Wednesday, February 11, 2009

For Immediate Release:

BerkShares Success Enables Exchange Rate Change
 
The incredible success of the initial issue of BerkShares has enabled a strategic change in the exchange rate between the BerkShares local currency and U.S. dollars. Beginning Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 100 BerkShares can be purchased for 95 federal dollars and vice-versa. The BerkShares board of trustees believes that this change will enable the participation of a wider range of business in the BerkShares local economy. This means that Berkshire citizens will have more places to spend BerkShares. And businesses that accept BerkShares will have more places to spend them too—and in the event that they are unable to spend them, they’ll be able to redeem them for more federal dollars than under the previous exchange rate.
 
This modification to the program is intended to make BerkShares more feasible for the business community, and to help facilitate the expansion of the program to Pittsfield and northward, and potentially southward across the Connecticut border as well. The change is the result of a community-wide survey and much deliberation on the part of the BerkShares staff, board, and volunteers. It is one of a series of improvements to the program that are presently in the works, including BerkShares checking accounts and BerkShares loans for businesses dedicated to import replacement.
 
Much credit for making the BerkShares program run smoothly goes to the participating local banks: Berkshire Bank, Lee Bank, Lenox National Bank, Pittsfield Co-op Bank, and Salisbury Bank and Trust. These banks have made a remarkable commitment to the idea of a local economy. Please be patient with their tellers as the new exchange rate is put into effect.
 
Credit for the overwhelming success of the program also goes to more than 350 local businesses that accept BerkShares. Their support and creativity have been critical to keeping BerkShares circulating through our community.
 
Over two million BerkShares have been circulated since the program’s inception in 2006 and the program has recently been featured in Time, Newsweek, and in over 100 regional newspapers through an Associate Press newswire story. Increasingly, people are looking to BerkShares as a model for a stable, localized, value-added economy and as an alternative to a slumping national economy. The BerkShares board and staff are committed to growing the project at a sensible rate and to giving the onlookers even more to talk about.
 
For more information about the exchange rate change, go to www.berkshares.org, or call 413/528-1737.