Conference calls

December 6th, midnight London time

Skype users: NZ Collective (Elsa username BEITO); Fred (DRFERIC); Stephanie (STEFF). Were listening Björn (BSirius) and Michael (OPENMIC).

Quick synopsis

• A one month Collective (between July and August 2007)
• In Paris
• Organized by members of the Association loi 1901 CouchSurfing Paris
• Volunteers with clearly defined roles: a structured collective.
• Financed by?
• How do we integrate the Paris Collective into the CS Project? Who decides?

Role of the Collective

The idea of CouchSurfing Collectives is fairly new. We must learn from past mistakes and improve positive aspects of what has been done. A way to start sharing the + and - of past experiences is the Collectives feedbacks page. We need those feedbacks before making decisions concerning the Paris 2007 Collective.

Collectives help brainstorm and allow for projects to be built faster. We feel that they are essential to the development of CouchSurfing International.

Their role is not clearly defined though. For the Paris Collective, we could:

• Gather people and have them work, or
• Have a pre-defined project and have people come especially to work on it

Location

Surfers had mentionned having other Collectives in Europe in the summer 2007. We could give a European depth to the Collective, for example have a pre-Collective in Barcelona, the 'real' collective in Paris and a wrap-up in Berlin.

In Paris, the Collective might be held in a University.

People could live and work in that building. However, it might be hard to find such a place without expanding our communication ressources (i.e. creating a booklet on CouchSurfing; having flyers; specialists in marketting and CS 'salesmen').

A university also allows to have a public-front and to avoid the 'Collective Bubble' phenomenon.

Another option would be to try a Collective space that we would use as an office and have volunteers CouchSurf in Paris area. Pb: most parisians will then be on holidays.

Time Span

For reasons stated in the proposal, the Collective should be one month long. It is therefore quite different from the previous Collectives (Montreal-three months; Eisenstadt-two weeks; New Zealand-five months).

Roles within the Collective

In such a short time, we would need a clearly defined structure within the Collective.

Roles are defined in the proposal.

We are aware that a Collective is based on its volunteers and that not every position described in the grid can be filled at all times.

We might need a coordinator who keeps track of the org structure of the Collective and assigns roles to the volunteers, filling up roles defined in the grid.

The core roles would have to be kept for the whole Collective by the same people, whereas other roles could be held by 'coming and going' CouchSurfers.

We might need to set a maximum number (15?) of volunteers at one given time to have a manageable team.

Working sessions would be backed up in terms of seminars, workshops and presentations.

Finances

Should a Collective be financed by CouchSurfing.com or should it be able to fundraise itself?

• If it were financed by CouchSurfing.com (as other Collectives previously have), it needs to be held accountable to the community and members should have their say during the organization process. Why not a vote?

• If the Paris volunteers fundraise it, what can they do in the name of CouchSurfing International and what can they do in their own name (they have just created an association loi 1901 which gives them a legal status in France)?

NB: it will take 3 years from now to gain a NGO status for the French CouchSurfing Association.

Ideas for fundraising:

• Throwing parties in Europe where people would pay 5 euros which would be used for the Collective.
• Sponsors (local and international). However, without a clear presentation of what CS is in 'real life', without promoting CS in a concrete way outside of the website, it might prove difficult to find those sponsors.

Deeper issues

Pbs:

• There are people willing to put time and energy into creating a Collective in Paris. However, there is no one to back them up. WHo decides on what is or isn't good for the community? How is this project integrated to CS Int? We agree in saying that Collectives are essential to CS's development, but how do we decide where, when and with who we can have a Collective? In other words, can we start a project and risk to have it shut down because there was no structure to decide or vote on it?

• CouchSurfing International is a non-profit organization based in the USA. What can the other countries do with that status? Can they create a status of their own in their own countries?

• Can we provide a clear message on what CouchSurfing is outside of the internet, so that people in the 'real world' can realize the importance of this phenomenon and start helping us (financially).

• There is a feeling of 'being unofficial' in the projects created by CS members. Sometimes it restrains them from developing their projects, because of the fear of failing and having no backing up. How could we make those projects official? Should we give this official aspect to those problems?

• How can we give legitimacy to projects? Can we have a voting system?

To Do List

• Decide on WHO makes decisions
• Have a clear definition of what CS is to find sponsors/financial help.
• Create CS fliers and a booklet (a 3-page document)

Your ideas/comments/suggestions