THE INTERNATIONS GROUP CONSUL MANUAL

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Dear Group Consul,

By becoming Consul you have chosen to take an active part in your Local Community on

InterNations, and for that we would like to thank you! As a Group Consul you play an

important role in creating a lively environment in your Local Community and we sincerely

appreciate your commitment.

This manual is designed to help you get started and to provide you with useful information for

your role as Group Consul. Also, it can and should be used for future reference. Please take

some time to read through it to ensure a great experience for you and your group members.

We wish you all the best and lots of fun at the Activities and are looking forward to working

together with you to ensure the success of your group!

Sincerely,

Your InterNations Activity Groups Team

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Table of Contents

1. The Activity Groups Concept 3

1.1 What is an Activity Group? 3

1.2 Volunteer Groups 4

2. Your Activity Group at a Glance 5

3. How to Manage your Activity Group 5

3.1 Your First Steps as Group Consul 5

3.2 Activities Explained 6

3.3 Activity Location 9

3.4 Organizational Aspects 9

3.5 During the Activity 11

4. Your Role as a Group Consul 11

4.1 The Benefits of Managing an Activity Group 11

4.2 The Tasks of a Group Consul 11

4.3 The Rights of a Group Consul 12

4.4 Looking After Your Group 14

4.5 Uploading Photos 13

4.6 Sharing the Group Consul Role 13

5. Contact 15

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1. The Activity Groups Concept

1.1 What is an Activity Group?

The idea behind the Activity Groups concept is to create groups that focus on a specific

hobby or interest, such as dining out, languages or sports. An Activity Group gives members

with the same interests the ideal platform to enjoy Activities together on a regular basis and

get to know one another in a more personal environment than at the larger Community

Events.

Activity Groups fall into nine categories:

Culture & Entertainment

Dining & Nightlife

Sports & Leisure

Women only

Business & Networking

Nationalities & Languages

Miscellaneous

Family & Kids

Volunteer Program

Having a group on InterNations makes it a lot easier to bring interested members together on

a regular basis. Therefore, you and your fellow Consuls are strongly encouraged to organize

at least one Activity per month.

The Activity Groups Team will help you to ensure the high quality of the groups and to offer a

variety of Activities. In order to avoid duplication, we will make sure that all groups serve a

unique purpose.

Our aim is to provide a thriving Groups section that will make it easier for expats to settle in

and quickly find like-minded people in their new environment.

Activity Groups are an additional offer for Albatross members

With the Activity Groups, we would like to add value to our Albatross Membership. As an

ever-growing network we rely on the income generated from our premium membership, the

Albatross status, to offer the best possible service to our members.

There are several teams working in our headquarters in Munich on topics such as the

development of our online platform, quality assurance and support, Ambassadors & Events

or our editorial content. There is a whole team dedicated to managing and supporting you,

the Group Consuls. That is why participation in our Activity Groups is aimed at Albatross

Members. Basic members are not able to join an Activity Group, but receive free trials after

their registration. These trials give the Basic members an opportunity to experience the

Activity Groups. However, the Volunteer Groups are free for both Basic and Albatross

Members.

By paying their membership fees, Albatross members enable us to cover our costs, further

develop and enhance the InterNations platform, and work towards our vision to create a

network that enables all expats around the world to quickly feel at home wherever they are.

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The Albatross Membership

There will be cases in which group members will ask you about the benefits of an Albatross

membership. Here is a comprehensive table that will help you to answer these questions:

1.2 Volunteer Groups

Global minds all around the world get together for many different reasons. In more and more

communities members want to engage in charity work. This is why we set up the

InterNations Volunteer Groups: Activity Groups which are dedicated to supporting local

initiatives and projects. For more detailed information about the distinction between Activity

Groups and Volunteer Groups, please click on the link.

If you want to get involved, please get in touch with the local Volunteer Group Consul(s) or,

in case there are none, take a look at the Volunteer Program Website:

www.internations.org/volunteer-program/.

If you are interested in becoming involved, please get in touch with our Volunteer Program

Team at volunteerprogram@internations.org who will be happy to provide you with the

requested information

2. Your Activity Group at a Glance

Your Activity Group portal is divided into five main tabs (sections). These are About, Wall,

Activities, Members and Photos.

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The About tab is the page that shows all the relevant information on the group: a

short description of the group’s purpose, the two most recently posted Activities, past

Activities and the group members.

