Editing Minutes 3rd Dutch Ambassasors meetup (section)

=Already discussed and to be finalised=

·         At the last meeting, we decided that new ambassadors might need some support. Ramon sends some information to new ambassadors now. Henri and Rose will write some kind of tool kit to help the newbies to get to know our group and help them to get active as an ambassador. Also, it is decided that we will introduce some ‘buddies’ for new ambassadors. Giuseppe (for the northern part), Liza (for the middle) and Maikel (for the south) will be the first persons for new ambassadors to go to. What does of course not mean that others are not allowed to help or motivate them!

·         We should try to activate inactive ambassadors. In Australia they send a very nice message to inactive ambassadors to find out what they are doing. Henri and Rose will send a reminder to our inactive colleagues. If you think an ambassador is inactive, please write to Henri or Rose so they can send that person a message. 

Aldo has a lot to say about this topic. If an ambassador is not coming to the meeting, it does not mean he or she is an inactive ambassador. Country ambassadors should have an idea who of the not-active group members, are active in their local community though. If ambassadors are inactive in both the ambassador groups, and in their local community, we can write that the ambassador team in CouchSurfing to ask to have a look at this person and see whether he or she is the right person to be an ambassador. We can even set some rules of what we think an ambassador should do. If a person doesn’t meet those ‘rules’ we can ask the management team to take them out. In the next months, the ambassadors will become a focus point for the CouchSurfing organisation. So it might be that some standards or rules for ambassadors will change.

To keep people up to date about what’s going on in the Netherlands, we might think about making some kind of newsletter in which every ambassador can write a bit about the activities in his/her city.

·         Regarding the emergency couchlist. Some of those lists offer people an emergency couch, others only advice people. Aldo knows the system in CouchSurfing will change on this topic, so people might still be able to find their host. Also, the site is almost always up, so you can doubt how necessary it is. We decided to wait for the improvements on the site and then have a further look at it.

·         Paul and Aldo give us an update about CS Zones and City Surfing Pages. There will be two different things implemented, first CS Zones, which is really one specific location where CouchSurfers meet or get together regularly. The second is City Surfing Pages. Those are under construction, but will give information about a city. The first page will be a kind of magazine where you can post news about coming meetings, pictures of passed ones and so on. The other pages will become more static. At the next meeting, Paul hopes to be able to show us some examples.