Dear members

As the year draws to a close, so too does my term as president of Ramics. I want to thank all our members for this valuable learning experience and offer a summary of the past four years. I presented these activities at the 7th Congress in Rome, but as not all members were able to attend, I want to highlight some key points.

Over its ten years of existence, Ramics has become a valuable resource: a space where researchers on complementary currencies can present and discuss their work, a point of contact for the public with questions on our topic, and a source of literature for young researchers needing to start out somewhere. The Ramics email address regularly receives unsolicited offers, from tourist boards inviting us to hold conferences in their cities to service providers offering website improvements. While these emails can be a nuisance, they do indicate a degree of visibility among global academic associations. 

Over the last four years, Ramics has maintained its activity, holding biennial conferences in various countries and continents. The post-COVID congress was made possible primarily through the dedication of Rossitsa Toncheva, with crucial support from the rest of the Management Team, her team in Sofia, Bulgaria, and our long-standing volunteers, Leander Bindewald and Teodoro Criscione. The subsequent congress, organized by ISSIRFA CNR in Rome, marked a positive step beyond the pandemic. Like a historical turning point, this shift towards the future took place in Rome, a city with a rich history of such transitions. I extend my sincere thanks to CNR and the Roman team—Luca Giachi, Chiara Cavallaro, Riccardo Fava, Francesca Proia, and Fabrizio Tuzi—for organizing the congress, and to Matthew Slater for the practitioners’ day. I also offer sincere thanks to Teodoro Criscione, who provided wonderful support as a volunteer once again.

After three rounds, we have established a Best Paper Award, open equally to activists and researchers. The blending of practitioners, academics, and activists has become one of the hallmarks of Ramics conferences. While the contacts between the groups has got varying degrees of success, Ramics is still among the few academic associations that actively engage such a diverse audience. This year a new bridge was built, with a community of educators, an initiative of Ester Barinaga. Finally, we have continued to support small groups of PhD students in France, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, Brazil, and the Netherlands. The Ramics Management Team page provides a list of potential PhD supervisors for research on complementary currencies.

The International Journal of Community Currency Research (IJCCR) deserves special mention. Jens Martignoni and the Editorial Board are working to revitalize the journal, exploring ways to enhance it while adhering to the founders’ mandate: to provide high-quality, open-access research. Despite its limitations, the IJCCR stands as one of the few free and open-source journals sustained by volunteer effort for 27 volumes. The Editors also offer mentoring to aspiring junior scholars, helping them achieve their first publication rather than simply issuing rejections. For papers focusing on case studies, ideas, and projects, the IJCCR has created the “Ideas for Debate” section, publishing innovative and well-written empirical cases.

Unfortunately, in early 2024, our second attempt at a COST Action proposal was unsuccessful, joining the 92% of proposals that were rejected. I have decided to step aside, allowing others to try a third time or develop a different proposal if they wish. The existing documentation remains available to all Ramics members.

When I took over the presidency from Jerome Blanc in 2019, I had many more plans and wishes. Time constraints and other limitations kept me focused on what was achievable, altogether humbler. I benefited from the motivation of current and former Management Team members, as well as Ricardo Orzi in Argentina and August Corrons in Barcelona, our former Management Team members. I would like to welcome Gabriella Gimigliano and Luca Giachi from Italy into the MT. I am also grateful to the many volunteers who have dedicated their time and energy to help us grow and maintain a degree of visibility and relevance.

Having reached my word limit, I offer my best wishes for 2025. May this year bring peace and some prosperity to the world, and perhaps some sanity and rationality to world leaders who have shown a lack thereof. And may Ramics make its own small contribution towards these goals.

Georgina Gomez