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Welcome new city ambassadors! Being a city ambassador in the Sweden should be a fun and interesting experience to be enjoyed. There are a few guidelines that ambassadors should try to adhere to, but like most things in life it is what you make of it. In order to help you along and hopefully make your job a little less confusing, this page is meant as a brief guide including basic information, contacts, guidelines, and ideas. Take a moment to look it over.

Congratulations

Well, now that you've gotten your yellow flag we are hoping that you will carry it proudly. This Guide is designed to help show you how.

The Basics

Ambassadors promote the values that embody the CouchSurfing Spirit. City Ambassadors are also the voice and ear to their local community, and source of information for all the members of their local community.

ALL ambs need to understand the The Ambassador Ethics Code, learn about responsibilities and general procedures, and communicate well. This guide is designed to do just that.

Your New Groups.

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

It is import to keep yourself informed of the continual developments in CS through these Groups

The Amb Tab

The Amb Tab is now available for you to use. It is a very helpful tool for helping you with your duties. Use it often!

Responsibilities

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.

Join the New Member Welcome Group

In order to do so you have to join the New Member Welcome group New Member Welcome Group Just write one of the moderators of the group an e-mail 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).

Finding New Members in Your Area

Once you become 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. Be sure pay special attention to the new members in your area. You should tell them that you're a local City Ambassador and tell them about the city group, län group Sweden group, and why they should join. Don't forget to mention the local meetings. One tool that has been set up that might help is the Sweden New Member Welcome that you should add as a link into your Greeting.

Sample Welcome Message

hello %first_name%, (this line automatically inserts the new member's name)

my name is Gustav, a CouchSurfing City Ambassadors in Stockholm, and i would like to welcome you to the CouchSurfing Project!

i hope you find time to keep adding to your profile. this is the best way to help make connections to other people and become a part of our community.

here is a link to our guide for new members: http://wiki.couchsurfing.com/en/Sweden_New_Member_Welcome please use it to help you improve your profile, become active in your community, and learn the basics of how to CouchSurf.

i also recommend that you join the Sweden Group: http://www.couchsurfing.com/group.html?gid=247

and the Stockholm Group: http://www.couchsurfing.com/group.html?gid=680

this way you can offer help and information to those who are not from your area. you will also know what is happening in your local CouchSurfing community and join in on any activities.

if you have any questions, need advice, or just want to learn more about the Couch Surfing Project, feel free to drop me a line!

happy Surfing!

Gustav

City Online Group Moderation

If you are not already the moderator of your local group then you should ask the current moderator to add you as a co-moderator. Be sure to thank the current Moderator for the time and effort they have put in and that as an Ambassador you would like to share the responsibility. If there is no moderator currently or if the current moderator does not respond within three weeks write to Contact Us and ask them to set you up as the Moderator for the Group.

As part of CS structure your involvement, as a member and moderator to your City group is to: 1. provide visitors of the group a quick access to the ambassadors in your City 2. City Ambassadors are responsible in keeping their local community alive, providing info and more, this includes defining group guidelines, managing/raising poll´s and establishing Google events calendars if required ...see for more details.

Local Events Organizing

Couchsurfing isn't just for backpacking through European capitals on the cheap. As a City Ambassador you should facilitate activity and the development of meaningful relationships in your local community by organizing or helping to organize local events. This can be done through you local group.

Regular Monthly Gatherings

Set up an offical meeting once a month using the Events tab. These gatherings can be picnics, pub meet ups, coffee, or anything that is popular with your group.

Special Events

occasionally, you may want to have a special event. These could be for visiting Couch Surfers who can't make the regular meetings, special city events, trips outside the city, or anything else that is not routine.

Tips for meet ups & activities

Be Active in Your Country

There is a much larger outside of your city. As an Ambassador, you will want to be aware and participate on a larger scale. Represent your city!

Country Groups

Actively participate in the Sweden Group and Sweden CS Organization. Your input and opinions are very important to us and very much appreciated.

