Ben Jan 11 07
From Tribewanted
Making Tribewanted a success in 2007
January 2007
By: Ben Keene
Dear Vorovoro Tribe,
The aim of this is to give a summary of where the tribewanted project currently is, what we are aiming to achieve in 2007, and, more importantly, how we are going to do it.
We’ve learnt a lot so far. We’ve met a lot of amazing people. A year ago the idea barely existed. So if the last 12 months are anything to go by, 2007 should be an awesome year for all involved in tribewanted.
Thank-you for your support, passion and ideas, you’re all brilliant.
See you on Vorovoro soon. I mean it, soon.
BTL,
Bengazi
Contents |
Achievements of 2006
- 1000+ members joined
- 80+ members visited Vorovoro
- Basic island infrastructure built – toilets, showers, kitchen, dining, great bure, farm, jetty (almost!)
- Online community built
- Three chiefs elected
Aims for 2007
Online:
- Connect the online and on-island members so tribe communication can be fluid
- Structure online community with specific tribe members representing different aspects of the project on the island and online.
- Recruit a minimum of a further 1000 members
- Secure strategic partnerships to develop project online and on island
- Work towards model for online democracy
- Legal set-up of Dream Foundation + first projects
- Build tribal generated content – blogs, pictures, videos
On Vorovoro:
- Extend the range of activities and experiences for members
- Encourage all tribe members to offset their travel to and from Vorovoro
- Develop and implement sustainable development for Vorovoro with support of eco advisors
- Encourage as many current members to visit Vorovoro
- Support local community where possible
- Complete BBC documentary with Shine
Tribewanted business
Business: Finance Financially the project is steady. The last quarter of 2006 has been tight due to memberships slowing up as we focused our resources into launching Vorovoro. The December coup compounded this problem but this now seems to be passing as FCO advice against travel to Fiji has been lifted. There should be no concern about the business collapsing, and as set out in the terms and conditions, if we are ever unable to offer members their stay on Vorovoro within their membership period we will provide a full refund.
Due to the assessment of the financial situation, the impact of the coup and the experience that is being provided on Vorovoro the price of membership will increase for new members when the new booking system launches later in January. Current members will be able to extend their time/renew their membership at the current rate until the ned of August 2007, when prices will be levelled out. More info under ‘memberships’ below.
Business: Team
We are looking to bring on board a skilled web2 team to manage the online side of the project and improve the experience for tribe members. We are also looking to bring in project managers for Vorovoro over the next 6 months who will be based on the island full-time. Our current tribewanted team, wherever they are based, are all volunteers, whose reward for their hard work is to be part of the project and weekly beer money. All Fijian workers are paid at slightly better than local rate for their work on Vorovoro.
TW Ltd? Yes we are legally set-up as a limited company, but we’re not a faceless board of directors, it’s me (Ben), the team on the island plus our partners. That’s it!
Business: Marketing and Publicity Tribewanted has had fantastic success in generating publicity for the project. The key is turning more of the publicity we are getting into members joining. How are we going to do this in 2007?
1. Bring Tribewanted.com ‘alive’ The work we have been doing on upgrading the website and community over the last few weeks will hopefully give those that visit the site more of a sense of what is going on. This upgrade should be re-launched in next week.
2. STA Travel STA Travel will be doing a significant amount of marketing for Tribewanted in 2007. They currently send 12000 travellers to Fiji a year, so we should be able to persuade a small portion of that number to come to Vorovoro!
3. Word of mouth With more members visiting Vorovoro all the time, the word is spreading. Flyers are expensive to distribute and not good for the environment. So best solution is dowloadable info – pics, screensavers, e-tags etc… we’re developing a page of this kind of thing so members can use to get the tribal message out there.
Tribewanted project
Project: Vorovoro Going well – we just need more of you on the island! Getting island online is key to a successful year, and I will be in touch Vodafone Fiji as soon as I return to Vorovoro. If that falls through we’ll look at the Began System that several members have suggested.
Project: Communication Perhaps the most important part of making this project work, especially as numbers increase, is how organise the information flow to and from Vorovoro. Here is the structure that I propose we use for 2007:
1. Weekly e-news to all members that will include:
- Last weeks vote results/ this weeks vote
- Vorovoro news
- Upcoming tribal gatherings
- Key debates
- Green Dream action
2. Regular tribe blog
- Latest info from Vorovoro
- Key forum debates
- Anything entertaining from members
- Gathering highlights
3. News items on community pages
- Updated as and when news comes in
4. Vorovoro Tribe Diary (diary to be launched online 15th Jan)
- Upcoming gatherings
- Upcoming votes
- Upcoming chat room meetings
5. Tribal TV
- Community upload bugs should be sorted soon which means members can upload their own tv/web logs and podcasts
- University of South Pacific should be back on campus soon which will mean we can upload more of the footage from 2006
- Once online on the island we will be to upload footage directly
Project: Tribe members participation online
We tried to get co-ordinators together but the reason I think it failed was it because it was too early in the project and we concentrating heavily on Vorovoro. Now we can look at the tribal pyramid communication structure a bit more seriously.
We will post for positions over the next week for ‘tribal elders’ (if someone has a better name please put it forward!) Some members already have positions, which we’ll re-define.
- Recruitment elders (1 per country/state + senior elder) > report to senior elder, then to Ben
- Project elders (1 per each part of the project – water etc…) > report to elected Chief
- Gathering elders (1 per region/city) > report to senior elder who posts on each weeks newsletter
- 10 Online moderators – who manage different sections of the forums
- Voting committee – 5 members
- Dream Foundation committee – 5 members
- reen team – 4 members
Project: The Green Team & Development Partners Environment: UCL Environmental Engineers (x6) Social: Helen Laing, Global Sense Sustainability: Jodi Willis, MTT Sustain Climate: Michael Buick, Climate Care
It would be great to team these advisors directly with tribe member representatives.
Dream Foundation
Helen Laing, from Global Sense has offered to co-ordinate the set-up of the Dream Foundation as a UK registered charity. Several members have already put themselves forward to help so we will co-ordinate this over the next week. We will also vote to decide whether any of the Dream Foundation committee should be paid from the funds raised for managing the charity.
Voting
Improved system – Demos proposals to be discussed with voting committee once formed.
Chiefs & Development Budget Elected chiefs have a monthly budget of $5000FJD to spend on island development. Each elected chief has a further ‘legacy budget’ to spend on a project of their choosing. If money is left in the pot then it is carried for. Any projects that cost more than this budget need to be achieved through partners or sponsors - this can be instigated by any member but should be co-ordinated through the tribal elder for that particular area of the project.
Current & New Memberships Extra weeks re-votes as debated by tribe members over the last 2 months will begin on Monday 15th Jan and last for 2 weeks.
New memberships will increase by 50% when the STA Travel booking system is launched online before the end of January 2007.
£180 Nomads £360 Hunters £540 Warriors
Current members will be able pay to upgrade/renew/extend their memberships at the current price of £120 a week. This price will be available to current members until August 31st 2007. From September 1st 2007 all prices will be the same.
Reasons for membership prices increasing:
- Includes STA Travel booking fee and commission (no more paypal for new members!)
- Current Vorovoro experience under-priced, “it’s a steal” (Nat Geo)
- Coup slowed down members on Vorovoro so need to bring a little more cash in to make up for lost time
Island Activities and extras - update Fishing $20 includes kit, boat trip and guide Snorkelling $20 includes kit, boat trip and guide Boat journeys $3-$5 one way Mali/Labasa (1st arrival and departing boat included in membership)
