CS Organisation Australia

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Adelaide • Brisbane • Canberra • Darwin • Gold Coast • Hobart • Melbourne • Newcastle • Perth • Sunshine Coast • Sydney • Wollongong

Contents

Overview

Welcome to the CS Organisation Australia. The intention of this wiki is to enhance transparency and establish a cohesion amongst the Australian Ambassadors, to provide a context for the current status of CS in Australia and to present to new ambassadors an overview of how it is envisaged CS will continue to prosper and develop within this country.

Basically it comes down to developing a unique Australian CS model and then maintaining it.

  • - To establish continuity it is essential to establish a general accord with present Australian Ambassadors of the direction that CS in Australia is going and to then put into place mechanisms, statements and agreements so that these expectations and goals can be met.

Essentially the role of Ambassadors is seen as time based role where there are past Ambassadors, present Ambassadors and future Ambassadors and, irrespective of where they are in that timeline there is a continuity plan in place to ensure that CS members in Australia will always be best served by an enthusiastic Australian team.

  • - To establish development plans that will promote couchsurfing in Australia both at a urban and regional level endeavouring to provide the same mechanisms of trust and community, irrespective of where you live.
  • - To identify and nurture both the collective and individual needs of the CS community in Australia.

Current and ongoing projects

To best administer the continual discussions, polls and resolutions of CS Australia Org a wiki page entitled CS_Organisation_Australia_Nuts and Bolts has been established. Please feel free to look at it from time to time to check the status of any Topic, past, present or proposed.

Roll Call of Australian Ambassadors

To see the Roll Call by photos go to Australian Couchsurfing Ambassadors

Ideally there should be 1 City Amb to 250 CS Members and 1 Country Amb to 7 City Ambs... (note that Nomadics are not counted in the State ratios)

The Reference below to "Active Members" denotes only those who have logged in within the last 180 days. Those others are at risk of having their profile archived.

Australia

as at August 11th,2008

(Note: Greeter denotes being a member of the New Member Welcome group)

Australia's Country Ambassador is:

Victoria


New South Wales


  • - Paul Lau - (Nomadic - residing in Sydney)
  • - Matto (Nomadic residing in Newcastle)

Queensland


  • - Nicole Coatta - residing Camira Qld. (Nomadic - City Amb for Coquitlam, Canada)
  • - Skye (Nomadic - presently travelling O/S)

Western Australia

South Australia

Tasmania

ACT

  • - Tracey (Nomadic residing in Russia)

NT

The Boxing Kangaroo Award

An award for Outstanding Excellence for services to CS Australia

Image:CSBoxingKangaroo.jpg

As a means of thanking our wonderful Aussie CS Volunteers who extend themselves in the pursuit of making CS a great place to be with social get-together opportunities and backroom developments to enhance the experience for all we have developed the Boxing Kangaroo Award which is awarded to recipients in our monthly Cs Australia Newsletter.

Macalla Koala - the official Australian CS mascot

Australia CS Org has its own official mascot - read more here at here own Wiki page via the link following link.....Macalla Koala - the official Australian CS mascot


Division of Tasks

There are several Ambassador Levels. Ambassadorial Duties as described in CS Org should be aspired to at all times.

At a minimum they should comply with:

  • - The Ambassador Ethics Code This page explains the values Ambassadors share that embody "the CouchSurfing spirit". It also contains the Ambassador code of conduct that is based upon those values. The most important thing to understand about this page is that all Ambassadors must agree to actively promote CouchSurfing's stated mission to increase intercultural understanding.

Shortfalls and Considerations

Due to the sheer size of Australia and the endless stream of new members joining CS who live outside of the city areas, it is crucial that the present City Ambassadors extend themselves into their adjacent regional areas to embrace and encourage these new regional members.

Considerations here might require City Ambassadors to collectively discuss the distrubtion of responsibilities and a dissection of the individual States to ensure that the regional members are represented.

In turn City Ambassadors should support, where able, the specific projects and goals identified by the Country Ambassador.

It is understood Australia is visited by Nomadic Ambassadors however, the distrubtion of general CS tasks should be done by the Australian Ambassadors irregardless of the presence of nomadic ambassadors as there is no guarantee of the length of their stay or of the extent of the committment they can make. Certainly any contribution that a nomadic ambassador can make would be a bonus.

