Among the new code changes are articles addressing tax reporting, marketing language, provisions for unfair competition, and disciplinary actions.

To review the new IRTA Ethics Code click HERE.

David worked tirelessly to build and improve the modern trade and barter industry.

His record of accomplishments in the barter industry is unprecedented.

David was a special friend and an amazing person, and he will be greatly missed.

The IRTA family extends its heartfelt sympathy to Dave’s family and thanks Dave for his lifetime of service to IRTA and our industry.

“The UC Members’ participation in the Greenapple Pittsburgh Trade Show definitely impacted this huge monthly trade volume increase,” offered IRTA Executive Director Ron Whitney, “the addition of Patty Weston, an experienced barter broker, has elevated customer service to a new level. Industry members are realizing that UC is the most effective clearinghouse currency for trade exchanges”

Universal Currency is the largest Modern Trade and Barter Industry owned trading platform provides services for nearly 100 of the world’s leading barter exchanges.

UC will continue to expand its offerings on www.ucci.biz and grow its membership base both in the U.S. and internationally. For more information on UC call Ron Whitney at 757-393-2292, ron@irta.com or Patty Weston at 321-397-2050, patty@irta.com or see www.irta.com

Favorable Opinion Attached

On October 29, 2010 the North Carolina Bar Association approved a favorable opinion which allows lawyers in North Carolina to participate in barter exchanges, subject to the following reasonable criteria:

1) The barter exchange exercises no influence over the judgment of the lawyer.

2) The barter exchange’s listings and advertising for the lawyers are truthful.

3) The barter exchange accurately discloses the States the lawyer is licensed to practice in.

4) The barter exchange provides a complete and impartial list of all participating lawyers in the exchange and does not restrict the number of lawyers in the exchange.

5) The barter exchange does not do “in person” solicitations of members by the barter exchange manager or broker on behalf of a exchange member lawyer.

6) Advance payments for litigation expenses or other expenses of representation must be paid in cash, check or credit card, since Rule 1.15 requires a lawyer to deposit such funds in a trust account and barter dollars cannot be deposited into a bank trust account.　

In the future, IRTA will use this opinion to persuade those few State Bar Associations who have a negative opinion on this matter to reverse their anti-barter exchange stand.

Please call me, or email me if you have any questions about this favorable decision for our industry.　

Sincerely,

Ron Whitney
IRTA Executive Director
UC Administrator
524 Middle Street
Portsmouth, VA 23704
PH: 757-393-2292
FAX: 757-257-4014
SKYPE: ron.d.whitney
ron@irta.com
www.irta.com

On behalf of the IRTA Global Board of Directors I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the 31st Annual IRTA International Convention.

We have traveled here from all parts of the world to make a human connection with the very best and brightest people the Modern Trade and Barter industry has to offer. Industry leaders, start ups, mature exchanges, software providers, corporate barter companies, consultants, community currencies have gathered together here to share ideas learn and develop interpersonal relationships that will last for a life time.

The theme of this year’s convention “Modern Barter Leading the Way to Economic Recovery” is particularly timely and appropriate.

The current worldwide economic downturn has presented the Modern Trade and Barter Industry with a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the business community how excess business capacities and underperforming assets can be transformed into capitalization and bottom line profits.

The members of IRTA are uniquely positioned to lead the Modern Trade and Barter Industry into a new and unprecedented level of recognition and achievement. Modern trade and barter is one of the solutions towards a path of worldwide economic recovery and job creation.

Our story is being told; over the past few years the Modern Trade and Barter Industry has attracted enormous positive media attention. This attention has stirred considerable entrepreneurial interest in our industry as evidenced by the surge of startup barter companies that we have welcomed into IRTA. Many of those startup companies are present at this convention. Please nurture them for they represent the future of this industry.

I believe that our industry provides an economic efficiency that when fully developed will lead to a huge increase in consumption, production, and employment. This will bring the world as a whole to a higher standard of living with better nutrition, education and healthcare.

I look forward to personally meeting with you during this important and dynamic event.

Warmest regards,

David Wallach, President
IRTA Global Board of Directors

At ITEX, the Bellevue, Wash., membership trading company that has 24,000 members and 90 offices around the country, that percentage is 6%. According to Alan Zimmelman, a spokesman for ITEX, barter exchanges work best in local economies and is done predominately via the phone or electronic messaging, rather than over the Internet. Members will use the Internet to search for ways to spend their barter dollars but will call or email one of ITEX’s brokers when they want to engage in a trade. “The Internet will grow but it is a slow process,” said Zimmelman, noting it’s easier to pick up the phone, send a text or email. ITEX members do use the Internet to post advertisements or electronic newsletters.

Members of bartering exchange NuBarter do use the Internet to make deals, even though the company has customer service reps at the ready to help members. On NuBarter.com members are given a line of credit and search for what they want to use that line of credit for. Once they find something they click buy and the seller is contacted via an email. If it is approved the seller and buyer will make arrangements.

NuBarter, which is based in Savannah, Ga., but has offices around the country and a network of barter exchange partners around the world, put together a network of roughly 2,300 members who trade among themselves. A line of credit is given to the members and NuBarter’s job is to make sure the goods and services stay balanced. For instance, NuBarter won’t let 10 hair salons on the network if there is only demand for two. What’s more, in order for a small business to be allowed into the network, it has to go through an interview process. The line of credit is based on criteria, including years of service, number of employees and size of the business, said Gary Field, president of NuBarter.

Full story at http://www.foxsmallbusinesscenter.com/strategy/2010/09/10/bartering-saves-bucks-businesses/

Active International, a Corporate Barter company, is the world’s largest barter company with a gross trade volume of more that 1.4 billion dollars and 400 employees manning offices in 11 global locations.  “Members of the barter industry will come from all over the world to listen and learn from directly from Alan” said IRTA President David Wallach “his expertise in the Corporate Barter arena will provide invaluable information and education to those that attend the 2010 ITRA Convention.”

Alan Elkin began his career in the media industry at Kaiser Broadcast, which, under his direction as Senior Vice President of Sales, later became Field Communications and then Katz Media Group, the largest media representation firm in the United States.
He is a Member of the Barter Hall of Fame and has been awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Ernst & Young, and has received the Averell Harriman International Trade Award and the British American Business Inc. (BABI) Award in recognition of Active’s global accomplishments. He served as President Corporate Barter Council for the International Reciprocal Trade Association, and served on the IRTA Global Board of Directors for 10 years.

Alan has made community involvement a priority.  Active Cares, a charitable activity created in 1997, has provided contributions to over 600 charities.  In 2005, he received the Medal of Honor from Good Samaritan Hospital for this work and in 2006 the company acquired the naming rights for the Active International Cardiovascular Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital.

A native of New York, Alan received his B.A. degree from Brooklyn College.
Originally founded as a corporate trading company more than 25 years ago, Active International acquired underperforming assets, such as inventory, real estate and capital equipment, helping its clients use these assets to fund normal business expenditures and create cash savings and economic benefits that otherwise would not have been achieved.

The International Reciprocal Trade Association, IRTA, is a non-profit organization committed to promoting just and equitable standards of practice and operation within the modern trade and barter and alternative capital systems Industry and raising the awareness and value of these processes to the entire Worldwide Community.