>> all requests would be made within the designated time period; say, two weeks.
Maybe that would be long enough if everyone's database was set up and running several weeks or months before the start time.
Thus people would need to have heard about it and put in considerable work before the start time.
And that might be the best way to go, especially for the first few swaps, while the central person or people discover what works best and what takes too much work.
But probably people will hear about it while it's running, want to join, then only have time to list very few items before the swap-time is over. Why not allow the search-and-trade time to go for a month or two?
Or, once the databases are set up, allow them to stay up indefinitely, and allow requests, new offers and trades to be added and saved over a period of months.
Then, go through the central work of send-em-all-in and mail-em-all-back-out 2 or 3 times per year. That way, the word of mouth will spread and people can join up over a long period of time.
Say you set the main deadline for January 15 to please winter-sowers and early Southern sowers. Maybe announce that one is "focused on" flowers or perennials but allows veggies. That has to be late enough for seed-savers to have harvested, dried well, divided and labeled. You don't know how many packets to promise until after you've cleaned and divided the harvest.
Why not set another date in late February or March, focused on veggies but allowing flowers?
I suppose that should depend on how much interest was expressed - or how many new trades have been agreed to since Jan 15.
