United States Ambassadors Toolkit

The CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.

Welcome to the United States Ambassadors Toolkit, a resource created and maintained by US ambassadors, for US ambassadors.

Are you a new ambassador and not sure how to start out? Have you been an ambassador for a while, but you have some nagging questions? This toolkit may contain the answers you're looking for. If you don't find the answer to your questions here, hopefully you'll learn where to find the information you need.

This document is organized according to topic, but if you're looking for a specific page or resource that you already know about, check out the Quick Links at the bottom of this page.

Structure of the United States CS Organization ["Who do I 'report' to?]

The structure of the CS Organization (as it relates to ambassadors) is still under development, but loosely put it consists of Coordinators, who oversee certain geographical areas - continents, countries, regions within countries. These coordinators supervise and mentor the other ambassadors within their regions. In the United States, our global ambassadors and coordinators are:

Gadget (Jonathan Lewis) - Ambassador Management Coordinator / Leadership Team

Donna - North America Coordinator

California Mark - United States Coordinator

Crystal Murphy - CS Public Relations Team

Miss. Moneypenny - New Member Welcome Team Leader

If you have questions about your role or your performance of your role as an ambassador, you should contact the country ambassadors responsible for your region. You can find them on the United States Ambassadors page.

Ambassador Roles

The role of an ambassador is to be of service to CouchSurfing members, as well as to the global community. As ambassadors, we represent CouchSurfing in the regions in which we live and travel. While traveling, hosting, surfing, and meeting other members, we promote the the “CouchSurfing spirit,” embodied in the CouchSurfing Mission :

Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time

CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding. As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to make the world a better place, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it's about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!

In our roles as ambassadors, we are expected to promote the Ambassadors Shared Values, and to adhere to the Ambassadors Code of Ethics.

Okay, I got all that... now tell me, what exactly do ambassadors DO?!

That's a tough question to answer... what don't we do, really? The great thing about being a CS ambassador is that there's a LOT to do, leaving room for all of us to do what we want. Here are some ideas from the Levels of Ambassadorship page. (Note: For specific information about performing some ambassador tasks and duties, please refer to the Ideas, Tips, & How-To's section.)

Participate in the New Member Welcome group (sending greetings to new CS members) – Check out the group, and contact one of the moderators to join.

City online group moderation – If you are not already a moderator of your local group, contact the current moderators to be added. If they are inactive or unresponsive, send a message to the Contact Us Team under the category "groups."

Verification processing – Contact Donna to join this team.

Ambassadors groups - Keep abreast of your fellow ambassadors' thoughts, get their opinions, or share yours on the issues at hand, in the various ambassadors groups. Keep in mind that while it is okay to discuss problem situations and members and seek advice in these groups, you MAY NOT post links to individuals profiles because of privacy concerns and because those members are not able to post to the ambassadors groups to defend themselves. This is a violation of TOU and please don't make us hold you responsible for it.
- Ambassadors Public - The default ambassadors group. Everyone can read it, only ambassadors can post.
- Ambassadors Private - Only ambassadors can view & post here. Try to use the public group if it is of interest to all members! This is also the main private channel that the Ambassador Management Team (AMT) uses to communicate with the globe.
- Nomadic Ambassadors - Publicly viewable group for nomadic ambassadors.
- City Ambassadors - Publicly viewable group for city ambassadors.

Don't neglect the following organizational and regional ambassador groups:

Helping Members With Specific Issues

This can be a large part of an ambassador's job. Members sometimes come to you with questions or problems related to CouchSurfing. What do you tell them? If you don't know the answer to a member's question, where can you find it?

Questions About Dating Requests & SPAM

CouchSurfing is NOT a Dating Site! Which does not mean that it never happens, but...

If a member asks you about SPAM or dating requests, here's what you should know:

SPAM is against the CS Terms of Use (Section 2f), and both SPAM and dating requests are addressed in the CS Guidelines (items #2 & #3). If a member receives SPAM, they should click on the “report as SPAM” button above or beneath the email. If they receive a dating request-type message, they should hit that button... and could also reply with a “no thank you”/educational/”don't send another” message. If they have a persistent problem with this (i.e., the same member keeps contacting them), they should contact the MDST via the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page, under the category "Problem with another member."

If a member wants to send an “educational” response to a dating request, there's an example on the Handling Dating Requests wiki page.

Questions About Member Disputes

Ambassadors are sometimes approached for advice on resolving disputes between members. Here are some things you can do when a member approaches you:

Don't Take Sides: Until you've spoken to all the members involved, you don't have all the facts relevant to the situation, and even after speaking to all of them, what you've got is each person's perspective on what happened. Be careful, because taking sides can escalate the dispute more than help it, and end in unnecessary hurt feelings.
Recommend Direct Communication: A lot of disputes are the result of miscommunication, or simple failure to communicate at all. The members may be able to resolve their issue through an honest and respectful conversation about what happened and why they feel the way they do. When all is said and done, maybe they can just agree to disagree!
Remind the Member about the Reference System: The reference system is an important safety and informational tool for CouchSurfing members. Encourage members to leave each other references, keeping in mind that they should be factual, and not accusatory. For more information about writing references, check out the CouchSurfing References page.
Refer them to the Member Disputes & Safety Team: The Member Disputes & Safety Team (MDST) exists for the specific purpose of addressing member disputes, as well as issues that affect member safety. MDST helps members resolve their disputes, and can counsel them on courses of action they might take to do so. MDST can also help a member write an acceptable negative reference, if all else fails to resolve a dispute. Please note, however, that once a member contacts MDST, MDST will not inform you about the status of the issue or resolution. Because of privacy concerns, MDST only discusses details of a dispute with the members who are directly involved in that dispute.

