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Given the increasing tendency of the ‘management’ to remove all content from the site that could possibly reflect badly upon them, I think that from now on we should always cross-post the entire contents of a message instead of just a link. Here is what Leimondo writes:
To the GM and anyone who fits the bill…
This post at the above link is not at all a singular post from one member – i don’t know if you have noticed or not but good people are pulling out and there is a uniform dismay developing….
when good people pull out of the Volunteer role they become ordinary members who will certainly continue to encourage people to sign up for the free access to accomodation CS provides however they will vehemently discourage anyone to seek level 3 Verification thus denying CS its “donations” and thus denying CS the continuity plan of volunteerism that helps to keep the site alive and secure via its key groups.
Blind Freddy can see this coming a mile off and posts like the above continue to reiterate the ill-feeling among the informed who inturn, via group discussions such as Ambassadors private continue to re-raise these ever present questions that remain, from your position, very much unacknowledged, unaddressed and unanswered.
It is long overdue that the “gods” come down from the clouds and be a whole lot more accessible and answerable otherwise you might find your key Ambassadors don’t support you any longer and you will eventually come crashing out of the skies to land flat on your gobsmacked arses.
The smoke and mirrors need to end.
Already you will see that the Australian Model is moving along under its own steam establishing accountabilty, transparency and accessabilty whilst providing open, informative and timely communication to its members.
maybe a leaf could be taken….
LEIMONDO writes “It is long overdue that the “gods” come down from the clouds and be a whole lot more accessible and answerable otherwise you might find your key Ambassadors don’t support you any longer and you will eventually come crashing out of the skies to land flat on your gobsmacked arses.”
Well the god just read his comment BUT wont reply to that low level minnow.
Funny leimondos group FAILED but he still thanked the csct
Just to bring to your attention a well worded post by Margaret in the same thread as the link at the top of this page.
I know Margaret posts here on OCS but she’s probably too modest to post a link to her own CS posting.
Margaret:
“I typically think the best of people and situations unless confronted with repeated smacks on the head…my default-setting for “nice” (ie: giving everyone the second and third chances) is tough to reset. In regards to the CS leadership, reality got through my skull and it’s been reset.
Like a bad boyfriend, CS seems to inspire love and idealism in people…and then use them for their free labor and money. I don’t even think it’s malicious or deliberate…I just think that the site is not well-organized and it can’t handle the outpouring of volunteer enthusiasm it receives. No one in the LT seems to have any experience in properly and professionally managing and communicating with a large volunteer corps and they don’t seem to care to develop those skills. Instead, I think they want to keep their teams small, maneuverable, secretive and loyal…and they like coding new tools more than thinking about management issues.
I feel so sad about this situation since the generous exchange of friendship and hospitality with strangers is such a powerful thing….what an idea….and with proper management, the potential to foster such good will and cultural understanding via this site is amazing. I’m really plugged into the hosting here in my area and will continue to host…and I’m appreciative to CS for providing the contacts to such wonderful people on this site cost-free. I will not, however, encourage verification or donations anymore because the leadership seems uninterested in using the money carefully or honestly.
It’s easy to blame the critics here on the site for the sad-vibe, but critical posting is not the reason for my own disillusionment and change of heart. The leaders themselves caused it by responding in the following ways:
1. not PUBLICLY thanking and acknowledging key volunteers when they left: Anu, Matrixpoint, Kasper, Midsch. This was the first thing that left me puzzled…how can they accept many months of free work without thanks? even personal in-fighting should be put aside to thank those who helped build the site.
2. not answering critics with proper documentation, financial records and/or proof of the validity of the CS position…just silence. The LT refused to embrace their own clout and answer back which seemed odd to me….allowing themselves to be defined by their critics.
3. possessing a cavalier attitude toward professionalism or responsiveness generally. The CS leaders come off as both arrogant and immature when they present themselves as too hip to adhere to professional standards of behavior…advertising themselves as 420 friendly on their profiles (how can we trust their judgment with this?),
posting photos of too-cool-for-U partying after one month of no-news at the Thai collective, trolling for volunteers on other websites, advertising the mutant couch at Burning Man while ignoring requests for greater responsiveness from general members. The LT seem quite concerned with their image of being young and clued-up…more than being competent. Perhaps the creation of a cool website is the latest incarnation of the red sports car and gold medallian, hmm? Another useless piece of bling…sigh.”
