Vic Ward crooked his thick neck to peer from just behind Linda Bardes' head through a Lensatic compass.

"When you're sighting through it, you want to make sure that thing is floating," Ward said. "Find the nearest landmark along that line, a rock or a big tree. If you get lost, stay on the trail. Finding where you are on the map is unbelievably hard. And what's on the signs might not be on the map. It'll say 'Somebody's Gulch.'"

Ward's orienteering spiel had dual purposes: helping Bardes avoid getting lost on an upcoming hiking trip in Arizona, and earning Ward credit in a time-bank program.

That's bartering.

This age-old practice is back in a big way, but with a twist: The currency is services rather than goods or money. In the Twin Cities area alone, several nonprofit organizations facilitate true work-exchange programs for hundreds of people. In today's economy, though, the tasks are just as likely to involve website design or accounting as cooking, cleaning or shoveling snow. Or teaching someone how to use a compass.

Any and every type of work is fair game.

"We have people who give marketing advice or financial advice or computer advice," said Bardes, a member of the metro-wide SHIFT TimeBank. "Or somebody might take care of a cat for three days."

"I've offered to make beer," said compatriot Gary Johnson, who elicited some chuckles, but no takers.

All labor, from plumbing to walking a dog, is considered equal, earning hours that can be exchanged for other types of work. Bardes recently designed a brochure for a woman who was conducting a seminar, then used the hours to get some acupuncture work.

One major bonus: Because no money or material goods are exchanged (aside from a fee to join up), the work is not subject to taxes.

"As long as people are trading hour for hour, we're fine [with the IRS]," said Kristy Norman, the time trader coordinator for Family Service Rochester.

That's true as long as the coordinating program is a nonprofit 501(c)3, and it's why organizers prefer the term "time bank" to "bartering." Such tax exemptions do not apply to the kind of exchange work conducted on Craigslist, where recent pitches on the local "barter" page included "I need new website. You need concrete work"; "Trade family law paralegal services for ?" and "Chevy Blazer and 8' western trade for a hiniker v plow or toward it."

There also are professional barter exchanges in which businesses pay a fee to join, then receive and provide services with no further money involved. The International Reciprocal Trade Association includes about 100 such exchanges, which director Ron Whitney said have seen 30 to 40 percent more activity in the past 12 months.

"The economy is down, and bartering is up," Whitney said.

Let's make a deal

Most of the local action is with individuals joining time-bank groups, many of which utilize a "Community Weaver" software program at the organization's website to find and tabulate work. Norman said that members who are not computer-savvy get an "online buddy" to facilitate the electronic end.

Many of the area's time-bank organizations are relatively new, but growing rapidly. Rochester's program debuted 15 months ago and already has 165 members who have exchanged more than 1,200 hours. In about the same time frame, SHIFT's local chapter has attracted 90 participants.

Some organizations have been around a lot longer. Founded in 1998, Stillwater's Neighborhood Service Exchange has about 130 members, including a few who joined from the get-go. Founder Cathy Dyball said that almost half the members are elderly or disabled.

"We have a lot of cooking, cleaning and massage work," Dyball said. "We have one man who is really concerned about people being safe in their homes, so he fixes little things he finds. We had one 3M retiree who was so creative, he would go to Menards and find a tool and figure out a way to put our logo on it."

Basically, she said, it's a matter of "people helping people, trying to be good neighbors." Sometimes, time-bank members donate hours to those in need.

That kind of mind-set is motivating Kathy Ahlers, a longtime member of St. Paul's Hour Dollars Program, to start a time-bank exchange in northeast Minneapolis and environs (New Brighton, Columbia Heights, St. Anthony) in the coming months.

"I've seen how much value these programs can have, with everything -- raking for seniors, making custom wedding cakes, tutoring Spanish, to helping someone with résumés, music lessons, lots of chiropractors," Ahlers said.

"It helps to build community. What I've seen is that a time bank brings to the surface all the little skills, the hobbies -- basically all the human resources in the neighborhood."

Bill Ward • 612-673-76431