To refer a matter to MDST, a member must go to Contact Us, the link at the bottom of every CouchSurfing web page, choose the category "Problem with another member," and enter the details of the dispute.

Questions About Safety

Hosting

Surfing

Verification

References

Vouching

Questions About Volunteering for CouchSurfing

If a member asks you how they can volunteer for CouchSurfing, there are a variety of teams they can join: Translations, Contact Us Questions, Technology, PR/Media, and Member Communications, to name a few.

Members who wish to volunteer can go to the Volunteering for CouchSurfing page to fill out an application.

If a member is specifically interested in working on the Translation Team for a particular language, they can go to the Translation - General group, and contact the moderators of the sub-group for the language they want to help with.

Ideas, Tips, & How-To's

Moderating Groups

CouchSurfing's policy on moderating its groups is to do it as little as possible. As a group moderator, your most important asset is an ability to foster productive discussion and constructive criticism, and to respond to problematic posters in a direct, but respectful and tactful manner.

Here is CouchSurfing's policy on censoring group posts (from the FAQ):

"CouchSurfing does not now, nor has it ever censored members' email or group postings. We allow our members to write and share whatever they wish, so long as it adheres to our anti-spam guidelines and is not considered defamation. We have a policy of inclusion. In addition, we welcome and have structures in place for member feedback and critique. We are a network for and by the people, and appreciate constructive criticism as a means to growth and improvement."

What you CAN Do as Moderator

Describe your Group and its Purpose: Click "Edit this group" under details, and describe your group in the "About this group" field.
Create Group Guidelines: You can create and prioritize group guidelines that will appear in the upper-right hand corner of a group's page, right above the list of members. To create guidelines, first click on the "Edit this group" button in the details section, then choose one of the "yes" options under "allow guidelines." Click on "save group," and then click on "create guidelines."
Moderate/Guide Discussions: Respectfully remind users of your group's guidelines, CouchSurfing's Guidelines, and CouchSurfing's Terms of Use if you see problematic threads or posts.
Promote to Moderator: You can promote another member to moderator status by clicking on the "See all group members" link, and then clicking on the "promote to moderator" link under that member's name.
Remove Group Members: You can remove a member from your group by clicking on the "See all group members" link, and then clicking no the "remove from group" link under that member's name. The effectiveness of this is limited, because the member can simply join the group again immediately.
Report Problematic Users and Threads: If you believe a thread meets the criteria for being deleted, contact CS Groups Management through Contact Us, under the "groups" category.

What you CANNOT Do as Moderator

Delete Threads and Posts: If you believe a thread meets the criteria for being deleted, contact CS Groups Management through Contact Us, under the "groups" category.
Move Threads and Posts
Edit Threads and Posts
"Ban" Members from Groups: If a member is continually causing problems in a group you moderate after you have communicated directly with that member to resolve the issue, contact the Member Disputes & Safety Team (MDST) through Contact Us, under the "Problem with another member" category.

Criteria for Deleting Group Posts

User Request/Privacy: This is done ONLY if the member has accidentally included personal information, such as an address or phone number, in a post.
SPAM: A post is clearly spam, commercial, scam, or with phishing purpose.
Safety: A post is defamatory towards a third party or clearly breaks CouchSurfing's Terms of Use.
Duplicate Posts: A post is posted multiple times due to some malfunction of the site.

Organizing Events

One of the most fun things you can do as an ambassador (or as a non-ambassador, for that matter) is to organize events with other CSers. Events can be something like a potluck or a pub crawl, a water balloon fight, an invasion of another city, or just about anything you can think of.

For tips on creating an event, check out this great Events "How To" Guide.

If you're sick of hosting the same ol' events over and over again, maybe you could borrow an idea from the Event Suggestions wiki.

If you have an event idea that you want to discuss with other organizers, try the Events & Outreach - Event Organizers group.

CouchSurfing Wiki Pages for your City or State

Do your city and state have CS Wiki pages? Are they all they could be? If a city or state wiki page doesn't exist yet, consider creating one; if it does exist, maybe you can do some work to beef it up a bit. Take a look at the following pages for ideas:

Keep in mind that, in general, things that belong on Wikipedia, Wikitravel, or HitchWiki don't necessarily belong on CouchSurfing's wiki, which should be geared toward, well... hosting, surfing, cultural exchange, and meeting people. In other words, don't copy Wikipedia's entry for your city over to the CS wiki!

CS Business Cards for your City

Seattle CS Business Card

You can create a CS business card for your city or country, like we did in Seattle! It's easy to do. Pick a photo you'd like to use, go to VistaPrint, ( you can use any service that you want, but CS uses Vista Print and they have the art on file!) choose the "business cards" section, and start designing. You'll want to use the "premium business cards" and "upload your own design" options. You can do a front and back design. You can start with the standard CS design and substitute your own photo for the front, or you can do something completely different.

Ambassador Tenure

At present, ambassadors who follow the Ambassadors Code of Ethics and stay active remain in their roles indefinitely, subject to periodic review from the Ambassador Management Team, under the direction of the Ambassador Management Coordinator, who is a member of the Leadership Team. However, if you have other important things going on in your life and no longer have time to be an ambassador - or if you're feeling burned out and just need a break - you are able to leave your post as you need to.

Taking a Break/Resigning

If you need to temporarily or permanently leave your post, you can contact the Ambassador Management Team via a CUQ in the Ambassadors section.

Passing the Ambassadorial Baton

If you're leaving your post and there is a a member of your CS community who meets the qualifications to be an ambassador, direct that member to the [1] Ambassador Section of the website.

Quick Links