Location: The CouchSurfing Project >> Thoughts from the General Manager >> Public Comments for GM
420 friendly
This is a way to express the acceptance of smoking pot or accepting somone who does so, without overtly mentioning pot or marijuana.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture)
Leigh S* from Atlanta, United States
Location: The CouchSurfing Project >> Ambassador’s Private >> Ambassador’s Public
Here I am a very new “ambassador” (because we all have to know these titles are tongue in cheek) feeling somewhat overwhelmed after entering this Ambassador’s domain to find this post.
This type of unrest tends to make me want to run quickly and quietly in the other direction. But I have had such amazing experiences with CS over the past year, instead, this time, I prefer to ask a few questions.
If CS has a donation income of approximately 100K/year.. That’s really not much at all. Not when talking about an organization (ok… a .com) that has half a million members. And if it’s only one member who is making the 20K in staff salaries, also, that’s not much at all. What more information would you want on this end?
As for the code secrecy… what private interest do you think could take over? Would you mind expanding on that? Also, do you have specific expertise that could help the bugs and downtime on the site that have been turned away by the core leadership team (and yes, I cringe as I type terms of this type because they strike me as very 1984)
As for one person holding all board positions as well as CS holding intellectual property rights, yes, these are of concern. Both seem to fly in the face of what I believe CS is (or should be). Has this ever been directly addressed? If so, what has happened?
The ambassador meetings… I cannot speak at all to this end. I’ve never been to one. Know nothing of what happens. Do other ambassadors feel similarly? Are those that feel similarly in the majority?
I have felt that much of the terminology of CS does have a very cult-like ring to it, but in my personal dealings with people, this has never played out. The ideology of giving, sharing and generally moving away from the type of selfish or huge conglomerate thinking has been the overwhelming characteristic.
Perhaps it is naive of me to think that my personal experiences reflect the larger whole. I admit that. That is why I am asking more.
I appreciate your responses. Because, to be honest, if CS is indeed just like every other organization or company I’ve worked for in the past, I too, would not want to continue being an ambassador.
T* from Moscow, Russia
While I get a lot of enjoyment from my time spent in CS (reward in itself, really), I echo at least one part of Binary’s concern: staff salaries.
Leigh might say that the amount is small but as a volunteer CS Ambassador giving my time for a supposed non-profit without getting paid for it, I personally would like to know how much each individual officer on the payroll is getting, and if so, for what kind of work.
Maybe this info is on the site already, I would appreciate it if anyone who knows offhand to post a link to it (and I hope I am not told to spend time looking for it because I do enough for my community without having to use up ALL my time online).
Otherwise, we’re all toiling for free and other people are getting the fruits of that hard work.
I think this is a matter serious enough to be considered a deal-breaker.
It’s interesting to see something I said on another website referenced here particularly as my words here are out of context of my post there. There were a couple responses on/through CS. But now I see that many more have actually read and responded, yet only one person felt that perhaps it was useful to respond to me directly. Good thing I know how to use a search function.
If you’re asking for openness and honesty, I’m not sure this is quite the model to use.
Truth be told, if CS only makes 100K/year, that alone is not a deal breaker to me. But it seems to be part of a much larger picture, one I am still piecing together. It was that larger picture I asked about in my CS post.
Leigh,
The grand total is available on the website of CS. You already found that one?
T* from Moscow, Russia
Another concern: I am not convinced the Collectives actually accomplish anything apart from being a bad pretext for spending member’s money.
What were the results of the super-successful Collective in Thailand?
This has been the most successful Collective yet! We’ll have another edition of the Collective News in early April that highlights the many ways CouchSurfing has changed and improved as a result of the efforts of the expert teams formed at this Collective.
It’s already latter part of April and we still haven’t gotten a report. Is an announcement being prepared in the same grandiose fashion the announcement for its holding was done sometime in November 2007? I hope so. Now that it’s finished, can’t the participants (especially the paid ones) account for the work done?
And why is The Collective (sounds very pompous, in caps: are we dealing with The Matrix here?) moving to Alaska? So that The Friends can continue partying?
What is this all really about? Why is this all being done under the radar?
Accountability, people.
