BeVolunteer FAQ
As the name says you will find here 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ), so if you have questions on BeVolunteer, don't hesitate to ask them either in the Public Forum or contact us directly. We will try to answer them as well and as soon as we can. By asking those questions you will not only find an answer for yourself but also help us build more extensive and clear FAQs as well as working towards transparency and clarity within our organization. For BeVolunteer members: If you want to contribute to the FAQs by raising any question, answering questions or improving or updating existing answers, please use the page Future Public Content
Becoming a member of BeVolunteer
Who can become a member?
See http://www.bevolunteer.org/wiki/index.php/Future_Internal_Rules#1.1._conditions
Why do you need a copy of my passport and what are you going to do with it?
In the beginning we could do without this security measure, since we mostly know all the applicants in person. In the long run, however, we can't exclusively rely on the 'vouching' part of the application. We discussed about the necessity to have met a BeVolunteer member personally, but dismissed it because it would be unfair to those living in isolated areas of the world or just not in Europe. Since we don't want to have different registration procedures we decided to ask for a copy of either passport or identity card to be sure you are not a phantom but a real person ;-) After checking those copies (scans will also do), we delete them.
Why are there different levels of membership? Don't you trust people?
We actually thought and discussed about this issue a lot, being aware that some new members might feel uncomfortable having to start as a 'Friend Member' and then 'Junior Member'. The reason for still introducing this period of 3 months was
a) a kind of warranty that groups couldn't join BeVolunteer and make the revolution inside even before getting to know the organization
b) that also within our past volunteering we have encountered many very enthusiastic and motivated volunteers who wanted to change many things without knowing the background and then after two months of hyperactivity completely disappeared from the volunteers' horizon. We are very willing to lead any kind of discussion and are eager to involve all BeVolunteer members in decisions, but we felt it necessary to ensure some kind of continuity by introducing some delays to fully take part in the process of making decisions, especially when they affect the core of BeVolunteer.
Please be aware that the restrictions for these 3 months are really not huge: During the first 3 months you cannot vote at a General Assembly (GA) and you cannot vote or be elected for the Board of Directors (BoD). Still you can take part in any discussion and express your opinion in the forum and at a GA. If you can convince those who have a right to vote it is worth more than having the right to vote yourself!
Can people from other Hospitality exchange sites like Hospitality Club, CouchSurfing or Servas join BeVolunteer?
Absolutely. We are open to any motivated people willing to help!
Goals of BeVolunteer
Is it true that you are creating a new hospitality exchange site?
We all love the Hospitality Club but the internal problems, the moral and ethical dilemmas, the lack of perspective, the ever growing unsolved questions with several problematic fields in members' management and the resulting lack of motivation on almost all levels made it impossible to see our future in HC. Instead we decided to take on responsibility and work on an alternative. Building this alternative we try to bring in our HC experience and learn from mistakes made in HC. We do not want to create a copy of HC just without the mistakes but we do want to create a new, different site that each member could feel comfortable with.
We also considered the existence of the other networks, like CouchSurfing, but even if we share most of their challenge these are not driven how we want to make this project. You can make your own opinion with reading our Statutes and Values.
We would be happy to cooperate with other hospitality exchange networks provided they share the moral and ethical principles outlined in the BeVolunteer statutes but also in the BeVolunteer values. Technically several possibilities for a cooperation are possible, one network could join the other, there could be webbridges between two networks or simply a cooperation regarding important security issues. Some collective projects are already in discussion.
Your organization was called HCvol - What is the relation to HC (HospitalityClub)?
This is an outdated article conserved only for historical meaning
The organization is indeed called HCvol, since it started out as a project for HC volunteers who wanted to structure their work in a more legal, open, constructive way. There are still several factual relations with HC at the moment.
We are all HC volunteers - or have been - and for the moment HC membership and volunteer work are even required to become a member of HCvol. In terms of actual work we have two projects at the moment that we support, one is a new project called BeWelcome, the other is HC. Many of us support both projects, others focus on one only. However, please note that all of them go out from HCvol. There is no cooperation officially approved by Veit. This is also why now there is a tendency to cut those formal ties with HC. One step will be to change the name of this organization very soon (due end of January), other steps will be to remove reference to HC in the statutes, which is currently being worked on, but of course needs approval of our General Assembly before being active.
'Cutting the ties' does in no way mean an escalation of conflict, quite the contrary. We would like to state here, that without HC and without Veit's idea of an internet based hospitality exchange network working with volunteers, we would probably not be here. We owe Veit and Kjell a lot of respect for their visions and the energy they put in realizing this vision! In our hearts we will never forget that HC was the starting point of our incredible journey, but in our minds we have to move on and this includes bringing new (non-hc) people on board. It's a natural evolution, not a revolution.
Can I continue working for HC or CS as a BeVolunteer member?
Yes, of course and many of us do in some way or the other. While many of us have given up any hope of ever effectively changing HC from within, others still see a tiny chance. Others who indeed have given up hope, still support HC because they feel attached to the community of members and after all we do not want HC to die. It is really up to you how you can solve the moral and ethical dilemma whether to support HC or not.
We only ask of every BeVolunteer member to grant BeVolunteer a right to use the work they have produced as an BeVolunteer member. Please note that you grant BeVolunteer, an organization with a clear, legal outline, a right, but, concerning your part of work, it is not an exclusive right.
