BeWelcome: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:39, 11 December 2018

The logo of BeWelcome

Be Welcome is a project aiming to connect people from all over the world through hospitality exchange and to allow them to learn about other cultures, countries and traditions. It was founded in 2006 by volunteers of Hospitality Club who experienced the limits of decision making, transparency and legal structure within the management of HC. Thus an official NGO was founded in July 2006. First called HCvol it's final name is BeVolunteer.org.

The first beta website of the project BeWelcome was launched in February 2007. A second upgrade was carried through at the end of June 2007, the third and actual Version was introduced in the beginning of December 2007. In 2007 various volunteers of CouchSurfing, spreading "Open CS" also joined the volunteers network.

Check http://www.bewelcome.org

Why use BeWelcome?

BeWelcome has a few nice things to point out:

A good reply rate to accomodation requests (afaik)
A quite responsive community of volunteers
Openness for ideas from the community.
If you like the interface, that's one more point. If you don't, well, then not.

Why would someone not use BeWelcome?

not as many members as some other networks. You don't get that many requests, and you don't have that much choice in small places.

History

See History of BeWelcome

Philosophy

See Philosophy of BeWelcome

Forum moderation

BeWelcome is quite an open and transparent organization compared to CouchSurfing and Hospitality Club but there have been some alleged cases of censorship in BeWelcome, in ocasions where the moderation team aplied the forum rules and this decision was disputed by the ofenders. Read more here.

Promotion kit

an A4-BeWelcome poster to put to the walls (pdf)

References

The Software which runs BeWelcome[1]

Article on BeWelcome [2]

Wikivoyage about BeWelcome [3]

Canvi article about BeWelcome (Catalan) [4]

Indymedia article about Media and BeWelcome [5]

more ?

From http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/wiki/index.php?title=BeWelcome&action=edit&oldid=5616

Hospitality services
Agritourism \| Amikeca Reto \| BeWelcome \| Catholic Worker Movement \| CouchSurfing \| Guest ranch \| Hospitality Club \| LGHEI \| Pasporta Servo \| Servas Open Doors \| Trustroots \| Warm Showers

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Image:Bewelcome-logologo.png|left]]
+[[File:BeWelcome_Logo.jpg‎|thumb|The logo of BeWelcome|300px]]
 '''Be Welcome''' is a project aiming to connect people from all over the world through [[hospitality exchange]] and to allow them to learn about other cultures, countries and traditions. It was founded in 2006 by volunteers of [[Hospitality Club]] who experienced the limits of decision making, transparency and legal structure within the management of HC.
@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Why would someone not use BeWelcome?
-* not as many members as some other networks
+* not as many members as some other networks. You don't get that many requests, and you don't have that much choice in small places.
-* ..
-==History==
+== History ==
 See [[History of BeWelcome]]
 == Philosophy ==
-The [[Philosophy of BeWelcome]] has the following points:
+See [[Philosophy of BeWelcome]]
-Here are some values that seem to us to be the real basis of the work in BeVolunteer (the NGO that started BeWelcome)
+== Forum moderation ==
+BeWelcome is quite an open and transparent organization compared to [[CouchSurfing censorship|CouchSurfing]] and [[Hospitality Club censorship|Hospitality Club]] but there have been some alleged cases of censorship in BeWelcome, in ocasions where the moderation team aplied the [http://www.bewelcome.org/forums/rules forum rules] and this decision was disputed by the ofenders.
+Read more [[BeWelcome censorship|here]].
-*Goodwill
+== Promotion kit ==
+* an A4-BeWelcome poster to put to the walls ([[Media:Bwpromo4.jpg|pdf]])
-Goodwill is the precondition for any cooperative work. It enables us to face some minor/medium problems between us without getting under pressure or questioning our common goals. We are all here with the same aim, isn't it?
+== References ==
-However, this should not be misunderstood as a free ticket for the refusal to learn and improve. Things done with a good intention might still be bad for others. So we should see goodwill as a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one.
-*Altruism
-We are not working in BeVolunteer for personal glory or enrichment, but to spread the words of hospitality as a great idea, and to provide the tools to help this idea come true all around the world. Our highest goal is the welfare of the whole community, not personal benefits. And the other way round, according to our statutes, money can never give any priviledge in BeVolunteer.
-Still, it is up to us to enjoy our own-enrichment we gain through the network...
-*Trust and courage
-Trust starts within ourselves. We believe in ourselves, our values, our community and our goals. We are not afraid of other people and communities but curious to get to know them. We trust our future because it is us who create it! The trust in ourselves is the basis for courage. There is no reason to hide or to be afraid, we are here to bring light into our lives.
-*Ambition and excellence
-Ambition is mainly not a negative thing. We have big goals and are impatient to turn them into reality. We are not dreaming as if we would live forever, and do not live as if we would die today. We are here to live our dreams! This is our ambition, we are not afraid of big ideas, but greedy to make them come true.
-*Voluntariness
-In contrast to businesses, we do not require commitments. Our enthusiasm for hospitality is a higher guarantor than any commitment. We work voluntarily, that is why we love it so much.
-*Transparency
-Trust and transparency condition each other. No trust without transparency, no transparency without trust. Transparency is a joy for the sincere, and the ruin for the malicious.
-*Diversity
-We are here to reduce distances, to cross borders and to unify people who share our values. However, we are not here to equalize and standardize people and cultures. We appreciate the precious value of variety, the right of being different and how diversity is able to freshen up and open our minds.
-*Participative, well-fortified democracy
-As an organization, we have a democratic structure. Democracy guarantees many of our values, and in particular prevents the abuse by a few mighty individuals.
-At the same time, we are not naive but aware of the drawbacks of an exaggerated interpretation of democracy that undermines the functioning of its elements. A democracy deserves its name only as long as it is capable of acting for the welfare of its individuals. A good way of keeping a democracy working well is to enforce the principle of subsidiarity: Discussions, decisions and actions are done on organizational levels only as high as necessary but as low as possible, i.e. individuals first, then teams, then Board of Directors (BoD), then General Assembly (GA).
-So the best way to describe our structure is neither a representative nor a basic democracy, but a participative one.
-*Friendship
-Friendship is not something that obeys to any rules or statutes: friendship results from the delight you have while spending time with other people. We hope you find a lot of them in BeVolunteer!
-==References==
 The Software which runs BeWelcome[http://sourceforge.net/projects/bw-rox/]
@@ Line 85: / Line 40: @@
 Article on BeWelcome [http://www.idealist.org/en/org/166947-211]
-Wikitravel about BeWelcome [http://wikitravel.org/en/Hospitality_exchange#BeWelcome]
+Wikivoyage about BeWelcome [http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Hospitality_exchange#BeWelcome]
 Canvi article about BeWelcome (Catalan) [http://www.cambio16.info/canvi/pdf/107.pdf]
@@ Line 96: / Line 51: @@
 :''From http://www.hospitalityguide.net/hg/wiki/index.php?title=BeWelcome&action=edit&oldid=5616''
 {{Hospitality service}}
+[[Category:BeWelcome]]