Mattthew Brauer from San Francisco, United States (Permalink)
Dear Ambassadors,
I don’t normally have time to keep up with the posts to the amb groups, but someone alerted me to this thread. First of all, I’m sorry to hear of Bin’s resignation. I’m thankful for his participation and I respect his decisions.
I would like to briefly respond to a few of his questions and comments.
* Reducing Website Downtime
I know it doesn’t seem like anything has changed since before the Thai Collective. From the user perspective, the site is still going down periodically. But behind the scenes our volunteer tech team has made massive enhancements to our scalability and security. Up-time is our number one priority. We have a few more kinks to work out, and the site is more stable every week.
Before the Thai Collective, the website was going down periodically because we had more traffic than our servers and database could handle. Our volunteer tech team has made excellent progress during the Collective. They’ve made the site scalable for the future, and we are prepared to double our traffic during the next six months.
During the collective, the site went down because they had to occasionally take it off-line to make changes, or because they had to experiment new configurations with live traffic (sometimes the testing environment doesn’t give accurate results). Now the site is going down periodically because the latest improvements sometimes lead to unexpected side effects.
We’re doing all the we can to keep up with the extremely rapidly growth of this great community.
* Why Is Our Website Code Proprietary
This is a question that gets asked every few months. For a long and detailed answer we wrote about a year ago info, click here:
docs.google.com/Doc?id=dctjjf4h_11c572h4
* How We Use Donation Money
We have over $70K in a savings account we call the Emergency Fund. This fund ensures that we can always keep the website running even during a catastrophic event or in the event that we earn no income for an extended period of time. We will maintain this fund at a level of 3 months of operating expenses.
We’re behind on publishing the expenses for the final quarter of 2007. Managing the our mobile 20 person offices (aka Collectives) has kept us busy! We’ll have it up soon.
We’re trying to keep CS volunteer based so that we don’t spend a lot of the donation money on salaries. If it seems necessary to hire again to enhance the member experience, we’ll hire. But we would take that step very cautiously. Once we commit that money, we can’t turn back.
We’re a charitable non-profit. That means that we are legally never allowed to pay employees more than the standard rate for their job type. Currently, our salaries are far below the going rate. We’re also legally never allowed to use our income except to further our charitable mission.
* We Hire and Promote Based on Merit
Some have claimed that everyone on staff or the key volunteers were hired because they are Casey’s friends. How can I refute that claim when there’s no evidence to disprove? I can only ask you not to make assumptions based on zero evidence. Talk to a key volunteer or Collective participant, and ask them how they were selected. I didn’t know Casey when I started volunteering. I got hired by the board after convincing them that they needed to hire and proving my qualifications for the job.
* CS Can Never Be Sold
This is another rumor that comes up every few months. From our FAQ:
CouchSurfing cannot and will never be sold. When the corporate entity CouchSurfing International, Inc. was created in 2003, it was created as a New Hampshire non-profit company. The formation documents filed with the State of New Hampshire legally organized the company exclusively for charitable purposes.
CouchSurfing has been set up from the beginning to eventually become a tax-exempt 501(c)3 federal non-profit organization. This process is lengthy and costly and it must be done correctly to maximize the chances of receiving this important status. Even though CouchSurfing is not yet a federal non-profit, our current legal status prohibits any activities not permitted by the 501(c)3 federal income tax section of the IRS Code or by an organization whose contributions are deductible under section 170(c)2 of the IRS Code.
This means that our existing non-profit status, and the federal non-profit status we intend to acquire specifically prohibit CouchSurfing from being sold. Additionally, CouchSurfing’s founders have never had any interest in the idea of “selling” such a beautiful community. In fact, several for-profit corporations have offered to buy CouchSurfing over the years. They were immediately told that CouchSurfing is a non-profit corporation that cannot be sold.
I hope that helps explain things. We know that we depend on the enthusiasm and hard work of our volunteers and ambassadors in order to survive as a community. I’m sad to see anyone go. As I always try to admit, we’re not perfect and we do make mistakes. But we always put the best interests of the community and our charitable mission first.
I know you also want to know what we are actually doing. Expect a newsletter summarizing the accomplishments of the Collective soon. I think you’ll be just as impressed with those volunteers as I am.
Cheers,
Mattthew Brauer
General Manager
Mattthew Brauer from San Francisco, United States
MB says “I don’t normally have time to keep up with the posts to the amb groups”
Ambassadors are pieces of trash . He even does not hime time for them let alone the normal members.