The Wall is the central notice board and forum of each Activity Group. Here, every

group member can discuss relevant topics, post pictures, or see newly posted

Activities. As Group Consul you have the right to delete all entries in case

someone writes an offensive or commercial comment (see 4.3).

The Activities tab is where group members can see the Activities and create new

Activities themselves. Additionally, you as Consul are able to edit your Activities

and to delete all posted Activities (see 4.3). Each time an Activity is posted in your

group, it will automatically be advertised on the Wall and to all group members invited

by the host. It will also be visible in the Events Calendar on InterNations.

The Members tab gives you an overview of all the members of your group. Here you

can send a message to all group members, find out who is new to your group and

connect with people you met at your Activities.

The Photos tab shows an overview of all pictures that have been uploaded. On the

top half you can see all general group pictures; the bottom half shows the photos from

your Activities. For more information on the photo section, please see 4.3.

The Support tab is only visible to the Group Consuls. It enables you to get in touch

with the Activity Groups Team, who will respond to your query by email. Please make

use of this button whenever you have a question or an issue concerning your group.

3. How to Manage your Activity Group

After the Activity Groups Team has reviewed and approved your group request or appointed

you as Group Consul, you can start inviting your contacts and friends to join and create your

first Activity. Below you can find some tips on how to best manage your group.

3.1 Your First Steps as Group Consul

In our experience, nothing puts more of a spotlight on your group than your first

Activities. By organizing and posting them in your group, you greatly increase its visibility

and motivate interested members to sign up. Moreover, you can make the group grow by

inviting members to it and make sure that it maintains a high quality.

Creating an Activity

Go to the Activities tab in your group and click on Create Activity.

Fill time, date and location into the provided fields.

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Leave the box Automatically invite all group members ticked. This will help to

ensure that all group members are notified.

Click on Post Activity to submit it.

If you would like to invite more members to the Activity, click on Invite friends on the

page of your Activity once it has been posted. Choose members from your contact list

or type in their email addresses and click on Invite.

Group members also have the right to post Activities. If you know that someone has

an interesting idea, do not hesitate to encourage him/her to post the Activity in the

Group

Inviting InterNations members and non-members to the group

To make your group grow, feel free to invite fellow InterNations members via the

Invite friends function in your group. The overlay which appears gives you the option

to automatically choose from your contacts by typing in their names.

To invite non-contacts or even non-members, simply fill in their email addresses into

the provided field.

Make sure to click on Invite once you are done.

Moderating the group

It can happen that inappropriate comments or Activities are posted, even at the early

stages of a group. If the comment or Activity is evidently violating the guidelines, you

can delete it by hovering over it and clicking on the “x” that appears.

If you are unsure and would prefer for InterNations to look into the matter, you can

use the provided Report abuse link. Your message will be sent straight to them.

Still not sure how to get started or are you in need of ideas for your first Activity? Check out

our handy host guide that provides you with tips and tricks on how to have a successful

gathering: How to be a Good Host

3.2 Activities explained

What is an Activity?

An Activity is defined as a get-together of members to follow a specific hobby or interest.

Events such as concerts, festivals, or theatre plays are only considered Activities, if you

meet up with other group members to go there together.

Your most important role as a Group Consul is to ensure that there are regular Activities in

your group for the members to enjoy. Generally you can post any kind of Activity, as long as

it is in line with the guidelines (see 4.2) and has something to do with the group topic.

However, please always take the local customs and laws into consideration. If you are

in doubt whether your Activity is appropriate for your Local Community or your group, please

do not hesitate to contact the Activity Groups Team by email at:

activity-groups@internations.org

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Please choose a title that makes it clear right away to all members what the Activity is about.

Consider that there might be new group members that are not yet familiar with your Group

Activities. The location of your Activity should not be part of the title or the logo. This is to

ensure that only Albatross Members and Basic Members using their free trials can attend.

Important venue details will appear hidden to Basic Members, so please keep this in mind

when creating Activities. Location details will be covered by a “venue locked” banner, and

will remain fully visible to you and other Albatross Members.

If you get together regularly at the same place, or if you want to repeat a successful Activity,

you can make use of the Copy existing Activity link. This link can be found at the top of the

Create Activity form. Please note that you can only choose from Activities you have hosted

yourself.

How are Activities advertised to InterNations members?

As soon as you have created an Activity, it

will be posted on the Group Wall to inform all group members about it

will be posted in the Activities section of your group

will be posted in the upcoming Events section of InterNations to inform the

Community about it

will be posted in the InterNations Wire every time a member signs up for it

may be randomly selected to appear in the weekly Activity Groups Newsletter or in

the InterNations Wire as an upcoming Activity

Moreover, you can advertise the Activity yourself. Your whole group will be invited by email if

you keep the box Automatically invite all group members ticked when posting an Activity.

