Swiss Ambassador Welcome Kit
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A warm welcome
Welcome! It is great you decided to join the Switzerland Ambassadors Team. Being a Swiss Ambassador is an adventure in itself: the Swiss team is one of the most organized and active CS ambassador teams in the world. We are sure you will have a lot of fun!
To tell you a little bit about what you could do as an ambassador we have created this wiki page. It contains basic information, guidelines, contacts, tips. Take a moment to have a look at it. Read this while you take a break from work or study, or print it out and read it on the train on your way to a meeting, in the morning while waking up at someone's couch, or while waiting for your surfer to arrive.
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to contact Wicher, Tooki, or Vince; we're here as a consistent help to your daily responsibilities.
The basics
Being a Couchsurfing Ambassador in Switzerland should be fun and an interesting experience to be enjoyed. And now that you are a City Ambassador you may find yourself having a few questions. This document contains the most basic ambassador helps, but as most things in life it is what you make of it yourself.
What it means to be an ambassador
As a city ambassador, you represent couchsurfing in your area. As a nomadic ambassador you are also supposed to do this job, but instead you carry out these responsibilities during your travels. Through your behavior and activities you promote couchsurfing and develop a local network in your area and beyond its boundaries.
Instead of being the "only-one-powerful-doing-everything-by-yourself", you will be more a like a calalyst, a motivator, a support to each great initiative around you!
More official and complete definitions of the what it means to be an ambassador can be found here.
Your colleagues
There are a lot of active, motivated couchsurfing ambassadors in Switzerland. All ambassadors present in Switzerland are also gathered in the CS Organization group. You should have access to this group now. If not, please contact Tooki or Wicher.
The Swiss ambassadors share their contact details in a private group (only accessible by Swiss ambassadors). Please inform us about yours by giving your personal contact!
Teamwork
Couchsurfing has spread around the globe and new hundreds of new members subscribe to the website each week. To efficiently organize things in such an open and dynamic community requires good teamwork. This "team-work" spirit is one of the main value the Swiss Couchsurfing community is keen on. You can find resources, help, and support in our national organization group first and also the Ambassador Public and Ambassador Private groups. But to start you off we would like to give a few tips on get your community running smoothly.
Meet regularly
Meet the other ambassadors in your city regularly. First of all it is a good idea to discuss ideas, issues and plans on a regular basis (like once in 2 months). This way you have a good idea of what is going on in the community through the experience of the other ambassadors and stay motivated. Secondly, by sharing dinner, drinks, brunches or go together on an activity you will get to know each other. Even better, you will become friends! What is more pleasant than to work on something together with your friends?!
Have a local organization group
Each main and active town has this local organization group. It may take the form of a private group with all city ambassadors, like in Zurich. It may take also the form of public group including the main active couchsurfers like in Basel, Lausanne or Bern. For Neuchatel, this organization group is private.
These groups are a good means to discuss ideas and store knowledge. E.g. you could maintain a thread about which venues would be good to organize a monthly meeting at. Or how a problem with a particular member in the community has been resolved.
And one key point ... never, never work alone, doing everything by yourself: share, delegate, ...
Organize a BIG EVENT
Big events require good organization and are excellent for bonding with and befriending people. You could for example host the National Swiss Couchsurfing Meeting, the ambassadors meeting or a big event coinciding with an event in your city (e.g. a holiday, Halloween, Christmas, The Zurich Street Parade, etc.).
You are the cornerstone of Couchsurfing!
The yellow flag is not only a decoration in your profile but more so it represents the responsibilities and duties that you promise to perform. It is told for example at the description page of the 4 levels of ambassadorship that most City Ambassadors and Nomadic Ambassadors "contribute at least 10 hours per month". This is an indication, but let's use our common sense: an ambassador should be the easiest and the most reliable Couchsurfing point of contact in his/her area. That way, their visibility should be higher than normal to be able to help:
- By moderating his local group (moderation means animation (=keeping the group lively), providing help, answering questions, motivating, etc...)