MB says “I’m thankful for his participation and I respect his decisions.”
Shows he could not care less .And proves the rumours that they feel volunteers is dispensible.
MB says “But behind the scenes our volunteer tech team has made massive enhancements to our scalability and security”
But he will not elaborate. It is similar to george bush saying again and again we have made “gains” in iraq.
MB says “We’re behind on publishing the expenses for the final quarter of 2007. Managing the our mobile 20 person offices (aka Collectives) has kept us busy! We’ll have it up soon.”
Casey had used the word “soon” too!! And almost 2 years down the link it is still coming .
MB says “Currently, our salaries are far below the going rate. ‘
How much and what “work” entails you to earn that money? You do not have time. So where is all the time going ?From the csct photos it show only alcohol binges.
MB says “Some have claimed that everyone on staff or the key volunteers were hired because they are Casey’s friends.”
Go back in history.look at the references. Ask people who have met you , jim stone and casey at all the burning mans, all the collectives and see why . Jim stone admits he outsources his work. He is going to ride 3000 miles to alaska . Is that money coming from his salary?
MB says “Talk to a key volunteer or Collective participant, and ask them how they were selected.”
They are not accessible!! How about you or jim stone tell us why. Didnt jim stone select them?
Why was jelena selected? Pinkfish?
MB says ” I didn’t know Casey when I started volunteering. I got hired by the board after convincing them that they needed to hire and proving my qualifications for the job.”
what are you qualification? Have you done your job? You are not accessible .So you have failed to do you job. I know you were a website designer how does that qualify you to manage?Do you have a degree in management?
Sure you did not know casey. You knew him when the site crased at the csc mtl (collective at montreal).Then again at new zealand where casey was really impressed with the political games you played to harass and kick out all the volunteers.
T* from Moscow, Russia (Permalink)
Hi Matthew,
Thanks for the quick and timely answer. It’s this kind of response that makes for a more transparent organization. It definitely keeps us believing.
I was just wondering, without being too impolite about it, whether you already have info on the accomplishments on the Thailand Collective. A lot of us who don’t go are really quite murky on the aims and real accomplishments of this activity. Up to now, I’ve not really seen a widespread Bulletin on this. Why is it taking too long to release?
Second, do we have info on who the paid staff are, what are the average going salaries for other NPOs, what are ours getting paid? If it’s already online, it would be great to get a link to it.
Third, you said hiring policy is transparent. Accusations of nepotism fly about because we really don’t know how you guys hire.
Your rebuttal of “How can I refute that claim when there’s no evidence to disprove?” Why does any member even need to prove that there is NO nepotism in hiring practices? I think it would either be too flippant at best or arrogant at worst to ask us to take simply your word for it, or to even ask any volunteer or Collective participant about it. You’re already reading the forum and you are not even writing in all the answers being sought here. Why would others who you’ve all spent time with drinking and pulling one back in the beaches of Thailand have the patience to explain to us the real score on these questions without being dismissive about it? Your reply on hiring was probably among the weakest you provided here, and that simply breeds more questions than it answers. If you’re spending on salaries, then it would be good to know who you’re spending them on, how much, how come you’re spending it on them, and such information. I don’t think the burden is on those who have doubts. The burden on showing that the money is being spent wisely is on those who spend it, don’t you think?
And why this whole move toward Alaska, Casey’s home state (or one of his home states, if we also count Hawaii)? Something doesn’t smell too good here, and it’s not me.
Respectfully but firmly,
D*
CS Ambassador for the Russian Federation
by Mattthew Brauer from San Francisco, United States (Permalink)
* Collective Achievements Report:
We do have the info about the Collective accomplishments in raw form, but we need to compile, organize and write a report. The delay is because we’re especially busy now because we’re preparing for the Collective in Alaska. Meanwhile, while we’re between collectives, we don’t have as many human resources.
* Staff & Salaries:
There are four paid staff members. We are currently paid ~$24K per year each. I have some general salary info about similar roles in other non-profits. We earn far less than the average.
* Why did we choose Alaska?
From the FAQ: Alaska is a return to CouchSurfing’s roots. Co-founder, Casey Fenton, lived in Alaska during CouchSurfing’s birth, and many of the first community members live there. Alaska welcomes CS with strong community support, resources we know well so that we can maximize productivity, and a stunning natural landscape to attract the most talented participants. We recognize that Collective participants need recreation as fuel for the amazing things they’ll be doing as dedicated participants. Alaska enables participants to be inspired and productive.
