Newsletter

News - June 2008

Dear %s,

We are growing! Check the statistics to see that BeWelcome now has 30 times more members than in January 2007, when the project started. What most members like,however, is the focus on quality - and there is good news as well: New cross-cultural friendships are created, ideas for promotional activities are spreading and technically we feel we are moving into the right direction. You can also help us to improve the quality of our network by updating your profile: tell us about your travel plans and upload some nice pictures!

General Assembly 2008
On June 7th and 8th the second General Assembly of BeVolunteer will take place in Essen, Germany. At this yearly get-together of BeVolunteer members (the organisation running BeWelcome) many issues will be discussed, the budget for 2008 has to be approved and a new Board of Directors will be elected. BeVolunteer aims at being a truly democratic and transparent organisation. Each year at the General Assembly a maximum of twelf new organisational members or delegates are elected to form the Board of Directors. Before the election, the candidates write a short motivation text in the Bevolunteer wiki, outlining what they want to do and how. You can also find info there on how to join BeVolunteer.

Big Unperfekt Hospex Party Essen
During the General Assembly we also like to celebrate and party. On the night of June 7th the Big Unperfekt Hospex Party is taking place at the Unperfekthaus in Essen, Germany. Spread the world about this Bewelcome event. It promises to be a great happening! more info

Promotional activities
Volunteers are discussing and developing new ways to spread the word about BeWelcome. A poster is now available for download. Universities, youth centres, your local city hall or your company's breakfast room are ideal places to put this poster up. Get the one in catchy orange colour or the black-white version. Inspired to join our designers or any other team and support the democratic open-source project? Welcome aboard!

financial transparency
To show you in real time the financial situation of BeWelcome, we put up a new donation system about our current resources and needs. Check it out and support us if you can!

Amsterdam BeWelcome Collective
There are more than 10 active tech people, some of them working daily on new features and on improving our server set-up. Many more want to start helping. We try to make it as easy as possible for all members to actually participate by helping out with technical issues such as writing code and server maintenance. That's why we are very excited about the first Amsterdam BeWelcome Collective (ABC) from June 20th till July 6th.

The focus of this collective will be on connecting tech volunteers and to start working on technical stuff but also on a BeWelcome travel guide. Of course there will be time to promote BeWelcome and much more. Contact Kasper if you are interested in participating. As the Collective is held at Robino's place in Amsterdam there are no rental costs and food expenses will be shared among participants.

During the Collective, in the last weekend of June (27-29 June 2008), BeWelcome members are also organising an open-space (un)conference with workshops and debates on hospitality exchange. This so-called Sustainable Hospitality Exchange conference (SHE) wants to foster debate on hospitality networks, best-practices, volunteer-work, empowerment, (local) community building, sustainable travel and social transformation. See also our BW forum post

New Website Launch
A new look, a new tour... Coming near you soon...

Thank you for participating in BeWelcome - good to have you aboard!