Finnish Ambassador Welcome Kit

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Warm welcome

Welcome to the Finnish CouchSurfing volunteers family! Every time someone reads this Finnish Ambassador Welcome Kit it means that our active CouchSurfing family is growing!

From now on you are an official CouchSurfing Ambassador. In order to help you with your new tasks as an Ambassador this document contains heaps of helpful information. Here you will read what it entails to be an efficient CS Ambassador, how the Finland CS organisation works, and some tips on how to stay in the right shape! We advise you to read it carefully and thoroughly.

What it entails to be a CouchSurfing Ambassador

Being a CouchSurfing Ambassador in Finland should be a fun and interesting experience to be enjoyed. This document contains the guidelines, but as most things in life it is what you make of it yourself.

The basics

Ambassadors promote the values that embody the CouchSurfing spirit.

As representatives of CouchSurfing, Ambassadors have the duty to understand and promote the CouchSurfing mission in the world, as well as to provide an example for other members.

Our behaviour as travellers, guests, hosts, and volunteers is a direct reflection on CouchSurfing. Therefore Ambassadors will be held to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct. Ambassadors must agree to the Ambassador Ethics Code.

Getting started

A good way to get started is to introduce yourself and your plans for being an Ambassador to your team and your community by posting in the Finnish CS Organization group as well as your local group. We are curious who joined us and which special skills and plans you are bringing into our team.

It might be that your community is already active and has Ambassador(s) - in that case we recommend you to contact your fellow City Ambassadors to see what the current status is and where you can best help out.

There is a possibility that you are the first Ambassador of your city (check here). In that case we recommend you contact a nearby fellow Ambassador or a Country Ambassador and ask them any questions you have. They are more then willing to help you out.

The Amb tab

You might have already found a new tab called "Amb" in the top bar of your profile. Amb stands for Ambassador and this tab gathers most of the relevant general information about Ambassadors.

Your new groups

When becoming an Ambassador you should autmatically be added to the following groups:

It is expected that you periodically visit these groups as they will provide updated info whilst the Finnish and Nordic CS Organization group will hopefully encourage you to participate in discussions and activities about CouchSurfing in Finland and other Nordic countries.

If you are not a member of these groups yet please contact a moderator and ask to be added. This should happen automatically, but sometimes new Ambassadors aren't added to a group they should be in.

General CouchSurfing Ambassador structure

There are four levels of Ambassadorship: City, Country, Global and Nomadic. The tasks of City Ambassadors are listed below. The explanations of the other levels of ambassadorship can be found here. If you have any questions feel free to contact another team member or your Country Ambassadors.

City Ambassadors are experienced members and the direct contact to the local communities. The City Ambassadors are guided and coordinated by Country Ambassadors, who again are guided by Regional Coordinators (= Global Ambassadors who are responsible for several countries in a certain region). The Regional Coordinators are the direct contact to the Ambassadors Management Team (AMT) who are responsible for all Ambassadors activities. Above the AMT is the Volunteer Coordinator Jim Stone, who is also a member of the leadership team.

Nomadic Ambassadors are experienced members without permanent residence who travel over extended periods of time and connect the different CouchSurfing communities on their travels.

City Ambassadors have the possibility to confirm their position every three months. Therefore, their Country Ambassadors will send them a so-called renewal letter to see what they did in the last months and what their plans for the upcoming months are. Country Ambassadors get their renewal letters from their Regional Coordinators very six months.

Finnish Ambassador Structure

The Finnish team has a solid foundation of dedicated City Ambassadors all over the country, who can be found here. Finland's Country Ambassadors are Tiina and Timo, our Regional Coordinator is Ricard.

Together we work on making CouchSurfing in Finland more exciting, fun, interesting, valuable and safe.

Additionally there are a few Nomadic Ambassadors and one Global Ambassador living in Finland, who don't have any direct tasks in connection with Finland but still organize meetings once in a while.

City Ambassador tasks

City Ambassadors are asked contribute at least 10 hours per month but this varies greatly from person to person. We want to make sure all Ambassadors love what they do. Please always feel free to ask for help. You can contribute in many ways according to what interests you the most. The essential duties that City Ambassadors should participate in are:

New Member Welcome

One prime task of a City Ambassador is to welcome the new members.

To be able to do this you need to join the New Member Welcome group. Just write to one of the moderators of the group explaining that you are a new City Ambassador and would like to greet new members. Please include a draft of a greeting you would like to use (once joined you can have a look at other greetings here).

As soon as you are a member of the New Members Welcome group you can use the greetings page to greet new members. You can greet members from anywhere in the world, but please also pay special attention to the new members in your area. You should tell them that you are a local City Ambassador and inform them about the city group and other regional groups they might be interested in. Don't forget to mention the local meetings.

Before you actively start greeting please ask the other greeters in your area if and how they split the greetings (e.g. some regional teams have split their areas, others take weekly turns) and to see how you can best help.

City online group moderation

If you are not already moderator of your local group please ask the current moderator(s) to add you as a co-moderator. Please also ask about group guidelines and moderation standards if they are not clear. If there is no moderator or if the current moderator does not respond within three weeks please write to Contact Us (category "groups"), include the link to the group and ask the groups management team to add you up as moderator for your group.

