Community feedback from Mumbai

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Originally posted in Open Organization late Dec 2006. Anu 18:59, 19 January 2007 (EST)

Among many many topics were discussed (I was mainly listening, as can't (?) tell exactly what I'm involved in and trusted with right now). Keep in mind, these people have not been "officially" involved in anything that's been going on lately regarding org structure development, so they should have fresh minds when it comes to that, and I did NOT come up with the topics!

1. organizational transparency - to know what's going on! Including some more Nelson updates (wiki is not a big thing here, sorry ;)
2. organizational decentralization - more admins / other methods - pointed out that org structure stuff IS going to pick up soon!
3. technical decentralization - pointed out, as it is public knowledge anyway, that this IS happening already :)
4. financial transparency. Donations would be more forthcoming if you know where your money is being used...
5. legal, business, administration stuff - more clarity of what's going to happen with these. Scaredness of security issues catching up on CS legally (don't worry, not discussed who did what when & how, but general level, of how concerned some of them are of how things seem to be handled from point of view of general members)
6. Market research on new members - to focus local efforts so it brings in right types of people & getting them involved. Aparna is a very organized marketing person by profession and doing greetings anyway so would love to get busy with that. (I had some idea about having summary page of local new members, including whatever might be good to know for these purposes)
7. CS collective India? If the goal is to have it in Asia at some point, India would be easier to start with (English widely spoken, has active LOCAL participation) - more to come later. Just initial thoughts, and perhaps too much ahead right now, as summer 2007 has to be dealt with first. Nothing too serious, yet, just pitching in ideas...
8. Local CS is sometimes more of a partypartyparty than a traveller thing.. which some of them are not too thrilled about. (but at least is an ACTIVE scene, from what I saw from my guest couch :)
9. Got through to Nelson, finally, had nice chat where part of these were taken in by Leo (and whoever else might have been listening in there??).
10. have been discussing verification in some of the Indian groups and have had the following response:

So here I am doing a couch search on India and seeing how many members we have with a level three verification....Its only 15 members thats amazing, especially when we have well over a thousand members in the country.. so I was wondering, what is it that is preventing people from reaching the level 3 verification..I understand many people do not use credit cards, or have international credit cards...what sort of problems have you guys experienced? I also wonder if $25 is too much for many to invest in, especially when it is a sum of Rs 1125....or is it that most people join cs and are happy with level one verification? I would love to know your opinions...

regarding verification i have been officially told "credit card verification is to verify the NAME, but the address on the credit card must not match with the address which the person has added to the CS profile but they must be able to recieve the snail mail to their CS inserted address..."

"For Indians USD 25 can be a big deal and also its a matter of your belief in the system....I did my Europe trip (used CS extensively) and really felt that I owned something back to the site in terms of hosting/helping people and verification is a step in giving confidence to the guest."

"I have an idealogical problem with money being a part of verification process, and i never donate to anything which somehow adds to your credibility (thats just me)..so i will never get any verification higher than 1...i will contribute in any other manner i can...be a active CS member, host a lot of people..spend time and effort on them...that is how i will make up what i feel i owe to CS..."

"About verification, I agree many people dont want to spend that money when they dont know where the money is going. That is one of the questions we have posted to new zealand collective asking them to be transparent about the money being collected. When we get an answer, we will share it with you."

"About the verification process, I am not going to be verified as far as I can see since I am not in favour of doing that. It is not right when one says that it is a free site but then one has to pay to get verified. I don't see how the site is going to be any safer if a person is verified. Anyone who wants to do something illegal will be able to do so anyway." ......."And if that is done and mentioned then there is a verification that is something that is more valuable than a verification by credit card payment!!!"

I just wanted to share this with you guys cos verification is obviously one of the way funds do enter the cs system....I verified myself under the impression that both my name and address are locked and verified with this,...the name with level 2 and the address with level 3...please enlighten me....I would have posted this elsewhere except I didnt know where... "

I also feel in addition to what Anu said we(there were about 10 of us) discussed... 1) organizational transparency - I think if you guys had a regular(maybe monthly) newsletter it would simplify the process to help most people feel included on whats going on

2) organizational decentralization - I am sure you're working on that....we are already seeing some results:-)

3) technical decentralization - Anu did brief us on the kind of changes that are going on....

4) financial transparency. read the verification posting above about how people feel about verification and not knowing where the money is going

5) legal, business, administration stuff - more clarity of what's going to happen with these. Scaredness of security issues catching up on CS legally (don't worry, not discussed who did what when & how, but general level, of how concerned some of them are of how things seem to be handled from point of view of general members)

6) Market research on new members - to focus local efforts so it brings in right types of people & getting them involved. -I think that publicity in local newspapers has proven kind of a hindrance, many people join though few have the spirit yo would look for in a couchsurfer...its not just networking , though thats important, but travel/hosting and surfing are also important aspects of CS....perhaps official press releases by CS to various newspapers of travel magazines would be a good way to do it, let local marketing people send them out....(? just a quick thought)

7) CS collective India? If the goal is to have it in Asia at some point, India would be easier to start with (English widely spoken, has active LOCAL participation) - We are brainstorming on that one...it will take time...and we will come up with a proposal....we debated the various pros and cons of hosting a collective in India and where and when....It does as Anu has pointed out make a lot of financial sense ad it would be great to jumpstart CS in asia....more on that later

8) Local CS is sometimes more of a party scene than a traveller thing.. I think thats bound to happen...just to remember its not just that....i think unfortunately you canot control how people choose to use the site...

9) Got through to Nelson, It was great to see all of you guys....esp Jim dancing and Leo n Kasper n Casey and Amylin and! and the tour thru the house...it was fun...Look forward to see you there...