* We hire based on merit:
I didn’t say that members need to prove there’s no nepotism. I asked, how can I disprove that claim? It was a sincere question. What information can I provide? Unless you review the applications and attend the interviews yourself, how can you know what we base our decision on other than what we say? I haven’t heard anyone claim that they weren’t hired even though they were the best for the role. I haven’t heard any current staff member or key volunteer singled out as someone supposedly hired based on favoritism.
* The hiring process:
We decide on the need for a position, then we create a job description. If there is anyone already in the organization who’s has the skills for that role and had demonstrated their merit as a volunteer, we may invite them to fill that role. If not, we announce the position, review applications, conduct interviews, and select the best candidate based on their experience and talents.
Did we make the best choices? The only evidence is each staff member’s performance over time. If they’re doing a great job, that proves they were right for the role. I believe that the 3 other staff members , our Collective participants, and other key volunteers are doing a great job. But if anyone else wants to step into a key role, then we welcome that. Let them apply and see for themselves our commitment merit based hiring.
The delay is because we’re especially busy now because we’re preparing for the Collective in Alaska. Meanwhile, while we’re between collectives, we don’t have as many human resources.
This is so funny . NO resources. That is why is said ambassadors are a JOKE.
We are currently paid ~$24K per year each.
Wow paid for what?
Unless you review the applications and attend the interviews yourself, how can you know what we base our decision on other than what we say?
How about you stop being so secretive and let other take part in the hiring process. When and how did the hiring process take place?
I haven’t heard anyone claim that they weren’t hired even though they were the best for the role.
YOU DO NOT READ the forums that is why . YOU hire new members and ignore the old ones.
we may invite them to fill that role.
MAY lol
The only evidence is each staff member’s performance over time. If they’re doing a great job, that proves they were right for the role.
OVER time it shows
our Collective participants, and other key volunteers are doing a great job
GREAT JOB!! YAY. WHAT was the great job they accomplished?
But if anyone else wants to step into a key role, then we welcome that. Let them apply and see for themselves our commitment merit based hiring.
Is that why you posted the requirements on a 3rd party site without letting the ambassadors know about it?
$24,000pa
Wow! A 20% salary increase sometime during the past few months.
A 20% increase in performance/work output??
And lets not forget that $24K is the cash wages. In addition are benefits as medical insurance, all accommodation, food and living expenses, airfares, rental cars, etc.
All up a pretty damn fine remuneration package for lolling about in exotic locations…
J* from Alicante, Spain (Permalink)
Dear, Matthew.
I´ve been avoiding to participate in the past few weeks because I was having a break on CS from the management level. However, your message leads me to a reply.
Please, as I´ve said several times in my posts, although I am pretty straightforward and critic about CS management decisions, consider that I separate the CS member from the position it has in the management structure; therefore, nothing that I say here should be understood as a personal attack.
I don’t normally have time to keep up with the posts to the amb groups, but someone alerted me to this thread.
Should we understand that while you are the “General Manager”, you are not following (no matter the reason) what ambassadors are discussing? I understand we, as a front line volunteering force, are part of what you manage in CS, isn´t it?
First of all, I’m sorry to hear of Bin’s resignation
What about contacting Bin and asking to come back? What about refraining other management staff from saying things like “ambassadors are spendable” (I may haven’t typed the sentence correctly but that was the idea). Addressing to volunteers as “you can leave, others will take your place” gives a really wrong feeling to us. Again, I believe this things fall into your management area.
I know it doesn’t seem like anything has changed since before the Thai Collective. From the user perspective, the site is still going down periodically.
Yep, that´s exactly the impression most of us have.
During the collective, the site went down because they had to occasionally take it off-line to make changes, or because they had to experiment new configurations with live traffic (sometimes the testing environment doesn’t give accurate results).
This explanation is kind of misleading since while some downtimes where announced, most of the time they took longer than scheduled. No to mention those who wheren’t previously announced nor lately mentioned. And there was quite a few of those.
Now the site is going down periodically because the latest improvements sometimes lead to unexpected side effects.
So, there are new scheduled downtimes… and any information about them?
