Compassionate Dorset

THE BIG LUNCH by Compassionate Dorset
Sunday 18th July 2010
, 11am – 4pm+
Dorchester Borough Gardens

LETS are working with Compassionate Dorset who are holding a BIG LUNCH serving yummy compassionately baked food (especially lots of cakes!) and refreshments, plus there’s music by Sky TV Presenter Nick Ashron with his band Elfin Spiral, followed by the Durnovaria Silver Band and Lubbecke Band, plus there’s facepainting for kids and lots of fab prizes to be won!

The Big Lunch is an idea initiated by the Eden Project – for details see http://www.thebiglunch.com.

Feel free to bring your own picnic and remember to shop compassionately (always check food labels for high welfare, free range and organic animal products) and we’ll provide some vegetarian and vegan treats to show you how eating less meat and dairy can be healthier, kinder and help the planet too! : )

All in aid of Compassion in World Farming – http://www.ciwf.org.uk

Open 11am-12pm CIWF Speaker TBC
12pm
Sky TV’s Nick Ashron performing acoustic Elfin Sprial with special guest Carina Ceon
2.30pm – 4.40pm
The Durnovaria Silver Band performing followed by the Lubbecke Band

For more info about this event visit the Facebook page on http://www.thebiglunch.com/map/event.php?id=dfdf0a6f6533e80b800cc63df093af29

CALLING ALL LETS MEMBERS – WE NEED YOUR HELP FOR THIS EVENT!
LETS members Anna Celeste Watson and Sandra Hood who run Compassionate Dorset are looking for as much help through LETS as possible. We are looking for:

  • Events Organisers/Project Managers
  • Food Safety / Catering Help
  • Bakers for compassionately made food
  • Gazebo hire, or better still Marquee hire
  • Children’s Entertainment
  • As many extra pairs of hands as possible

If you can help please call Anna on (01305) 267854 or email web@dorchester-lets.co.uk.

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