The Money Crunch Conference: ACCESS Foundation and Naropa University Invite International Experts To Boulder To Offer New Perspectives on Meeting Social Needs with New Monetary Innovations.

Business Editors/Education Writers

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2004

The Boulder-based ACCESS Foundation (Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies) and Naropa University's Marpa Center for Business and Economics will hold a conference entitled "The Money Crunch: Complementary Currency Solutions" on Friday, March 19, 2004, through Sunday, March 21, 2004, at the Naropa University Nalanda Campus, 6287 Arapahoe St., Boulder Colo. The conference will address the growing field of complementary currencies with the participation of many international experts in the field. The conference is open to all. For more information on costs and registration, prospective attendees can call Naropa University at 303-245-4800. Naropa University is a co-sponsor of the conference.

The three-day conference will feature internationally renowned experts on new monetary innovations that address the growing economic uncertainty worldwide. As budgets are being cut at all levels of government, the importance of complementary currencies and their implementation has become a subject of intense interest.

According to Bernard Lietaer, ACCESS foundation co-founder and visiting professor at Naropa University's Marpa Center: "There are now new monetary innovations working in over 5,000 communities around the globe. These currencies are agreements within communities to use something other than conventional national currency to facilitate exchanges among its members. This money does not replace, but rather complements the national monetary system. Complementary currencies are designed primarily to facilitate exchanges and are not instruments for savings and investment."

Lietaer was one of the two principal architects of the "ECU," the convergence mechanism that developed into the European single currency known as the Euro. The conference grows out of his interest in and involvement with complementary currencies.

Other conference participants include Edgar Cahn, president, and chairman of the board of Time Dollar Institute. Cahn wrote the book "No More Throw-Away People," which addresses how "time dollars," one example of a complementary currency, are resolving major global socioeconomic problems. Stefan Brunhuber will also be a conference participant. He is the author of a follow-up to the landmark report by Dennis Meadows entitled "Limits to Growth," originally published by the Club of Rome in 1972 and widely credited with putting the issue of sustainability on the map.

Randy Petersen, who has been referred to as "the most influential frequent flyer in America" by The Wall Street Journal and called "the world's leading expert on airline frequent flyer programs" -- another form of complementary currency -- by the New York Times will also be participating in the Money Crunch conference.

The ACCESS Foundation -- the Alliance of Complementary Currencies Enabling Sustainable Societies -- is an educational non-profit organization dedicated to the betterment of humankind through the understanding and use of complementary monetary innovations. The organization's U.S. headquarters are based in Boulder, Colorado. For more information, visit www.accessfoundation.org

The Marpa Center for Business and Economics was established by Naropa in 2002 to integrate Naropa's unique experience of contemplative liberal arts education with the contemporary world of business, economics and work to nurture the growing convergence between for-profit and non-profit realms, as businesses recognize the need to expand their missions to include social responsibility, and non-profits recognize the benefits of using for-profit strategies to accomplish social missions. Currently, the Marpa Center offers certificate programs in professional development, an on-going lecture series and conferences that showcase innovative ways in which for-profits and non-profits can tackle challenging business, economic and social issues.

Naropa University is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian liberal arts institution whose core mission is contemplative education. Contemplative education is an approach to learning that integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, creating and implementing a new paradigm in higher education. This model seeks to help students know themselves deeply so that they can engage constructively in a world of individuals who are not like themselves. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental studies, psychology, religious studies, and creation spirituality. It offers BA, BFA, MA, MFA, MDiv and MLA degrees, as well as professional development training and classes for the community through its School of Extended Studies and the Marpa School of Business and Economics. In addition, the university runs study abroad programs in Sikkim, the Czech Republic, South India, Bali and Costa Rica. For more information, visit www.naropa.edu.