Group actions

Please implement
GroupForumPage
::column_col2()

or create a file
"/var/rox/deployment/www.bewelcome.org-641c114/htdocs/../build/groups/templates/groupforum.column_col2.php"

beWelcome Teams, around the world

Group: bewelcomevolunteers

TimLoal
Profile

posted 2011/09/20 01:35    Visibility: World

It is great to see more and more people joining beWelcome and great to see more people getting involved with the running and development of the site.  Currently the active team of developers seem to be EU centred and work mostly happens during the European day on weekends and evenings during the week.  How can we encourage the formation of teams around the globe so that work on the site can be more or less continuous basis, when needed.

One topic that i see in many places on BW, is the idea that BW isn't just about hospex.  I think thats natural and look past the day when BW is running extremely well, with a great nearly perfect website and all the teams and resources it requires to run well, to a time when we can look at other things to be.  The be part of the name is great for this, as it can be stuck onto the front of anything, be Hitchhiker, beArtistic, beCooking, beLearning.  The energy that we put into organising our energies and achieving our objectives on BW will help us achieve much more afterwards.  I am sure that with a much more intercontinental approach BV and BW will accelerate the activity in development, membership and use.

As BW grows other member services will need to be available 24/7, functions like safty cant afford to be asleep on the job.  Is there anyone or any group that is active in the day to day organisation and coordination of member services teams?

One team that i think is missing at the moment is New Member Welcome, dose this team exist and how many new members is it reaching?

Uncle_Franek
Profile

posted 2011/09/20 07:16    Visibility: World

Hi Tim,

I agree with everything you wrote, but there's a little something that I would like to add, a little variation on what you wrote that you might probably even agree with. You said that "one topic that [you] see in many places on BW, is the idea that BW isn't just about hospex". True indeed, but I think that this is exactly not something that I would emphasize too much. I ended completely disgusted with the situation on CouchSurfing, where people are using the site mostly to party and meet others during gathering, and not hosting anymore, because CS is not just about hospex. I hope that won't happen with BeWelcome.

Anyway, if there's a New Members Welcome group, I'll be happy to join.

Franek

guaka
Profile

posted 2011/09/20 10:01    Visibility: World

I see BeWelcome as a platform to enable sharing, a platform that is enabling a gift economy. Looking at it like this makes it a bit clearer to me.  Bar hopping and partying, or a for profit company are further from this core idea of sharing than hitchhiking, learning something together, or a democratic non-profit organization.

TimLoal
Profile

posted 2011/09/20 22:17    Visibility: World

Thanks for your comments.  The paragraph that you commented on was just an aside to the topic of the thread.  It just that i was thinking that, when we achieve our mission for hospex, we can do many other things, which is something people that have been around here longer than me have said to me.  I clearly said that i was talking about when BW needed little or no further development.

Let me repost ...

 

It is great to see more and more people joining beWelcome and great to see more people getting involved with the running and development of the site.  Currently the active team of developers seem to be EU centred and work mostly happens during the European day on weekends and evenings during the week.  How can we encourage the formation of teams around the globe so that work on the site can be more or less continuous basis, when needed.

 

As BW grows other member services will need to be available 24/7, functions like safty cant afford to be asleep on the job.  Is there anyone or any group that is active in the day to day organisation and coordination of member services teams?

 

One team that i think is missing at the moment is New Member Welcome, dose this team exist and how many new members is it reaching?

claudiaab
Profile

posted 2011/09/20 22:51    Visibility: World

there is at the moment no new member welcome team. how would we best organize this?

philipp
Profile

posted 2011/09/20 23:21    Visibility: World

I would say lets do it as we are used to do it
- create a group if there isn't one already
- invite fellow members to become active
- start welcomeing members by sending new members private messages, hang out in the chat and monitor (or start) the relevant forum threads

- if the team is active and the developers have resources available more advanced tools may be developed upon request by the team - but in general virtually everything can be achieved with what we already have, and the excuse that you would need this or that functionality is usually a rather lame one. Personally I find nother more welcoming and motivating than a real private message send by one member to another one - individually and without any mass action tools or other fancy stuff

pablobd
Profile

posted 2011/09/21 00:29    Visibility: World

I have a vague memory of such a group here, but I looked for it and didn't found it, maybe it was just a precognition :D

I welcome the locals that join here, I guess this might be a task for local volunteers? did you know there is a group for local volunteers? it doesnt have a very descriptive name :P http://www.bewelcome.org/groups/21