Newsletter

Bewelcome News

Dear %anonymous%,

In this newsletter:

  • New website coming
  • General Assembly in London
  • New Board of Directors
  • Stories from the road

You are receiving this newsletter because you are a member of the BeWelcome community of travelers and hosts, and told us that you are interested in receiving news from BeWelcome. To unsubscribe, please check the link at the bottom of this message. For those who are receiving this newsletter for the first time, a big, warm Welcome. You have joined a community that is 100% volunteer run. That means no offices, no paid staff and legally a non-profit for over 12 years. For everyone else – it’s been a long time, but you will be hearing a lot more from us in January 2019 as we launch a redesigned platform for you, our members.

New website coming: Join the testers

BeWelcome has an exciting redesign currently in development with new features. When we migrate to the new design, the website including messaging will be unavailable for up to 24 or 48 hours. We will give you at least one week advance notice of when that downtime will occur. During that period, you will be redirected to a temporary page, where we will update you on the migration progress. We have been extensively testing over the past months, and are optimistic that this will be an exciting improvement. If you would like to try the new site already now, or to contribute to the development of technical aspects of BeWelcome (also for future developments), please join the testing group.

General Assembly (GA) 2018 - London

The General Assembly of BeVolunteer (BV) -- the non-profit that runs BeWelcome (BW) -- is organized once per year, and this year it took place in London. The GA was preceded by a set of online discussions among BeVolunteers, and then consisted of a period of discussion on 17th & 18th of November, followed by online voting. Voting is only open to members of BeVolunteer, who are essentially volunteers of good standing on BeWelcome. Any BW volunteer can join BV and vote at the next GA! Also, any BW member can join the BW/BV volunteers during the GA (live or online) or at the social activities organized by members around it.

Decisions directly linked to BeWelcome: Most importantly, a vote to develop a strategy for BV/BW has been approved, which we hope will increase the hospitality exchanges (hospex) - which is the main reason we are all here!

A decision to offer a HES tool has also been approved. The HES is a new tool to connect guests and hosts in the best possible way, by allowing hosts to indicate their willingness to host, beyond the current system of YES and MAYBE. Another important decision was to moderate new group creation, by way of forum moderators, so that duplicate or unsavory groups cannot be set up.

Last, but not least, we agreed to add an open Authorization (OAuth2) service. It may sound like a technical detail, but a useful one: it may authorize you to log into other web platforms if you want to. For example. it may allow you to log into other non-profit websites where you are already a member.

Decisions more important for beVolunteer: The GA approved the annual Financial Report (2017/18) and the Budget for the next year, and the new Board of Directors (BoD) has been elected (more about that in the next section). The new BV Rules adapted to the Statutes voted a year ago have been approved.

New Board of Directors (BoD)

A new 7-members strong BoD was elected following the GA, with only one member staying over from the previous year. This is the 14th BoD (check out the previous Boards), with thorgal67 guaranteeing the continuity of the former Board (2017-2018). We again thank the previous BoD for their service, and wish the current BoD happy experiences for the forthcoming year:

Other BoD members:

  • David mountx - would like to take the lead on implementing the BV/BW strategy
  • Leonardo leoalone - will mostly take care of tech team support
  • Nina lososs - will help out with secretarial stuff, and with BW activities and communication aspects
  • Sammie sammiekong - will do volunteer coordination

Infographic Designer: Volunteer Wanted

Are you a graphic designer or self-taught expert, who can spare some time to assist with a set of infographics?. We are looking for someone who is creative and will be able to present data in an attention grabbing, unique way. If Interested, and have a little BeWelcome love to spare, please join our communications group today!

Next Newsletter

The next newsletter will be sent soon after the redesign goes live. It will explain the new and redesigned features. However, if you have other ideas for newsletter content, please let subaculture know or join the communications team. We would particularly love pictures, video and stories from you, the community, about hosting, and being guests.

Open your door to the world!

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 about them, so they can be trusted by other members of the community.

BeVolunteer/ BeWelcome runs on a very small budget and keeps detailed financial accounts. Find more information on all past accounts and the current budget in the wiki library. The new donations campaign for the forthcoming year will start soon.

Social Media: You can like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Volunteer on BeWelcome. However much time you have, or whatever skills or talents, we need you!

Stories from the road: N from Croatia

It was about to be my first ever GA - even though I have been considering joining in the past, I was either out of country (read:hemisphere), or busy, or the tickets would cost a fortune. "This is the year", I've decided. Also, "I need to find a host". Going to an annual meeting of a hospex network and staying in a ho(s)tel, seemed wrong. So, still undecided whether or not to go, I set off to find "a perfect host". I must've fuddled something with my search options, or it might have just been magic - but of all the profiles listed as "hosting" in London, I found only one that I really really liked. And, as a matter of fact - liked so much that _that_ has cemented my decision to try and make it to the GA! I typed my soul away, held my breath that my (only) request gets accepted, and then bought a plane ticket once I got an excited "yes" from the other side. And what a trip it has been! How else would I know how mountx, sammiekong, subaculture, thorgal67, duesseldorf, shevek and ffred look, walk, and talk like? How else would I get to hear the voices of those present at the GA online? And perhaps, currently the most burning question -- how else would I get myself into a wonderful mess of taking a more active role, with more obligations, but also more possibilities to contribute? (Yes, the socializing was very pleasant, and has occasionally included drinks and food, but more importantly - it has included the feeling of being part of something bigger). My BW host was all that I could hope for and more! They not only welcomed me into their most accepting and warm household, but also we organized impromptu dinner with another host from the neighborhood (hosting two other BW-ers), and on the last day we found time to go on a little walk and visit a church on a hill, and I learned about the local history! The UK weather proved capricious with rain and wind, but also gracious with showing me some blue skies (for photos of the church) and sun (for full effect of the stained-glass art work).

I repeated the member-search when I got home to find some of the other local Londoners I met during the GA -- this time the results were quite different, showing "my" host only on page 3. I still wonder what I did the first time, for their profile to hit me right in my face like it did, but I am glad I did it. And I am most glad I went to the GA :)

The End

We thank our members for your support by travelling with BeWelcome and spreading the word. Wishing you Happy Holidays, happy travels and enriching encounters.

The BeWelcome Volunteers.

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