Newsletter

Dear Member

Welcome to our final newsletter of 2012. It's a winter newsletter for some and a summer newsletter for others, but no matter where on the planet you are right now, it has some good news for you all.

BeWelcome switched to OpenStreetMaps

When BeWelcome was launched back in 2007, we were happy to have an up-to-date map search using Google Maps.Today, OpenStreetMap offers comparably good features and actually some better mapping for many parts of the world. We even have the option to improve the maps continually because OpenStreetMap has the great advantage of being free and open - just like BeWelcome! Therefore, we are very happy to announce that our map search is now running on OpenStreetMap. Many thanks go to our dedicated volunteers from the development team who made this change happen!

Go and check it out now - the new map search - and find your next host, or discover which of your friends have recently joined BeWelcome!

Democracy at work - the General Assembly of BeVolunteer

BeWelcome was built with the purpose of creating a transparent, open, fair, and democratic hospitality exchange network. That's why BeVolunteer, a registered non-profit organization, was founded as the legal base behind BeWelcome. In October, BeVolunteer held its 6th annual General Assembly (GA) - this time in Halle (Saale), Germany. It was, as always, open to every BeWelcome member to attend.

The agenda included

• an annual review,
• the financial statement,
• next year's budget,
• the election of a new Board of Directors

Detailed information from the GA, such as the full agenda and voting results, can be found in the minutes of the GA and on the General Assembly 2012 wiki page.

If you are interested in becoming a BeVolunteer member, please follow the instructions to be found on the BeVolunteer application page.

Developers and web designers wanted!

With growing numbers of members and increased activity on the network, BeWelcome faces many new technical requirements and user expectations. Our vision is a much improved site with great up-to-date features that facilitate the growth and needs of the community.

To implement BeWelcome's ambitious development plans, a completely new software project using PHP (Symfony2), SQL, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, and other geeky stuff is in the pipeline, and so, additional volunteers (developers and web designers) are urgently needed!

If the topics and technologies mentioned above are familiar to you and you feel like helping, please pay a visit to the developers' home at http://trac.bewelcome.org/. There, you can join the 'devs' mailing list or the 'chat room' where you can introduce yourself, tell us your skills, and your time availability. The team is looking forward to getting to know you!

Other opportunities to get involved

There are many other opportunities to improve the website and strengthen the community:

• Let the developers know what BeWelcome needs: Join the forum discussion about community expectations and add your opinion. The developers need your input in order to make their work more useful and relevant for everyone.
• Debate organizational issues with us: In the forum important organizational decisions are debated every day. Please feel free to engage in the forum conversations. Help us to build this community the way we all want it to be, doing the things we want it to do, and reflecting our open and democratic values.

Short news

• BeWelcome is going green: BeWelcome servers are now running on renewable energies. We are using the services of Hetzner, based in Germany.
• A regular volunteer cafe has been established: To improve communication among volunteers, a monthly online chat meeting now offers the possibility for all volunteers to get to know each other and chat informally.
• Revised forum and group rules: Increased activity in the forums meant that some of our rules needed clarification and updates. The updated rules can be found here.

Get active

• Update your profile: Give other members the chance to get a first impression of you by adding a profile picture and fleshing out your profile.
• Invite friends to BeWelcome
• Join or start a BeWelcome group: If no group for your region or interests exists yet, you can create your own and invite others to join.
• Spread the word: We have some active members spreading the word in social networks. If you want to join and promote BeWelcome among your contacts and also get updates about the website, you can follow our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

We wish you happy holidays, lots of new travels, and great hosting experiences using BeWelcome!