What is it that complicated about establishing an online calendar so we can all be aware of such downtimes?
And by the way… am I the only one who feels pain every time I read such short and typewriter style warning messages during a downtime? Can´t we work something nicer?
We’re a charitable non-profit.
Is this already regulated by U.S. laws? Or is it just “what we want to be” still? Because there is a huge difference between what we pretend to be and what are we legally recognized as.
We’re also legally never allowed to use our income except to further our charitable mission.
Lewi-Strauss once wrote an excellent article about measurements. Basically, it went to say that if you establish a way to measure something, you´ve got automatically the method to trick it.
This is common practice on laws: bending the interpretation of a law is common practice nowadays.
So tell me, how do we measure “charitable mission”? Paying people´s expenses in Collectives falls on it? For which expenses? How much?
I understand it´s complicated to explain aaaaallll expenses… but don´t you think we all get kind of worried when we see money going in and out without a REAL explanation of how is it expended?
I got hired by the board after convincing them that they needed to hire and proving my qualifications for the job.
Maybe other people was aware of this but I certainly wasn´t. When did that happen? Was there any official announcement? What results have we obtained since then?
Even though CouchSurfing is not yet a federal non-profit
I believe this solves my previous doubt: us been a charitable organization is what we pretend to be and not what we actually are from a legal point of view. Therefore, our assumptions on salaries and expenses simple don´t apply in my opinion.
This means that our existing non-profit status, and the federal non-profit status we intend to acquire specifically prohibit CouchSurfing from being sold.
That may be true.
May be not.
Since we haven´t still the federal non-profit status, any theory about CS’s future seems valid to me. Not that I want to be pessimistic on this topic but lately I can´t avoid having the feeling that CS getting money is kind of a priority. Verifications, donations or selling CS (no matter we talk about the whole website or the database alone) is a way to make money.
I don´t know what´s in the upper management level´s mind. I just keep in mind time put everybody in its right place.
So time will tell.
We know that we depend on the enthusiasm and hard work of our volunteers and ambassadors in order to survive as a community.
This is not the first ambassador that leaves in the past weeks.
I know you also want to know what we are actually doing.
Really really true.
Expect a newsletter summarizing the accomplishments of the Collective soon.
Please, refrain to use adjectives as “soon” and start defining deadlines. It´s highly unjustifiable at this point to keep not setting deadlines for our internal management. This sounds again like smoke; and I believe you should, from a critic point of view, understand why we feel this way.
Trent Collins from Montreal, Canada (Permalink)
Dude you post long and pay attention little.
CS is bound as a non profit by the laws on New Hampshire in the US. It hasn’t got federal status yet but the laws of the state that CS was first and still is registered in bind it.
That means that CS must abide by all the auditing requirements and alike of those laws. You can find them on the New Hampshire government site.
I haven’t got the link on me but have seen the pages.
{{{}}}}}
If CS wasn’t meeting the requirements then there would be some indicting going on and so since there has been nothing heard of CS breaking the law then we must assume that it is not.
((((((((()))))))))))))
Thats all the proof that you should need about the size of the salaries and where the other funds go.
(((((((((THAT IS ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED )))))))))))))(((NOT SHUT UP LOL )))))))))))))
As for a hiring policy. Have you ever seen any company that has anything that isn’t one page of flowery crap about a hiring policy?
Why should CS write any more than a regular company for a hiring policy rather than spending useless hours on that.
Why is it that people constantly think that an organisation like CS should or could be run by democratic decision.
(((((IT IS COMMIE? )))))))
Has any of you ever tried to run a decent sized organisation by total democracy with any success.
I’ve tried and I know that it sucks and is almost completely unworkable.
So much time is spend on bullshit politics that nothing gets really done. Thats why no successful companies are run that way.
If you want your say on how CS is run then send them your CV and apply for one of the paid positions
((((THEY WILL HIRE YOU lol ))))))))))))
but don’t snipe from the edges without being prepared to put in a full commitment.
Remember that CS is still relatively new(((()))) and evolving very fast so apparent change won’t always be obvious
but there is a team of people there that love CS (for whatever reason) and losing it is definitely not in their best interest and so they are doing their best to keep it going and look after it.
I haven’t seen any other organisations that have managed to handle the kind of change that has happened in CS has so quickly so just keep nudging in the right direction
but don’t knit pick too much or it’ll take the drive from the people that are there to help.