To invite people from outside the group or even InterNations, or to write a custom message,

please click the Invite Friends button on the page of your Activity once it has been posted.

Everyone you invite will receive an invitation via email. Last but not least, after signing up for

an Activity you can recommend it to your contacts in the InterNations Wire.

Additionally, profile pictures of Group Consuls will be alternately displayed on the

InterNations homepage for potential new members to see (If you want to opt out, please get

in touch with activity-groups@internations.org).

How to get in touch with the attendees of your Activity

Once you have posted the Activity, there are two easy ways to communicate with your

attendees. You can either post a comment right underneath the Activity, or you can send out

a private message to the whole guest list by clicking Send message to attendees.

Sign-ups and attendance

In order to get the best level of participation, we recommend that you post your Activity

around 4-10 days in advance. This way, you ensure that a lot of members are made aware

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of it and have the opportunity to sign up. Otherwise it might be too short a notice for many to

be able to fit the Activity into their schedules.

Shortly before the Activity takes place, the guest list will automatically be closed by our

system. This is to prevent last-minute changes to the attendance. If you would like to have an

overview over who is coming, print out the list by clicking Print guest list on the same page.

You can also print out name tags there by clicking Print name tags.1 Please also make sure

to check your inbox one last time for any last minute cancellations. If in doubt about the

attendance once you get together for the Activity, print out the guest list and take it with you.

You can then check it to ensure that only Albatross and Basic Members using their free

trials attend. This is crucial, as members who have upgraded to Albatross status in order to

enjoy your Activities might feel deceived otherwise.

Please be aware that it is likely that not everyone on the guest list will show up to an

Activity. Our experience shows that 20-40% of the listed attendees will not turn up, without

cancelling in advance. To minimize this number, please stress the importance of attendees

removing themselves from the guest list if they no longer can or want to attend. If you need

to know the exact number of attendees in advance, please ask (e.g. in the description of your

Activity) that members send you an additional e-mail, message or SMS to confirm their

attendance, optionally providing you with a phone number. Then you can add all confirmed

members to a separate offline guest list, and leave your Activity guest list without a limit. Only

when the separate list is full, the Activity guest list on InterNations is closed.

In order to support our Consuls in the best possible way with no-shows, we have set up a

helpful guide with concrete measures on how to avoid no-shows at your Activity: No-Shows?

No way!

Events and Activities

Activities are focused on a specific topic and are aimed at members interested in this topic,

whereas the official InterNations Events, organized by the Ambassadors, have a general

character and are aimed at the whole community. In order to differentiate your Activity from

the Events, please avoid using the same venues and time slot, if possible.

What you need to keep in mind:

It is not permitted to post Nightlife themed Activities on the same date as the

official InterNations Events

Also please make sure not to use the term “Events” in the title of your Activities in

order to prevent confusion

Depending on the Community, InterNations reserve the right to set a guest list limit

for Professional Networking and Nightlife themed Activities

If in doubt, please check with your Local Ambassador or get in touch with the Activity Groups

Team at activity-groups@internations.org.

1 Format for name tags: A4 9742-100 (97 x 42,3mm)

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3.3 Activity Location

The venue or meeting point of an Activity should preferably be in a central location that is

accessible for all members. Please make sure to choose a location that will make it easy for

the attendees to find your group. If you go to a bar or restaurant, it is best to book a table in

advance.

A lot of places are happy to give you discounts or special offers if you turn up with a larger

group, so do not hesitate to ask for special promotions in return for bringing in a big group of

customers. However, please be aware that it is likely that not everyone on the guest list will

show up at your Activity.

We strongly advise you not to host an Activity at home, as some people might be hesitant to

come to a private residence, especially if they are new to your group. InterNations cannot be

held liable for any damages that might occur. If you do host an Activity at home, this is at

your own risk.

Some group themes, nevertheless, make it necessary to invite members into your home, for

example cooking or game nights. In such cases, we recommend not to hold the initial Activity

at home, so that you can get to know each other in a public place first. Please also always

take the local customs and laws into consideration.

3.4 Organizational Aspects

Costs of Activities

Ideally members can attend an Activity free of charge. However, some of the Activities you

organize may incur expenses (potential costs can e. g. include admission fees for museums

and cinemas, reservation fees for tennis court or transportation costs). Therefore, it is crucial

that you inform your members about the estimated costs of attending. You can do so when

you create your Activity by clicking +Add Price. If there is more than one price category (e.g.

with/without dinner or students/adults) you can add up to three different price options.

