Newsletter

News - April 2008

Dear %s,
2008 has been an exciting time for BeWelcome so far. More than 3,000 members are now part of our community - new members especially from Latin America, where we were mentioned in various newspaper articles : Bienvenidos!
At a technical angle the new member search page makes it even easier to meet up with members on your next vacation. It's time for action: BeLocal started. This initiative is about building up the BeWelcome local communities all around the world. And, finally, all our BeVolunteer wiki pages are public - check them out!

BeLocal
Until now we put our work focus on building the website and providing the technical foundation for a strong and vivid online community. The new challenge now is to build the local communities for meetings and exchange. Fabian (fabzgy) and Pierre Charles (pietshah) brainstormed about community building and local volunteers and started discussions in the BW forum. You would like to meet people, exchange ideas and take part in some international action? Now it's your time, share your ideas in the forum.

Open source - open wiki
BeWelcome is the first travel community based entirely on open-source programming. Thanks to the help of BW member Kasper (guaka), we finally also managed to open up all our wiki pages where you find information about the project BeWelcome, the organisation BeVolunteer, teams and ideas. Many discussions and work sessions were necessary to find the right balance between private data protection and most possible organisational transparency. All those who said that they would participate in BW once the wiki was open have now no excuses anymore... Join, help, build and take part in the community. Check it out!

BeVolunteer annual meeting in Germany, 7-8 June 2008 Beginning of June the general assembly of BeVolunteer will take place in Germany. Proposed location (not yet confirmed) is the Linux Hotel and open source center in the city of Essen. The chosen location represents the strengths of BeWelcome: open source, innovative community. The annual meeting is the perfect spot to get to know other members and exchange ideas. The new board of directors (the organisation's representatives) will be elected among BeVolunteer members and work sessions will take place all over the weekend.

Upcoming events:
- 8-12 May: 4th Berlin Beach Camp for Hospitality Exchange (open to all networks), Berlin, Germany - 7-8 June: General Assembly BeVolunteer, Essen, Germany (location to be confirmed) - 20-23 June: Mont Royal Summer Camp Part II, Traben-Trarbach, Germany

Wanna help? We need :
- people to start the real life network of BeWelcome: BeLocal
- people helping with texts, newsletters and internal communication
- a little donation once in a while to cover our server costs: our donation page
More hot topics - check the BW volunteer pages

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Find other members and more information at BeWelcome - your network for hospitality and cultural exchange!

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