Has anyone set up, or been a member of, a local skills exchange scheme or babysitting exchange group?

[Overmydeadbody]

Can I have your experiences (good and bad) and tips, as I would like to set one up locally, where members can swap their skills/services for either tokens to be exchanged or direct bartering of skills.

Oh, maybe this doesn't actually go in ethical living?

Are you thinking of a LET scheme where all sorts of skills could be exchanged or just a babysitting circle?

Haven't been a member of a babysitting circle, but my Mum was (a long time ago!), they had bits of playing card cut up for 'chips', and a set hourly rate I think one chip per hour up to 11 pm, 2 chips per hour after that. Everyone who joined got given a set number of chips to start them off (quite a lot need to be in circulation or it tends to gum up).

I used to belong to the LETS in Cambridge many years ago, it was fantastic, worked really well. But . . . they need a lot of time and energy put into organising them & keeping them going, and I have heard that it has fallen off a bit since then as some of the committee ran out of time / energy.

There is a LETS in the area where I live now, but it is such a scattered rural area that it doesn't really seem to work well at all, and also because everyone has pretty strong family / friendship networks it isn't needed in the same way IMO.

You might find this link helpful

I'm a member of an online babysitting circle www.mynightoff.com I should be on commission the amount I mention it on here. It is no cost and no effort involved, other than the administrator setting people up initially.

Its a fantastic invention, has saved us plenty on babysitting costs, and I find that babysitting for others is fine as it involves mumsnetting and eating others biscuits ( although the snacks selection isn't as good as it used to be in the early days when we were worried about what others thought of us)

I do a fair bit I trade after school care for DIY & dressmaking and also boat repairs for dance lessons

A friend of mine set one up, after a certain amount of research, using mymbabysitterclub.com.au