RRFM in the "News"

Yes, I used the quotation marks on purpose so I don't want to see this on any quotation mark fail blog. If you have ever read Florida Today, you know it qualifies as news the way street hot dogs qualify as kosher.

But here it is anyway, as printed, with misspelled names and other mistakes intact.

Here's a really free market

Everything in a local monthly event is offered without cost

Adam Tritt knew he was on the right track when the person on the stool next to him at Mainstreet Pub asked him if he had heard about that great new free market coming up in Melbourne.

Not only had Tritt heard about, he was the one organizing it.

"When someone sitting next to you at a bar tells you it's a great idea, you know it's catching on," said Tritt, who operates The Wellness Center in Palm Bay.

Tritt is at the helm of the Really, Really Free Market of Melbourne and Palm Bay, an event intent on proving wrong the old adage that "nothing in life is free."

In fact, everything at the monthly market will be free.

Like participants at a potluck supper, everyone brings something and leaves satisfied -- or at least that's the goal. There's no money exchanged or even bartering.

"It basically targets everyone, from people who need stuff to people who want to trade stuff or just give stuff," said Shelley Daum, Tritt's colleague at the Wellness Center who will provide clothing patchwork at the market. "It's for everyone."

The Really, Really Free Market movement began in Miami and Raleigh, N.C., in 2004, and has spread throughout the United States. From San Francisco to Dayton, Ohio, to Minneapolis, Minn., and Washington, D.C., participants share both goods and services during the informal get-togethers.

The idea of giving stuff away is not new.

Freecycle.org has for years been sharing free stuff online, including at public events in Brevard County starting more than four years ago. The Web site lists Melbourne, Cocoa-Meritt Island and Titusville as having Freecycle groups.

"Free stores," places where patrons can select from the free "stock," are common in the Netherlands and Germany, and some U.S. colleges run versions of these shops. In some New England towns, unwanted items with life still left in them are placed at swap-sheds near local landfills, where anyone can take them.

Even the Big Apple of capitalism, New York, hosted a free store of sorts in, of all places, the Financial District. New York's temporary "Free Store" on Nassau Street was conceived as a participatory art experience and ran for a limited time before closing last month.

An Email from a yahoogroup that did not like me posting the RRFM

Lots of folks wrote me asking if they could post their cats and stoves and such. People don't seem to realize we are talking about a real location with real people.

It is amazing and wonderful that our technology that, for so long, created distance, was hightech and lowtouch, now is assisting us to connect in ways that creates hightech and hightouch. Facebook, Yahoogroups, local networking.

Here is a lady, the "owner" of Soughbrevardbargains@yahoogroups.com, who takes exception to our getting the word out. The emails are in their entirety.



From: notify@yahoogroups.com [mailto:notify@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Annie
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 9:45 PM
To: adamus@cfl.rr.com
Subject: Adam

I don't mind a group etc. being advertised on south brevard bargains, but I
don't want them being advertised all the time. Only advertise your group
"once"> (already done) then put it in the links section on the group home
page. you have been getting carried away with advertising this "free market"
thing, & it's just getting to be too much. I hope you understand.
Thanks...Annie (SBB-Group Owner)


From: Adam
Date: 3/24/2009 9:57:44 PM
To: 'Annie'
Subject: RE: Adam

I actually only advertises the group once. I mentioned the blog once.

Carried away? We are creating an actual space for trading of goods and
services. Realtime. Real people getting what they need.

But, your group. I'll leave you all to what you do.
________________________________________


From: Annie [mailto:Aeli30@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 10:23 PM
To: Adam
Subject: RE: Adam

With in the last week you have advertised that group or whatever it is, at least 4 times. I know, because I just deleted all 4 of them except one.
Yes carried away.

(Added note by me: this was over the course of two weeks.)


Here is my reply to this last:

Do forgive me for attempting to set up a real thing with real people. You keep your e-group. It’s the folks who get “carried away” who accomplish things, not those content with good enough and ok.

You’d probably have told Bill Gates and Steve Jobs they were getting carried away. Of John Audubon. James Joyce was carried away as well. Anyone who makes a real, consistent difference was "carried away." When I want to stop being a successful author and educator and stop making a real difference in he world, then I’ll take your advice and stop getting “carried away.” Then I, too, can be common and ordinary.

In the meantime, I’ll get a bit more carried away by posting this on my blogs.
Thanks for the great copy. I couldn’t have written this without you.

Adam

And, of course, I could not have.

NEW RRFM Yahoogroup.

Be the first on your block. Join now. Post your ideas and suggestions.

Go to Yahoo groups and join by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RRFM/

Or send a blank email to RRFM-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Posters!

Take them, post them, copy them, use them.

What does the RRFM do?

Some folks do better than others. It is time to end the concept that wealth is always synonymous with effort and poverty is always synonymous with laziness. Let's support each other, those who have and those who don't.

With effort, everyone can have what they need.

And here are some posters to help. But, what if you want to make your own? Or send out emails to your email tree?

You don't need anything fancy. Just make up something and get it out there. Make them on your computer and send them in email. Make invitations, talk to businesses. The more people who do this, the larger and more ubiquitous it seems. That means more folk and more goods and more things changing hands and more people taken care of. More goods and services and energy circulating.

REMEMBER: The RRFM IS the message and the last thing we want is to cover that message or create division with soapboxing.

Contact Info? We got that.

The Wellness Center helps sponsor this.
Adam Byrn Tritt, M.Ed, LMT & Lee Tritt, OMD, AP.

1071 Port Malabar Blvd, Suite 106
Palm Bay, FL

On Facebook? Look for the group there. The Free Market of Melbourne/Palm Bay, Florida

See you at the part, last Sunday (starting April, 2009) 1 to 4.

The First Really Really Free Market in the Space Coast

The First in Florida, I think, actually. And April 26th, it is.

Last Sunday of Every Month from 1-4

Holmes Park (manatee sculpture) in Downtown Melbourne, off Melbourne Ave, just west of the train trestle

Like a potluck -- everyone brings something and can leave with more. We all have skills, ideas, objects, talents, smiles, friendship, excitement, discussions and many other things to share. If we bring them together at the REALLY REALLY FREE MARKET (RRFM), we can provide more balanced and full lives for all of us.

At an RRFM, goods and services are available at NO COST. Yes, like a garage sale and fair together, but more so. If you have nothing, that's fine. If you have something to bring, that's fine. But no need to trade. Everything is free, no selling.

Face painting, massage, basic check-ups? Why not. Surplus food? Absolutely! Clothing and books and movies. You bet.

Garden clippings, vegetable and plant seeds and seedings, extra pots? Bring them on.

Bikes and boards? Wheel them in!

Haircuts? Reflexology?

Community info?

Let's show folks what is really mean by THE FREE MARKET.

With a little work (if we work together) we can all have what we need.

Some folks do better than others. It is time to end the concept that wealth is always synonymous with effort and poverty is always synonymous with lazy. Let's support each other, those who have, and those who don't.

Bring food, music, clothes, furniture, toys, skills and thrills and anything else you can give, share, or barter. Skills? Bring 'em on. Fun skills, serious skills. Juggle? Play any instruments? Bring them. Why? Why not?