Country Gatherings

Occasionally, nearby cities will host gathering. why not be friendly and attend one? The Sweden CS Organization holds special meetings quarterly in different cities. It would be good to attend one to meet your fellow ambassadors and active CSers in Sweden. The Events Tab is readily available to find this meetings.

Help Your Fellow CouchSurfers

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

You should also, at some point familiarise yourself with the text in the FAQ page and Freq Questions answered as the information there is possibly the best to answer any questions you might have asked by new members. Additionally you can always direct them to the CS Tips page.

Procedure for Emergencies and Serious Issues

Basically the approach to any problems you might have would be to directly contact your Country Ambassador or a member of the Leadership Team using the standard Contact Us form. Most often a member of the Contact Team will then advise you of the next steps to take or of the answer you need. Familiarise yourself with the contents of the "Contact Us form" including familiarity with the range of items in the pull down menu lable "Communication Type".

Dealing with crimes such as: theft, abuse, and/or any forms of harassment. What are the official procedures, whom do we contact, and in what order? # Be prepared! Read the Tips for Surfers and Hosts

If necessary contact the local police/ambulance
If other couchsurfers are involved contact the Safety Administrator. Tell them as many details as possible about your experience. CouchSurfing will investigate and determine the best course of action. If necessary leave a negative reference.

Contact Us Answers

The Contact Us page is handled by a group of ambassadors, mostly Global and Country but some City Ambs as well. This group is highly trained to do this, and very dedicated. Most of the questions asked will be responded to anywhere from 1 minute to 4 hours from the time they are asked, so the response time is excellent.

Members frequently use the Contact Us page to ask a wide range of questions to the site. A team of volunteers answers these questions. You could be one of them. If you are interested contact Brie and tell her you want to be on the CUQ team.

Other Info Resources

Dealing with Dating requests: see Handling Dating Requests

Safety for Surfers

Safety For Hosts

Tips for CouchSurfing

Other things that might interest you as an Ambassador

The CS Wiki page for your City/Län

"Due to the ability of individual non-Ambassadorial members to edit wiki pages it is vital that City Ambassadors review wiki content periodically to ensure that the true intent of the page and the legality of content is being upheld. "

Ideally anyone can edit the Sweden Wiki page simply by establishing a login however the intention of these City/Län pages are to promote CS and what it has to offer in your City and State fitting in within the bounds allowable. With this in mind the editing of the Wiki should be carried out by the Ambassador/s of each State/City or in conjunction with members who have volunteered to assist in the development and Maintenance. By "managing" the Wiki page it is then possible to manage the resources to ensure the pages content remain accurate and current.

- Promotion: Create your own CS Business cards for distribution

- Everyone is encouraged to be on the lookout for people that would make great ambs or be valuable on a working group, and encourage them to apply or join! The Country Ambs are there to assist and encourage all the City Ambs in nurturing new Ambs!

- Collectives: Participate in your nearest CouchSurfing Collective if you have the chance. This is a great way to participate in the core of your network. EVERYONE is encouraged to apply for a collective if they have the interest and time, and think they have something to offer! Many of the people that work at the collectives are not ambs at all; they are just fabulous, talented members.

- Help out and supervise the Translations made by CS Ambassadors. If you have time, you can most certainly translate parts of the site yourself! CS has a fabulous translations team, which can be found here. Anyone who would like to join can contact one of the Translation General group's moderators.

BURNOUT

CouchSurfing is very much like all volunteer organizations where there is the need for members to rise to the occasion and volunteer some of their own, valuable time to the day-today running of the site.

As an ambassador it is possible to extend yourself too much as you juggle your home and working life with hosting or attending to "duties" that might be allocated to you from the Organizational groups you have joined.

To best deal with CS burnout we direct you to a discussion that might help here

You are part of a larger family of Sweden Ambassadors. If you are feeling burnt out raise you hand and share the load. We are here to help you and will do so any way we can.

5 ways to Avoid Burnout

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.

Helpful Links

For more information:

Sweden New Ambassador Information Guide