Growing your Swap

Contact list

At the West Croydon Swap we collect only the most basic contact details –name, email address and telephone number – to keep in touch with those interested in the Swap.

An ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ list helps to separate those who participate regularly, from those who have expressed interest, but don’t attend often and wish only to receive a reminder email once or twice a year.

We respect our contacts by applying strict principles to the details collected:

• we use the list to circulate information about our own Swap only

• we take care to BCC (blind CC) emails rather than displaying email addresses

• we never provide anyone’s details to a third party – even other swappers. Provide the details of the person requesting contact to the person with whom contact is desired, and let them make their decision about whether to respond.

Stick to your Principles

A few important principles protect the spirit of our Swap.

1) No money changes hands.

Allowing produce to be purchased at the Swap would undermine the spirit of the Swap and the way it operates. It would also introduce legal liability issues. At times we’ve found it necessary to be quite firm about this principle. We simply point out that there are other forums – e.g. farmers’ markets – available to those who require a specified return on their wares, or who want to purchase produce.

2) No rules.

We’ve opted for very few rules at our Swap because we want everybody to feel welcome and to feel at home at our gathering. Apart from ‘no money changes hands’, there are really no rules. We do not place any limitations on how produce is grown or packaged or brought or presented. For example, it doesn’t have to be organic, vegetarian, wrapped in biodegradable packaging or any other stipulation.

3) What we DO & DON’T swap

We do swap:

• any kind of fruit & vegetables

• plants, seeds, cuttings

• home made goods including preserves (jams, chutneys etc) and baked goods

• eggs – swapped at swappers’ own risk, since they entail a food safety risk

We DON’T swap:

• meat or meat-based products

• dairy or dairy-based products

• an organization

• a committee

• a budget

• assets, accounts, finance

• membership

In our experience, a Community Fruit & Vege swap can be a truly grassroots,