Auf wiedersehen, John Rogers

I had a phone call the other night from John Morton, someone I know through the LETS system in the area. He told me that John Rogers, one of the founders of the system in South Powys, is leaving to go to Germany. I was the membership secretary of Splets for a while, so I used to know John Rogers reasonably well.
LETS is basically a barter system. Local Economic Trading System (I think - I can never remember). The idea is that people join the group, and they then have access to all the other members' offers and skills, and have all those people to trade with. The trades are recorded on a central computer in a local currency. Here in South Powys, the currency is called Beacons. In Manchester, they used Bobbins, and I think Stroud, one of the first systems in the country, uses Acorns.
Through the system, I've discovered new skills - like putting floorboards down when I was helping to restore a barn to use as a retreat centre - and I've traded patchwork rugs, and books, and met all sorts of interesting people. I'm not a member of the system any more, as it's difficult to trade without transport in this area - and if the person I want to trade with is in Crickhowell, or Llandrindod Wells, I can't do it. Some systems cover a single housing estate (there's one in Wrexham, for instance), but the population in South Powys is very spread out.
Without John's hard work and enthusiasm, this whole network of like minded people would not exist.
I don't know what he's going to be doing in Germany, but I wish him well.

Meanwhile, Castle Street is about to be re-surfaced. A group of workmen were there last night, and today the road surface is covered in mysterious symbols and numbers in green and red and yellow and white. Tonight, I think they start the actual work.