Tc
MANDIE M from Canowindra, Australia (Permalink)
I am still waiting on information from some of the key participants so that I can produce a thorough document that features the work of all the teams at the Collective.
“Early” April has slipped by VERY quickly. A more *pressing* request has been sent to the individuals so that we can get this wrap-up document completed and out for members.
((((((((((((((DID SHE WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT OR ENRON ??LOTs AND LOTS OF RED TAPE HERE)))))))))))))))))))))))
Sorry for the delay!
Cheers, Mandie
Walter Heck from Rotterdam, Netherlands (Permalink)
Just wanted to say two things:
first, I think it is not really smart to rip off trip’s whole arm when he finally takes the time to respond to (mostly) valid questions. Don’t you think that will make him think twice next time to open his mouth?
second, Jean, I think criticizing and asking questions is fine, but the accusing tone of voice you take is what bothers me.
Walter Heck from Rotterdam, Netherlands (Permalink)
As for an application process for paid volunteers: at least Weston was hired based on an open position. A news item was placed in the news section announcing the opening, giving room for everyone to apply. Weston got the job because whoever decided, decided he was the best man for the job out of the few people who responded.
As for fulltime working: at least at the Rotterdam collective, weeks of 60 hours minimum were completely normal for all of us (paid or unpaid). I would guess that hasn’t changed much. I seem to remember that was also mentioned in the job opening for tech team leader.
((((AH the failed collective )))) (((Walter still have not updated the Rotterdam collective blog he PROMISED to update.)))) Funny as hell
J* from Vienna, Austria (Permalink)
no offense to the hard working volunteers at the IT side, but it’s hard for us to celebrate when you make changes behind the scene that we can’t see. i still get more “site-down” messages than I did last year, the key-word search is still not working (but becoming more important as we get more members) and proximity searches for events still hasn’t come back. i can’t do anything about it myself, which is why it’s so frutrating to hear “good news” from you guys.
Weston got the job because whoever decided, decided he was the best man for the job out of the few people who responded.
(((whoever
))
Location: CS Organization >> PROJECT TEAMS: Collectives >> CSC Rotterdam NL 2007 – Public
July 29th, 2007 – 10:07 am by Walter Heck from Rotterdam, Netherlands (Permalink)
Hey Kasper,
I am fully guilty of not updating the blog.
I am currently kind of preoccupied with cleaning out my apartment. I guess I will write up a final blogpost hopefully in the next couple of days. ((((couple of days)))))
Sorry!
Walter
==> JERME and SEEKER,
Please stop just cutting and pasting threads from CS website to this OCS site. Instead, try postkng a link and a constructive comment.
But by just copying everything to the OCS site, is, well, not that helpful and servces little purpose.
okijibawa with the deltion without explanation policy of rachel and the MSDT this IS NECESSARY
didnt a WHOLE group vanish?
With the fragmented information all over the palace this is necessary to collate all the information into one single thread.
Jerme,
No, I don’t think it is necessary to spma OCS. Sorry, I would prefer a discussion on topics and not duplicating the CS website here.
If you would like to document the CS website and save it to prove what was deleted then please do so. Store it where ever you would like. But don’t do it by spaming the OCS site.
Dave
Are you ordering me to do something?
Jerme,
I appreciate your cross-posts, but I also agree with Dave that this copying makes things a bit difficult to digest. May I suggest as a middle road that you create a wiki section to store this information?
best,
Niels
Jerme,
No, of course, I am not ordering you to do anything. Sorry, if my post was misleading. I am just saying that as I look down the list of recent posts, and you had somthing like the last 13 posts in rapid succession.
I don’t mind, and love actually, to have my attention directed to perhaps a group or thread I wasn’t previously aware of. So I don’t want to discourage cross/information sharing, but I would “encourage” you to just be a little more understanding that most readers of OCS, also have access (and are often familiar) with the posts, and thus a link to the thread, with your individual comemnts or discussions points added would be more helpful to everyone trying to follow the thread.
I will just say, on the other hand, that it is great for me (as i am reading CS less and less, and plan to cut back further) to see such important threads. A compilation of those on here is not a bad idea – in fact didn’t someone request this? Also, please note, some have left CS yet still are interested to follow it (so cant read the CS links), some are new and have not joined but are interested in hospex, also cannot see the links; others are lazy, so not going to CS is good LOL.