If you had any expenses yourself while organizing the Activity (e.g. a room charge, hand-

outs, name tags), you can of course set a cover charge for the attendees. However, please

keep in mind that this is only to cover your expenses and not to provide you with a salary. It

should not represent a general entrance fee to the Activity. In addition, please ensure that all

your expenses are reasonable and comprehensible. Please be as transparent as possible

about where the money is going and what kind of expenses should be covered with it. If an

Activity has a commercial purpose, we will delete it.

In some cases, you might need to receive an advanced payment from your attendees. The

general advice for such Activities: if at all possible, participants should pay at the venue

directly so that you as Group Consul do not carry any financial responsibility.

You have the following options:

- Reservation-only: You could reserve a certain number of seats under your name, and

the attendees of your Activity pay for their ticket at the venue or provider. Please always

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make reservations under your own name and not under “InterNations”, in order to

avoid confusion with the official Events.

- Personal bank transfers / personal collection: To avoid any misunderstanding in your

group, state in the Activity description that people who want to attend should send you

an additional private message and transfer the money in advance. You provide the

members that approach you with your account details, and put them on a separate

offline list once they transferred the money.

- Alternatively, you can collect the money personally at the Event or one of your preceding

Activities. You leave the Activity guest list without a limit, and close it once your second

list is full. Before the Activity, you send a message to all attendees on the Activity´s guest

list that only those who have paid can actually attend.

- If this is not possible, please contact the Activity Groups Team to receive more

information about setting up an external payment system.

Please note that InterNations cannot provide you with an advanced payment or any kind of

remuneration. The role of Group Consul remains a voluntary position. Nor can InterNations

provide you with banners, badges, t-shirts or any kind of sponsorship.

Promotional material

In order for you to be able to promote your group, we have designed general group-themed

flyers (only available for four fields of interest shown below), table signs and empty name

tags for you. To download and print them, click the links below:

DinnerNations

Networking

Sightseeing

Volunteer Program

Table Signs

Name Tags

Note: These flyers are branded InterNations material and should remain unaltered.

Liability

You may have noticed that under each Activity post there is the following short disclaimer:

InterNations cannot in any way be held legally responsible or liable for any property,

financial, physical or emotional damage participants might incur while attending, or resulting

from, this Activity. Participation in any Activity is always at your own risk. No liability will be

assumed for accidents, lost items, theft, or other loss or damage of any kind. InterNations

only provides the infrastructure for our members to organize Activities.

This paragraph will exclude you from assuming liability in the unlikely case anything

happens. That being said, to this day we have had several thousand Activities and not once

did we have any incident that was brought to our attention.

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3.5 During the Activity

Many times, there will be members who are new to your group and attend one of your

Activities for the first time. Please introduce them to the group and make them feel welcome.

In the spirit of InterNations, “Nobody stands alone!”

In case there are members who behave in an inappropriate manner, please let us know by

making use of the Report abuse link provided on InterNations.

4. Your Role as a Group Consul

4.1 The Benefits of Managing an Activity Group

As Group Consul, you are a particularly committed and dedicated member of your Local

Community. You answer the group members’ questions, moderate your group and organize

regular Activities.

In turn, you enjoy a number of benefits:

Your Activity Group enables you in an intuitive way to get together with members who

share your interest or hobby.

You receive a special status in your Local Community, which is indicated by the blue

Consul hat on your InterNations profile.

Your position ensures that you quickly build a local network of contacts and business

partners.

Your regional Activity Groups Manager will support you in all your group management

queries. To get in touch, simply click on the Support button in your group.

You will enjoy a free upgrade to the Albatross membership during your term.

Last but not least, you will have a lot of fun at the Activities!

4.2 The Tasks of a Group Consul

To ensure a great experience for you, your group members and the whole community, we

have decided to state Guidelines for our Activity Groups in addition to the general

InterNations Terms & Conditions.

It is of the utmost importance that you keep them in mind during your time as a Group

Consul:

• The Group Consul shall clearly define the purpose of the group and the Activities he or

she is planning.

• The Group Consul ensures that there are regular Activities taking place in his or her group

(at least once per month).

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• Activities that serve commercial or promotional purposes or that are linked to a business

or organization the host or his/her relatives are associated with are not permitted

• The group and its Activities shall be exclusive to the InterNations network and not be

promoted somewhere else, e.g. on Facebook.

