Newsletter

Boletim de Notícias BeWelcome - Dezembro de 2015

Dear %anonymous%,

You are part of a growing community of more than 85,000 members! This growth in membership continues to be organic and consistent. Alongside this growth, we are constantly working on the platform to improve your hospitality experiences. Here is the news of what has been happening on BeWelcome over the last few months.

New Board of Directors elected

During the General Assembly which took place over the weekend of November 7th and 8th in Düsseldorf, Germany, a new Board of Directors was elected to BeVolunteer, the legal organization behind BeWelcome.

The new members of the Board of Directors are:

Get to know the full new board and read the personal interviews with each member.

If you are looking for more responsibility and a challenge you are welcome to volunteer for tasks within BeWelcome and to join BeVolunteer, the non-profit organization which administrates BeWelcome. Find out more on the BeVolunteer website.

Donation campaign

The new donation campaign has started. Our goal is to reach 1700 Euros to cover our expenses during the financial year 2015/2016. The money is needed to cover expenses like server costs, insurance, bank fees and so on. More details on our donation page.

Community News

With the rise of the interest in the “Sharing Economy” BeWelcome has been asked to participate in several events, festivals and conferences over the past months. BeWelcome was also mentioned in the Master's Thesis by Lucie Zvolska.

  • First was the alternative festival, Alternatiba, which took place on June 6th and 7th, in St Quentin en Yvelines, not far from Paris, France. Several BeWelcome members, including Babs, Luria, NicZeChemist, OctoberTales and zorrolepunk took the chance not only to present and talk about our way of travelling and sharing hospitality but also to meet up and get to know each other better.
  • About a month later, “Commons Rising” invited us to a one-day event which took place July 11th at Goldsmith University in London, Great Britain. conrado888 and jalon attended on behalf of BeWelcome. They prepared a slide presentation which has now become the base for our future presentations. More than 30 attendees were involved in intensive discussions which lasted the whole day.
  • On October 15th, in Torino, Italy, girandoliere and lanto presented BeWelcome at the “Sharing Economy: Traveling and Living” event, organized by the local newspaper “Vicini”. Amongst the other participating organisations were Homelink and Workaway. Unfortunately, due to very bad weather conditions, only about 20 people attended.
  • “BeWelcome is truly an exceptional case of a sharing platform”, says Lucie Zvolska. Her Master's Thesis about “Sustainability Potentials of the Sharing Economy: The case of accommodation sharing platforms” includes BeWelcome extensively. You can download it here.

Terms of Use

During summer 2015 BeWelcome was subject to a check by the French authorities as BeVolunteer, the legal organization behind BeWelcome, is registered in Rennes, France. The authorities require BeWelcome to have their Terms of Use in the French language. It took some months but we managed to translate and adapt our Terms of Use to those legal requirements. Only the last paragraph about litigation had to be re-written. At the General Assembly the wording of 4c has also been changed and “not make discriminatory statements” has been included. Our thanks for the translation and legal revision go to Adien, biancaG and all others who have helped. The updated Terms of Use will be valid from February 1st, 2016.

Get active and update your profile

  • Complete and update your profile: Would you like to meet other BeWelcome members? If so, you should provide them with a first impression by adding a profile picture and filling out your profile.
  • Invite friends to BeWelcome. Write a comment for them, so that they can be trusted by other members of the community.
  • Social Media: you can like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  • Chatroom: we also have an IRC chatroom where you can talk to volunteers and other members. Please use your BeWelcome anonymous as nickname.
  • Join or start a BeWelcome group: If no group for your region or interests currently exist on BeWelcome, you can create one.

Wishing you happy travels and enriching encounters,
The BeWelcome Volunteers

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