Leadership Team

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Contents 1 Leadership Team Policy 1.1 Description: 1.2 Main Requirement: 1.3 Policies:

Leadership Team Policy

Description:

Leadership Team members make strategic decisions for CouchSurfing and lead defined departments of volunteers who are entrusted to make tactical decisions for CouchSurfing. All leadership team decisions require consensus (except where noted). The leadership team may have no less than 5 and no more than 15 active members at any point in time. The members participate in dialogue and debate guided by the mission about vital issues and decisions facing the organization. Team members come from a range of perspectives, but each member has deep knowledge about some aspect of the organization and/or the environment in which it operates.

Main Requirement:

Must be genuinely driven by a commitment to The CS Mission

Policies:

• Induction of new Leadership Team Members:
  To become a new member of the leadership team (after May 2007), a volunteer must:
  • be a global level ambassador
  • have been an ambassador in good standing for at least one year
  • have met at least three active leaders in real life
  • be an active CouchSurfer
  • have positive volunteering references
  • be able to meet active leaders requirements for first six months
  • have never been removed from leadership or ambassador status for major policy violation
  • be approved by consensus (unanimously) by existing leaders
• Requirements of Active Leadership Team Members:
  Leadership Team members in active status have the ability to break consensus (veto power). To be remain active they must:
  • Must be genuinely driven by a cause larger than themselves (The CS Mission)
  • Volunteer at least 10 hours per week (15+ is preferred) for CouchSurfing
  • Participate in conference calls or read conference call minutes each week
  • Follow and participate in weekly online discussions
  • Complete assigned action items in a timely manner
  • Be leader of a defined department of the CouchSurfing organization
  • Produce a biannual departmental progress report and goals for the coming semester. This includes input and output trends.
  • Create an organizational equation/process for their department to achieve greatness
  • Have good leadership qualities based on peer review system (see Leadership Qualities)
• Inactive Leadership Team Member Status:
  Inactive leaders cannot break consensus, but may participate in calls or discussions. Inactive status is not a penalty. Any leader can and should choose to go into inactive status when they cannot meet active status requirements. Additionally:
  • Leaders can be forced to become inactive by a consensus-1 decision of active leaders
  • Reactivation requires consensus decision from active leaders
  • No leader will remain inactive for more than four months
• Removal of Leadership Team Members:
  Leadership Team members may be removed for violation of ambassador ethics codes, serious violation of CouchSurfing member policy, behavior damaging to CouchSurfing, inactive status longer than four months, or first-time active status of less then six months. Removal is permanent and irrevocable except when due to inactivity. Removal also requires:
  • confirmation of violations from safety/member disputes team
  • consensus-1 decision of existing leaders
• Emergency Provisions:
  An emergency situation is defined as when active leaders circle membership falls below five, the above rules may be altered as follows:
  • leaders may induct any new member by consensus decision except former leaders or ambassadors removed for policy violations
• Public Record:
  The following information about leadership team members will be public record:
  • the current version of these rules
  • each leader's member name, department, and active or inactive status
  • any other documents required by the CouchSurfing transparency policy
• Accountability and Censure:
  CouchSurfing cannot achieve its mission if leaders have not earned the respect of the volunteers and ambassadors. Since CouchSurfing by law must follow it's mission, leadership team members are therefore accountable. To reinforce this accountability ambassadors may officially censure any one or more leaders. Censure requires:
  • a petition of specific grievances endorsed by a simple majority of ambassadors
  • the leaders to immediately make a public statement regarding the planned course of action to correct the grievances.
• Changes to These Rules:
  Like all decisions by the Leadership Team, a proposed change to these rules requires a consensus decision. Additionally, in order to become official, the proposed change to these rules must pass a second consensus decision three months after the proposal decision.