- By getting to know as many members in his/her area as possible
- By being present and/or organizing local events
- By sending a personalized welcoming message to new members in his/her area
City Ambassador tasks
Actually, you don't have to perform all of these tasks. At least make sure that you're performing what is necessary to maintain a lively CS community in your area. These tasks will help you to reach that main goal. If you're not doing any of these, it's still time to ask to be a part of these teams!
New Member Welcoming
The New Member Welcoming group is one of the most important tools available to active members. This task is not only for ambassadors, each experienced member can volunteer in this team. It is the most strategic job and the main task that each ambassador should perform whatever his level. It is about sending a personal message to new members, particularly for those who are in your neighborhood.
Remember that first message you received when you signed up to the Couchsurfing website? How enthusiastic that message was? That is the true spirit of couchsurfing: spreading hospitality around. A members cannot get a better first impression than receiving a personal message from an experienced and enthusiastic couchsurfer.
To be able to greet new members you need to send an e-mail to one of the moderators. They will ask you to send them a draft "welcoming message" to see if you know how to welcome and inform new members. Once they accepted your draft you will be able to send out welcoming messages.
Try to do this regularly and share it with your other local City Ambassadors. If you do not have enough time, do it al least for the new Couchsurfers that live in your area! Even if the member has received already a welcoming from an international greeter. This is important, because - again - you will be the most important contact and help for them.
Helping your fellow couchsurfers
You should be the most reliable source of help and information to members in your area.
To be able to carry out this responsibility you have your fellow Swiss ambassadors to assist you. Also, if you prefer, you can also first discuss your idea or problem on the Ambassador's Private or Ambassador's Public groups. Only one rule: never act alone and emotional!
We would like to quote a helpful message from Evert regarding our writing communications.
Event organization
City ambassadors should give inspiration, give the rhythm to the local community. It's not necessary that he/she takes all the initiatives! He/She should be able to help motivate, initiate, prepare main events. E.g. in cities where there is a regular meeting the next meeting page should be ready before the current has held so you could refer to it in the thank-you message!
A regular meeting is not a must-do, just be attentive on what is necessary in our local community! Listen to suggestions and ideas that members gave you!
Group moderation
Moderation of our city groups is a main part of our visible activities. We're playing the role of an animator, a catalyst and maybe helping to solve some conflicts when they happen.
Remember, you have a huge resource: the Swiss ambassadors team that can help you in anytime!
Here are some documents made than you can have a look at:
- Benchmarking performed by Florian is available here.
- Advices prepared by Tooki in February 2008 available here
Reminding your local community about our 3rd Swiss newsletter would also be helpful from time to time. In case of doubd regarding commercial use of couchsurfing, do not forget this Gadget's post.
The couchsurfing wiki
A wiki is a great tool that helps gathering the most important and useful information regarding our cities. It help also to give an answer to never-ending frequently asked questions like: what to do in your city, etc...
Swiss wiki editors are talking and exchanging tips in this group.
Ambassador meetings
We organize at least twice a year a work-meeting session where every ambassador is cordially invited to participate. Some meetings "OFF" are also organized in unlimited frequency, ... just to get to know each other better!
Location fixing
This is about solving all incoherence in geographic data about Switzerland. Here is the working group. If needed you can ask more information about this group from Giuze or Vince.
Website translation
You can contact the moderators of this group if you feel you are able to help translating the couchsurfing website.
About safety, emergencies and community disputes
Our 2nd swiss newsletter dealed with these questions in details. It may be helpful to remind that from time to time.
Before acting, check first the MDST FAQ, this can help solving the basic cases. Also, do not hesitate to share with the the other swiss ambassadors in our private group.
Stress and your personal life
From time to time, too much events cumulate in your life, do you feel stressed? do you think not to be abble to fullfill 100% of your ambassador tasks?
Feel free to stay back for a while, just share to the team that your were not available for a certain time. We need you fully relaxed and not feeling all the time under pressure!
If the situation last longer than expected, may be it's better to give back the flag to someone else? you can always come back later!
Other things you should know
Webstore with our official logo
You can let your local community know about the webstore with our official logo: click on this link
