NZ Collective Wrap Up

New Zealand Collective
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New Zealand Collective Wrap Up

After another successful Collective in New Zealand, it’s time to look back and take stock. In order to truly get the most out of our future Collectives, we must analyze what we have learned from past Collectives. This is an examination of what we accomplished, what we learned, what worked, and what didn’t from the NZ CSC 2006-2007.

Collectives serve two purposes. They are place for CSers to donate their time and skills to further the mission of CouchSurfing by improving the site, the organization and service, as well as a setting to actually live the mission of CouchSurfing. Living, working and connecting with other volunteers from all over the world provides members with a unique opportunity to experience many cultures under one roof, as well as cope with the challenges of coming together under a common purpose in the face of such diverse backgrounds, traditions and ideologies. Collectives are amazing and Collectives are hard. People develop strong bonds and people sometimes have a hard time seeing eye to eye, but in the end, everyone walks away with a better CouchSurfing and deeper appreciation for their fellow volunteers.

Accomplishments

The concerted effort to improve the structure and communication at this Collective resulted in the volunteers organizing themselves into working groups. The accomplishments below are divided into the same working groups that were used.

Member Services Team

• Faster response on contact us questions
• Much faster and more efficient verification system
• Internal finances organized with Quickbooks
• Updated Frequently Asked Questions" section

Tech Team

• Improved site maintenance, infrastructure, and performance
• Improved CouchSearch feature with embedded mapping
• Faster and more secure chat (FlashChat v. 4.0)
• Each website page now monitored by a specific developer

Communications Team

• Bi-monthly CSC Update Newsletter kept members informed
• Developed a comprehensive communications policy
• Improved frequency of updates to the “News” section

Design Team

• Assembled design team and adopted design process policy
• Began designing a new skin for the site
• Developed a creative brief to begin the process of a new logo design

Community Team

• New 4-tiered ambassador structure created and implemented
• CS wiki expanded and better integrated throughout the site
• Streamlined and organized CS groups and enabled multiple moderators
• Create “Community Big Picture” page
• Member safety team solidified

Experience Gained

In order to learn and grow from the lessons learned at the NZ Collective, we need to take a look at what worked and what didn’t work so that we can assess our best practices moving forward.

What Worked

A successful Collective requires many key elements. The unique environment of diverse people living and working together demands a highly organized space, including:

Organizing volunteers into working groups

• This allowed teams to be more effective in brainstorming and accomplishing tasks. Future Collectives should include project-focused working groups.

House management

• By appointing a leader dedicated to the needs of the house, participants could focus on work. The house manager was vital in organizing supplies, resolving disputes, and managing logistics.

Weekly house meetings

• These meetings focused on consensus building, group dynamics and resolving issues that arose in the house.

External communications

• The bi-monthly newsletter updates kept the general membership apprised of the workings of the Collective and inspired people to participate.

What Didn’t Work

Collectives are like Petri dishes of social and working dynamics. They are a learning experiment, and therefore some breakdowns are bound to occur. The true testament to a Collective’s success is not the absence of failure, but rather the ability to turn a failure into a meaningful lesson. Some needed improvements include:

Focus on the locale

• New Zealand is an amazing place, and though participants were able to enjoy the benefits of its spectacular landscape, not enough emphasis was placed on incorporating the local community. Future Collectives should include a dedicated community outreach project.

Application Process

• This Collective did not use an application process, and received any and all members who showed up at its doorstep. This meant that the house was sometimes overcrowded, and the structure and organization suffered as a result. This also let to problems with the budget and participant accountability.

Participant accountability

• Without a disciplined approach to documenting what volunteers are working on, some participants used valuable resources yet contributed little or no productivity. Future collectives should include participant orientations to welcome volunteers, assign them to working teams, and establish clear expectations and guidelines. Also, project milestones should be established and work towards them documented.

Problem Personalities

• Participants clashed in a few cases due to different opinions and ideologies, but these disputes were mostly resolved successfully. However, some participants behaved unacceptably causing harm to moral. These participants weren’t asked to leave until the problems they caused escalated beyond a reasonable level. Future Collectives should include direct confrontation of problem personalities and interpersonal conflicts by the house management. Conflict resolutions should be the goal, but when not possible, participants may be asked to leave for the good of the house.

Adherence to the budget

• A record number of members participated and in turn, the original budget didn’t suffice. Future budgets should be more precise including anticipated participants. Expenses can be minimized by limiting the number of participants and making better use of local resources.

Improved internal communication

• Communications issues were challenging both amongst the Collective participants and teams, and between Collective participants and off-site volunteers. Future Collectives should include policies and workflow strategy for teams. Each working group must determine its decision-making process and goals, and then monitor its inputs and outputs. The Collective leadership should hold teams accountable to their goals and ensure appropriate communication from each team.

With a few Collectives under our belts, we have had the chance to assess our success and failures. The experience gained will determine our best practices for Collectives moving forward.