How BeVolunteer works
With more and more members how are you going to make sure you won't get stuck in neverending discussions but come up with decisions?
Of course this is a big challenge we are facing, but we believe it is possible to ensure an efficient but still democratic way of making descisions.
We try to exchange all the arguments on the forum, after some majority opinions show there should be a poll with 2 alternatives and one more option for 'neither A or B'. Maybe we will have to find other ways in the future but for now this is the way to go.
What kind of majority is needed for the decisions?
There are quite a few differing definitions of some terms, so it is very important you read this thoroughly in order to get the right idea.
1.) Standard majority in GA and BoD is absolute majority of decision-making votes of present+represented members allowed to vote. In case of a stalemate the Executive Delegate makes the decision.
2.) decision about membership (accept and exclude members): 2/3 of all votes of present+represented members allowed to vote
3.) Elections are done by secret votes. They can be done openly in case of an unambiguous decision to do so.
Some reasons why we don't think a simple majority would work well in BeVolunteer: Simple majority means that if you give 3 alternatives to vote on, and if one of them gets 4, the second 3 and the third 2 votes, then the decision is for the 1st one, even if more people did not vote for that option. So usually a simple majority does not reflect the opinion of the majority of all members, and it depends a lot on how the alternatives are chosen who will win the election. E.g. if the people voting for the 2nd and 3rd alternative had agreed on one common alternative before the vote was held, then the result would have been 4-5. In the first case the 5 people were the losers, now they are the winners, even if the opinion of none of the members has changed!
So simple majorities bring quite some uncertainty and unfairness. The advantage is of course that it is easier to get ANY decision. If you require an absolute majority, then you MUST talk so much before the vote is done that really more than 50% of the voting members vote for the same alternative, otherwise you don't get a decision.
We believe that we have a very appropriate tool for discussing with the BeVolunteer forum and we are convinced that it is important to know a sound majority behind all the decisions taken.
How is BeVolunteer financed?
The options discussed [1] for the long-term are:
- Members donations
- Shop system
- Advertisements
- Fundraising
In any case, transparent accounts will be published, according to BeVolunteer legal status and wish of transparency.
BeVolunteer is still working on "borrowed money". At medium term the incomes generated by the ads should allow us to give back that money and to be autosufficient.
For that reason Ads will be present on BeWelcome site; in "autosufficient times", further statement will decide if this policy has to be maintained or not.
BeVolunteer General
What is the relationship between BeVolunteer and BeWelcome? Why isn't BeWelcome an NGO itself?
BeVolunteer is the legal non-profit NGO running BeWelcome. BeWelcome is a website which is not a moral person and doesn't have juridical responsibility. BeWelcome members don't have legal relationship with BeWelcome - this makes things much easier: imagine if you had to become a member of an NGO to join a website! This would result in a very complex structure of management, and anyway we don't think that BeWelcome members want to get involved in any structure at the start, when they join BeWelcome.
We could have named the NGO 'BeWelcome' also, like the website - it often happens like that. But we chose to set the things better identified, with 2 different names, so the organization doesn't become too confusing.
I've just read BeVolunteer history. How is it possible that we never knew about these problems for so long?
The fact is that none of us ever wished to harm HC (HospitalityClub)... and making the problems public would have. We were really believing that these problems could have been solved, and that then, after some little hard times, we would have the best system for the future.
The things didn't happen like that; but still today, none of us want to harm HC, and there is no promotion done of BeVolunteer among HC.
Can I know who is member of BeVolunteer?
Even if nobody makes a secret of his BeVolunteer membership, a list of members is not to be public information according to NGO's laws. So far we published the List of the Board of Directors (BoD) so you can see the members in charge for BeVolunteer.
BeWelcome
What problems do or dont you see being member of HC or CS and BW at the same time?
There are no problems whatsoever. You can use any of these sites for their specific advantages: Hospitality Club obviously for the larger number of members, CouchSurfing for its nice tools, BeWelcome for better tools for planning trips, more participation on members' part (less restrictive forum, none of the obscure HC actions taking place in forum work more and more again) and more development in terms of tools and security issues
How do you see the first steps of this project ? HC people will run to bewelcome? how you will promote this project?
The promotion is already working without us doing anything. The best promotion any project can get is by word of mouth. Of course we will also use media etc. soon.
The idea is to share accommodation, right?
This is only one aspect. Our aim is to transcend the mere accommodation aspect.
On the one hand there are already some great tools for planning trips, for gathering information on locations more systematically and for documenting trips for personal use but also if you want to share your experience with others.
On the other hand the system we are implementing will make it possible to find not only members living where you want to travel but also those who will be there at the same time as you. It will also be possible to find events taking place in that area at the time of your trip. So the aim is not only providing accommodation but rather a cultural exchange on a wider scale.
In fact, our biggest aim is to build the best dynamics in order to set a process of permanent growing. This community of members and volunteers will be the key for driving each day closest to perfection :-)
What do you think will attract people to become a member of BW?
A well-made, interesting and dynamic website offering many cool features is only the beginning. The atmosphere of friendliness, sharing some values and caring members but also administration will be our advantage.
