Local Lendables: Frequently Asked Questions

	Local Lendables We Help Small Communities Organize a Lending Circle of Things. Generosity with ease and inventory management!

Frequently Asked Questions about Local Lendables:

	General questions about a Local Lendables site: What are you? ~ Why not just use Facebook? ~ Does it cost money to join? ~ Why are you building this service? ~ ~ What about privacy and safety? Who is allowed to join? ~ Is this a phone app? ~ How do you make money? Will you sell my data to the highest bidder? ~ How many Members are on my site? ~ Who is allowed to join? ~ What if I move? How do I detach from Lendables? ~ How do I find out if there's a Local Lendables community near me? ~ Why did you choose the categories you did?
	Questions about Lendable Items: ~ Who can see the Items? ~ Who can post an Item? ~ Can I request an Item to Borrow? ~ What does it cost to rent an Item? ~ How do I pay rent for that lawn tractor? ~ Is it only things? Can it be an errand or a task? ~ Why would I lend out my stuff? ~ Do I have to lend out my stuff?
	Questions about Lendables Communications: What's the difference between Emails, SMS/Texts, Chats, and Alerts? ~ Why can't I send a message to a Group of people? ~ Can I get a copy of all my messages? ~ What parts of Local Lendables are public, and what parts are Member Only?

What are you? Back to Top	Local Lendables is a way for a small community to save money, time, effort, and energy, by creating a private community site for its Members to easily post any stuff that they're willing to lend to known neighbours: a sander, a folding chair, a wok, a Sparx socket -- or post for things they might want to borrow, if anyone has one to lend. Local Lendables lets Members chat with other Members about lending, borrowing, or renting any item, or scheduling an item pickup for a lending period, while maintaining each Member's inventory of the items they've posted, loaned, or borrowed from your neighbors. Free for the Members, no advertising, just a richer local community!

Why not just post to Facebook? Back to Top	Facebook is useful for many things, but maintaining an inventory of Local Lendables is not one of them. Facebook's database of users is global, and they make jillion$ by monetizing giant patterns, and making sure no post lasts for long. That is the polar opposite of a Local Lendables site, where a Lendables community has its own database, and no outside advertising, no scams, no spam, and no strangers -- and an ever-growing inventory of Lendable useful things. A Local Lendables site works as part of an existing defined community of trust.

Who can see my Lendable Items? Back to Top	Only Members of your Lendables Community are able to view the Lendable listings. It is not available to non-Members, or to the larger Internet.

Who can post a Lendable Item? Back to Top	Only Members can see, Lend, Wish For, or Borrow stuff, and only after they've logged in. No outside items are allowed.

Can I ask for an Item I can't find? Back to Top	Yes, we make it possible to request ("Wish") for something, but remember: your Local Lendables is a small community, and while there may be lots of useful stuff, the particular item ("does anyone have a right-hand baseball mitt?") may not be owned by any Member, or may get overlooked by Lefty.

What does it cost to borrow a Lendable Item? Back to Top	Generally nothing. Some items have continuing costs (for example, the annual licensing & maintenance for a pull-behind trailer), or lose financial value with every use (a tractor, a rototiller). These might have to have some kind of rent or payment (generosity has limits!). Most listed Lendables are offered without charge. (We encourage barter and/or reciprocality, and something like a loaf of banana bread might fit that bill nicely!) Local Lendables itself does NOT get involved in any Lendable transaction, beyond enabling communications and planning.

Why did you choose those Categories? Back to Top	They seemed appropriate. If there are specific categories that belong to your community, the Manager can add them. Please contact your Manager, and put in the suggestion.

How far ahead can you reserve an Item? Back to Top	This completely depends on the Owner of the Item. We have the ability to let the Owner put a reservation in (for example, "we have a family reunion I'm planning in two months -- can I borrow those folding chairs then?"). This may cause some hiccups (in that schedules and plans can change), but we hope our systems help avoid most problems.

What do you mean by "a Lendables Community"? Back to Top	A Lendables Community could be the members of a small town, or a suburban church, or an HOA, or an apartment building. It could be a Lion's Club or Eastern Star group, or a neighborhood. It could be a rural Community Hall, or a village committee, or members of a co-op. Any group of people who can organize and invite their community members, and arrange to pay the $50/month software subscription for their community, can become a Local Lendables Community. A Lendables Community is probably smaller than 1000 Members, but larger Local Lendables could certainly thrive, if well-Managed to maintain trustability among its Members. The main limits are natural ones: how many people can be part of any "local community" that knows itself? The numbers for any particular Lendables site will be listed on the Member dashboard.

Does it cost money to join a Lendables Community? Back to Top	Individual invited Members have no fees. It costs the community a subscription fee, which is likely paid from a group budget or by sponsors. There is no charge to join, nor to remain, a Member.

What about privacy and safety? Who's allowed to join? Back to Top	A real community is presumed to have invited its Membership in their Local Lendables site. The assumption is that within that community reasonable openness is expected: real names, and real identities, and real people from a real community. In such a situation, fakery or scamming will be found out, since it can be easily identified by the members -- and if someone is cheating, lying, or misrepresenting, that too will become clear, within the community. In the end, it is the individual Members of the community who will self-regulate; the local Manager and the Advisory Board can respond if a community identifies a stranger who somehow faked their way in. Finally, regarding privacy: Local Lendables does not require Internet ads to stay solvent, and does not sell its accrued data to anyone. We are a little island.