A couple of solutions:
-ask for the ability to post a blog post; then use the ‘cut’ function and place most of the text under a ‘more’ link – just post the original link then and a short paragraph explaining importance;
-start your own blog on this topic and crosspost links to it. I think this could be quite valuable and others might archive threads there for all to see
-start a wiki section as Niels suggests, and post the links AND text there (problem i see with this is that anyone can edit and remove things, it gives you one more thing to pay attention to!!)
People are NOT reading all the threads you have posted, on CS (at least, i am not!), and since signal-to-noise-ratio on CS is so low, a place to look for important threads would be quite great, in my opinion!
I would suggest to have a “copycat.opencouchsurfing.org” blog. This crossposting is becoming irritating, due to the fact that you can’t see which is a crosspost or a normal post.
Just a few comments on what Matthew Brauer has actually (not) said in the Ambs Public group:
“don’t have the time”
That’s just plain arrogant. It’s his job to read the key volunteers’ group who keep Couchsurfing alive, or get someone to read it for him. To state that it’s not on his list of priorities is just a character flaw which illustrates why he’s unsuitable. 100% ego, 0% professionalism.
“hired me because I’m the best”
Jeez. Didn’t hear anybody else say that.
“ask people who got benefits if there was nepotism”
Is that the way to find out? Jeez.
“four employees”
Who’s the secret 4th one? What on Mother Earth is the legitimate reason for not naming him? He knows very well that there have been questions before, and he’s been evading them. Have you ever heard of a charity that refuses to name whom they’re employing?
“$70,000 in the bank”
Hopefully we’ll see financial statements SOON that INCLUDE the assets acounts (as opposed to just income/expense acounts) so that we can SEE the figure for “money in the bank”. And let’s hope it IS in the bank, and not in someone’s pocket as a “loan”.
“financial statements for 2007 soon”
Well, that is a challenge, isn’t it?! They were READY mid January (Donna says), so all it took was a few minutes to copy and paste them to the web site, with some minor formatting, maybe. We only had a “20 strong” “mobile headquarters” where volunteers had to commit to at least 35 hours/week, so 700 hours/week for 4 months ~ 12,000 hours. The 5 minutes to post the accounts surely were completely out of the question. Sorry, I’m not buying it. They are not published because the delay is a deliberate choice!
Summary: Matthew appeared on the Ambs Public group like the Pope appears, for a blessing. Now all shut up, and don’t criticise him for what he said, or he’ll clam up and never speak again. And we sure don’t want that, for all the valuable information we might fail to get.
There was a trial once in the Old Bailey in London, back in the 50s, where a nasty killer was sentenced to death, and the judge gave him the last word, and he said: “Bugger you all!” The judge turned to the defence lawyer and asked: “Did your client SAY something?” and the defence barrister, embarrassed, rose on one cheek and replied: “No, My Lord!” To which the judge replied: “Funny. I could have sworn he SAID something.”
I know the feeling. I could have sworn Matthew Brauer said something. But he didn’t.
you did. thank you Pickwick…grateful for your attentive analysis.
CYRILG from San Jose, Costa Rica writes in the ambassador group
That is more money than CS has even made in its entire history.
I have no clue what our management gets paid,
but its mathematically impossible to even be 10% of what these people earn. So why aren’t all of you writing letters of protest to the Red Cross, or boycotting them?
//38 Ways To Win An Argument
#Contradiction and contention irritate a person into exaggerating
their statements.
#State a false syllogism.
Your opponent makes a proposition, and by
false inference and distortion of his
ideas you force from the proposition other propositions that are not
intended and that appear absurd.
#When the audience consists of individuals (or a person) who is not an expert on a subject, you make an invalid objection to your opponent who seems to be defeated in the eyes of the audience
#When the audience consists of individuals (or a person) who is not an expert on a subject, you make an
invalid objection to your opponent who seems to be defeated in the eyes of the audience.
//
Thinking that CS would be sold is such an impractically paranoid idea that it just makes me laugh.
Do you think any members would forgive the CS org for selling out, and then simply carry on to pay the corporation who buys it?
Don’t you think there would be tons of angry mobs rounding up pitchforks and torches?…
if CS were sold, it would simply disintegrate.