Wow @kilbride, that you for such a thoughtful and detailed response. You've raised a lot of great points. I've just started the registration process to join our local group and I think the act of actually participating will quickly highlight how we feel about the model.
I can't agree more with this:
What I love most about movements like this is that by starting at the most basic ideas of trade, we are actively going through the ideas that have been developed around trade and markets and valuation and seeing which ones are truths and which ones are baggage we just keep around due to not asking questions.
We really believe in diversifying as much as possible so that if one system fails, we have others to fall back on. I am pretty excited that we have an opportunity to explore timebanking!
Keep us posted! And like you said, this is not a mainstream version of the project, so its not really necessary to be overly critical. It is just a way for people possible facilitate some productivity, plus, get people participating in the ideas behind it more. I hope you do some follow up posts!