C-Hour
Adapted from the 23 September 2026 plan. The proposed system is open to development with participants.
Thanks that means something
Communities have long expressed thanks through hospitality, recognition, shared experiences, introductions, encouragement and help in return. The C-hour explores whether a shared record might enrich those relationships. The meaning and form of reciprocity come from the people practising it.
Acknowledgement at a gathering, a shared learning experience, a celebration, recognition of a skill or mutual help are possibilities to discuss. Some thanks may be public and others deeply personal. What feels meaningful is a question for those involved. Enjoyable and tangible reciprocity has a place here without assigning a monetary value to each hour.
Recognition without a price
The practical distinction is between a community choosing how to say thanks and a system calculating what an hour can buy. A fixed dollar rate, cash-out mechanism, tradeable balance or financial claim would change the meaning of the C-hour. Those mechanisms are excluded. A badge, invitation or locally chosen reciprocal opportunity does not automatically introduce them.
A voluntary record, with a limited purpose
Some may describe this as a light form of social credit: a voluntary record of contribution and community appreciation. Here, it has a specific scope. It is not a universal score of a person, a compulsory behaviour rating or a condition for ordinary rights and essential care. Its value comes from willing relationships and useful recognition.
Shape the local approach together
Early conversations might explore what people already appreciate about local reciprocity, what they would like to try and what would make an offer clear and fair. Those discussions could become a short, evolving account of the community’s approach, explained through its agents. Availability, disagreements and changing circumstances would offer reasons to revisit it together.
Where a proposed reward involves a commercial benefit, employment arrangement or substantial material entitlement, assess that particular arrangement before promising it. Do not invent a dollar value for C-hours as a shortcut. Keep any actual funding, paid work and provision of services in their proper records.
The hope is that reciprocity leaves people feeling welcome and appreciated, with room for the different ways they contribute and the times when they need support themselves.