How do I find a Local Lendables community near me? Back to Top	If you have to ask, you probably will have to start your own community's Local Lendables. While not quite "invitation only," a Local Lendables community is "invitation mostly": usually a Manager gathers a small Advisory Board from their community to get it started, and they invite other members -- perhaps all of the members, depending on the community -- to join in. Members can, with the permission of the Manager, vouch for friends and neighbors, and personally invite them in. The community decides those limits. If Local Lendables seems ideal for your small town, or church, or HOA, see if you can find a handful of Advisory Board members, and then contact us; we try to make it easy for you to start one up, if you're serious about it!

Is this a phone app? Back to Top	Local Lendcables is designed phone-first, and we will work to "appify" it for easy installation on a phone, if desired. That said, we prefer a device-responsive Website, where we can stay constantly updated, and communicate with you if needed (by email or SMS, as well as by the site's Chat).

How do I pay for my rented lawn tractor? Back to Top	You don't pay through the site. You pay the owner whatever was agreed-to, either in barter or in dollars. It is up to Owner and Borrower to decide the appropriate currency. Local Lendables does not keep track of any financial transactions.

Why would I lend out my stuff? Back to Top	Humans are by nature generous, and almost everyone likes sharing. But standing in the way is the gritty nuisance of remembering things and dates, and tracking who has what for how long, and who said what when about which thing I loaned...! Ugh! That sounds like a job for a computer! That's what we do -- take the "Ugh" out. We make it easy to take pix for a Lendable Item you make, easy to chat with a Borrower, easy to loan an Item, easy to print a quick "handshake" agreement (or do it online), easy to see when it's coming back, and easy to check that item back in. Generosity without the grit. What's not to like? Those who don't like sharing are not expected to participate.

Do I have to lend out my stuff? Back to Top	No. There is no requirement, but if you can, it's considered good form to make a couple of rarely-used useful things Lendable -- or simply offer your time to someone who needs it. A helping hand is a wonderful thing to lend, to someone who can use it.

As a business, how does Local Lendables make money? Will you sell my data to the highest bidder? Back to Top	We don't need to sell your data, nor sell you to advertisers. Our income comes from a nominal site subscription cost ($50/month) that lets us provide your community with a unique website, your own database, your own community Membership, all built on the Local Lendables platform. This business model design is intentional -- it allows us to work for our Members, without selling them out. I'm Michael Jensen, the founder (and funder) of the Local Lendables Project, as well as the Commons Communities Project. I'm 67. I don't need, or even want, an IPO. I don't need, or even want, gigantic wealth. I want to see these ideas succeed, and succeed honourably. Succeeding wildly would be nice. I want this project to be financially sustainable, to pay good salaries and good freelance rates, and to be highly effective at saving people money while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, reducing embedded energy and resource expenditures, and building resiliant communities. The world is burning, and this is my drop in the bucket to throw at the fire. If I'm lucky enough to succeed, I will do my level best to build a business model that is equitable, ethical, sustainable, and purposeful. And no, I won't sell your data.

I have something I just need picked up. Can I ask for that? Back to Top	Sure, though there's no guarantee that anyone can. Some people "lend" their time -- kind of like "paying it forward" -- and you can put it on a "wish list" that might get noticed. But that's not really what this is designed for.

What's the difference between Emails, SMS/Texts, Chats, and Alerts? Back to Top	The system will need to communicate with you somehow, and you can choose what method you prefer. You will receive a weekly email with listings of new items, and a message from your Manager. You may also receive: An Email is sent by the system (your choice of message platforms) to tell you about a communication within Local Lendables (a chat, a request, a wish list match, etc.). A Message is either an Email or an SMS/Text. A Message may also be sent by the system (or only an SMS) to tell you about a Lendables Event -- a request or communication. In each case, at most you'll receive one message per Item per day. A Chat is a one-on-one conversation within the Local Lendable site with another Member about an Item. It serves as the record of agreements and arrangements for Lending and Borrowing an Item. An Alert is a Message that someone is newly interested in Borrowing or Returning an Item.

Can I send a message to a group of people? Back to Top	The base Local Lendables does not enable that by default. If there is great interest, talk with the Manager about the "Groups" module.

I'm moving away from this community -- how do I detach from Lendables? Back to Top	First, tell the Manager of your Local Lendables site; they can help. When you Edit an Item, if you make it "Unavailable," then it will no longer display for others on the site. If an Item is currently out on loan, you can send a request to the Borrower. Once all your Items are "Unavailable" to the Members, you can go to your Personal Profile to change your Status to "Inactive." You'll disappear from everyone else's displays from there on -- and if you move back, you can re-activate your Status, and you can re-activate any Lendable Items still on file.

Can I get a copy of all my messages? Back to Top	We will be developing a bunch of Member tools -- personal statistics, reports and listings of activities, for you as a Member -- and that's among the things that might be useful. If enough Members request it, we will put in the time to produce it.