As member and moderator of your city group please:

  • take care of the group guidelines - define them together with the other moderator(s), make sure they are in line with the wishes of the group members, make sure that they are maintained.
  • answer questions about your city/area that are posted in the groups.
  • use the group as important tool of communication to your community: inform members about current and planned events, activate them, increase participation, assist them if they have questions about the group/CouchSurfing, inform them about technical problems or new features in CouchSurfing...
  • have an eye on the subgroups. Everybody can create subgroups, so just check if they are ok and in the right place every once in a while.
  • if necessary mediate conflicts and discussions and make sure to stay neutral, helpful, friendly and professional.

Local events organizing

Meetings and gatherings are the backbone of every CouchSurfing community - they connect hosts and travellers as well as newbies and experienced members and are often the first "real live" contact for new members, but most of all they are fun!

There is no better way to get to know and activate your local community than inviting everybody to come together.

Meetings can come in all forms and sizes and there can never be too many! So please familiarize yourself with the current and upcoming meetings in your area and ask other local volunteers how you can best work together.

If there is no regular gathering yet (e.g. monthly or weekly meeting) please start one. In the beginning they are usually quite small but don't let that stop you because experience shows that they grow quite fast after a while.

In general, all kinds of meetings are possible as long as they are in line with the CouchSurfing mission and the Terms of Use, which means that they need to be inclusive, open for everybody, non-profit and respectful.

Most meetings take place in bars, pubs and restaurants but why not try something different - previously there has been picnics, hikes, bike trips, barbecues, sauna meetings and many other things in Finland. If you are not sure if an idea will work or how to best organize it you are of course always welcome to ask for help or suggestions in the Finnish CS Organization group.

Tip: For one reason or another CouchSurfers really seem to love food and many communities throughout the whole world found out that gatherings that involve food are usually very welcome and well attended :)

Tip 2: At the "How to make a good meeting" page you can find extra tips and tricks on organising meetings and events.

Improve your local wiki

This is the CouchSurfing wiki: wiki.couchsurfing.com and this is the wiki page about Finland. Most regions and cities have sub-pages which are anywhere in between well-filled and all empty.

Please have a look at the page of your city and area and improve it if possible. Please do not delete information without talking to the member who added it.

Be active in your country

Have an eye on what is going on outside your city and in other areas of Finland. Represent your city!

Country groups

Actively participate in the Finland group, Finnish CS Organization group and Nordic CS Organization group. Your input and opinions are very important and very much appreciated.

Use the Finnish CS Organization group to get to know your co-volunteers and exchange tips and tricks about your communities, events, problems and experiences.

Nearby meetings

Occasionally nearby cities will host meetings - why not be friendly and attend one? This is a great way to get to know your neighbouring community, nice people and new ideas for meetings in your own city. Get a group of people together, "invade" your neighbours and it will be even more fun!

Help your fellow CouchSurfers

As a carrier of the yellow flag people will naturally contact you for information and help, especially in emergencies.

Please familiarize yourself with the information at these pages:

Translate the website

You are native speaker or expert in any other language than English? Wonderful! Go to the gray bar on top of every page and select any language in the drop-down on the left to see what has already been done in a language and what still needs to be translated. If you can give a hand please contact the translations team through www.couchsurfing.com/contact.html (category "translations") and tell them which language you can help with.

What else?

The tasks above are the things City Ambassadors usually do, but in case this is not enough for you there is much more! Please have a look through all the teams on CouchSurfing and if you are interested in joining one contact the team leader and ask if they need support.

About safety, emergencies and troubles in your community

Your fellow Ambassadors are always here to help you! If a member contacts you with a problem or your otherwise find out about one please first of all use common sense and follow the steps listed below as appropriate:

1) Before doing anything: please read the Member Disputes and Safety FAQ

2) REMEMBER MEMBER PRIVACY. Do not post anything about another member in a group, e.g. do not post a link to a profile in the Ambassador groups to ask the other Ambassadors for their opinion. Read the reminder about member privacy here.

Please also don't post any warnings in your local groups. As reasonable as it seems, CouchSurfing can get into legal troubles (e.g. for libel) if an Ambassador or any other member posts accusations that can not be proven in groups.

3) If the problem is not serious, please suggest to the member to try to sort out the problem directly with the other affected member(s). If necessary please encourage them to contact the local police, hospital, embassy (if necessary) as well as to leave a factual reference about what happened.

4) If you feel you can not or do not want to handle a problem yourself, please forward it to the responsible team/person. You can forward disputes in your local community or to the Country Ambassadors or our Regional Coordinator.

Everything related to member safety, crimes, abuse and similar incidents needs to be forwarded to the Member Disputes and Safety Team (MDST). You can contact them through www.couchsurfing.com/contact.html by selecting the category "problem with another member".

Please keep in mind that the MDST can only react on first-party complaints (e.g. they can not react if you write "member X told me that member Y did this and that" -> member X needs to write to them personally) and if you inform them about a crime, they need a proof. (e.g. if a member stole from you or another member you or the other member need(s) to file a police report and forward it to the safety team).

Don’t worry, be happy!

Being an Ambassador can be a bit overwhelming. It is really important that you have as much fun as possible. Here are some small remarks on how to avoid stress as an ambassador:

  • Do what you love. Volunteering is meant to be fun. If greeting turns you on, greet. If you love to host, host. If you enjoy taking people out and about, do that! Whatever floats your boat: every contribution counts!
  • Recharge your batteries. If you start feeling drained, take a break.
  • Network. Share ideas, thoughts and frustrations with other CSers you get along with.
  • Portion Control. Basically, don't bite of more than you can chew. You might get a nasty case of indigestion!
  • Participate. Join the discussions and make your voice heard.
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