Should an Australian City Ambassador become Nomadic then they should focus on the country(ies) of their travel(s) and aid, where possible, the local ambassadors.


Australian CS Membership Statistics

As at December 8th, 20 June 1st 2008 there were 16781 couchsurfers represented by 27 City ambassadors within Australia. This represented 1 City ambassador for ever 621 couchsurfers. This also means that there is one ambassador for ever 320,000 sq km.

Predominately the major Australian cities are represented by a City Ambassador however this leaves the regions to fend for themselves.

Ideally Couchsurfing Australia should extend itself to offering not only an urban or touristicated experience but also a rural experience .. see Rural CouchSurfing, to travelers, thus encapsulating all aspects Australian culture. With this in mind it is vital that Couchsurfing is extended to the regional areas. Presently, within the existing framework and with the accelerated growth of Couchsurfing membership in Australia City Ambassadors are hard pressed to promote Couchsurfing outside of their respective cities.

In turn, with the accelerated growth of new city based members, the demands on City Ambassadors is ever increasing and without a mechanism that cultivates new enthusiastic ambassadors and volunteers continuity of CS in Australia could be diminished. Periodic discussion should be made at an ambassadorial level to ensure that those members who wish to pursue this area of volunteerism to CS are supported and encouraged.

Further considerations in regards to the duties of Ambassadors would be for the Country Ambassador to ensure the nomination of Australian Ambassadors to the Location Fixing group, the New Members Greetings Group, the Verification Group and the Dispute Group to ensure that the Australian CS members interests are best represented. The intention of this is to also ensure the ongoing developments in these areas can be forged with Australian input.

Additionally the Australian CS Organization group should ensure that the Wiki's are developed are maintained and updated to best reflect the content that might enhance and support the Australian CS experience. 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.

In regards to Location Fixing, presently there are 2 members nominated as Australian location fixers. These are MSDanny and Leimondo. Ambassadors need to be aware of the enormity of this task and may be required to assist with local knowledge from time to time. In addition to location fixing the burden of New Member Greetings could be shared amongst ambassadors in the case where an ambassador is not able to, for a period of time, carry out their New Member Greeting obligations.

It is envisaged that Australian ambassadors will want to participate in on-line and face to face communication to ensure that the tyranny of distance does not impede the opportunity for a universal approach to the ambassadorial functions provided to Australian members. The intention would also be that City Ambassadors continue to communicate up the chain to the Country Ambassador any ideas or concerns so that these can be openly discussed and passed on, either further up the chain to a Global Amb and then onto the Leadership Team if required or determined in a quorum, to then be then be adopted.

As Australia is a country vast in size meet-ups that encapsulate more than one city are entirely possible. The possibilities for City Ambassadors to colloborate in forming and arranging these meet-ups should be encouraged at a local level rather than maintaining the notion that Couchsurfing is just about hosting overseas travellers

Background

Following increased frustration at the lack of any specific Australian model and following the first hand experiences of new ambassadors who were not able to benifit from a 'ambassadorial starter-kit' the intention of this wiki is to provide guidance for new and existing Australian ambassadors that might direct them to best utilize their energies in a unified fashion and offer a single point where specific tasks might be handed out ensuring that the minimum requirements of the ambassadorial positions are met and the weight of task is distributed evenly.

Outcomes/Expectations

It is imagined that ambassadors will play an open role in communicating via the Australian CS Organization group. This forum will present the opportunities for further unique developments of the Australian CS experience. This forum should be a springboard for ideas to be exchanged and discussed. It should also be at the discresion of the country ambassador to invite prospective ambassadors to this forum encouraging the next generation of ambassadors.

The overall intention is to develop the Australian CS membership into a participatory collective that presents, where possible, through sound profiles, good references and verifications an opportunity for a more secure and enjoyable traveling experience.

New Ambassadors Welcome Kit

See the Australia New Ambassadors Welcome Kit

The Nuts and Bolts Of Aussie CS Org

see the CS Organisation Australia Nuts and Bolts and the CS Organisation Australia Nuts and Bolts Archive Bold text

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