• The Group Consul is to uphold the principle of “freedom of speech” and deal with opinions

neutrally. However, he or she should ensure that discussions in the group stay moderate.

• Please note that Activity Groups are available exclusively to Albatross Members. This also

applies to all Group Activities. The only exception is members using their free trial.

• InterNations reserves the right to remove a Group Consul should he or she not adhere to

these guidelines.

Please also make yourself familiar with the InterNations Activity Guidelines.

All in all, your most important tasks as Group Consul are:

To ensure that there are regular Activities in the group which all group members can

enjoy by either creating them yourself (see 3.1) or by naming up to two further Consuls

who support you (see 4.6).

To guarantee that all the members feel comfortable in your group by regularly checking

the Wall for comments which are offensive or promoting a business and deleting them.

By accepting the role of InterNations Consul you allow us to pass on your email address

to fellow Group Consuls for the purpose of information sharing.

4.3 The Rights of a Group Consul

In order to enable you to manage your group effectively, you enjoy certain additional

administrative rights in your group. As a Group Consul you can

Delete all posts, comments, photos and Activities that were created by regular

group members by moving your cursor over them and clicking the “x”.

Edit your Activities by going to the Activity and clicking on Edit Activity in the left-

hand side menu.

Invite all group members to any Activity you created yourself.

Send out a message to the whole group by going to the Members tab.

Change the name, subtitle, logo and description of your group. However, these

changes will have to be approved by our team, so please send your suggestions to

the Activity Groups Team by email to activity-groups@internations.org.

Invite members from your contact list to become a Consul of your group by

clicking on “Invite another Consul” underneath your profile picture in the group. The

maximum amount of Consuls per group is three.

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4.4 Looking After your Group

Another important task of you as a Group Consul is to ensure that all the members feel

comfortable in your group. For this reason you should check regularly if there are posts,

Activities or photos in the group that do not meet our guidelines because they are

offensive, harassing, racist or discriminatory

pornographic or featuring nudity

promoting a business or an already existing group outside of InterNations

Each time somebody posts on the Wall, a notification is sent out to all group members.

Members can turn off the notifications by going to the Settings on the left-hand side and

clicking on Disable. We recommend that you as Consul leave them on, however, so that you

are advised of news in your group.

To delete a post or a comment on the wall, please click the “x” that appears in the top right

corner when you put your cursor over the post/comment.

A photo is deleted in the same way: move the mouse over the photo you want to delete and

click the “x” that appears in the top right corner. To delete it completely from the group, go to

the “Photos” section and repeat the action.

To delete an Activity, please go on the detailed view of the Activity you want to delete. Now,

please click Delete Activity in the tab menu on the left side of the screen and confirm that

you want to delete the Activity. Please make sure to inform the host about your decision

when you delete the Activity.

If you are unsure about a post, please click on the provided Report abuse link. Your

message will go straight to the Activity Groups Team and, if necessary, we will take

measures.

4.5 Uploading Photos

People love to see pictures that were taken during an Activity they enjoyed. Therefore,

uploading photos is a great way to share them with all attendees and to promote your group.

However, if members do not want their pictures to be taken or uploaded, please respect their

wishes.

Each Activity has its own photo album. You can find it in the Photos section of your group in

the bottom half of the page. Please make sure to upload the photos into the correct album,

so your group members will be able to find them.

To upload a photo, please go to the Photos tab of your group. If you want to upload the

pictures you took at an Activity, please choose the corresponding Activity and click on

Upload Photo. Now the uploader will open. Then, click: choose an image. Note that you

can upload several photos at the same time. Once you have uploaded a picture, you can add

a caption in the line provided below.

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4.6 Sharing the Group Consul Role

Working as a Team

If you feel that you cannot ensure one Activity per month on your own, if you want someone

to help you cope with the management of your group, or if you prefer to work in a team, you

can invite a group member or one of your contacts to become a Consul of your group.

This is a great way to offer a new type of Activities (e.g. an Alpine group where one Consul

manages winter sports Activities, while the other is responsible for hiking Activities).

Moreover, it is important in case you are travelling or unable to organize Activities due to

other commitments.

There is no formal hierarchy amongst the Consuls of a group and all of you share equal

rights and responsibilities. This means that you should choose carefully who you appoint.

Please take the following points into consideration before making a decision:

You should be able to work together as a team, so please only choose a person you

feel comfortable working with.

The person you invite should be aware of the responsibilities that come with being a

Group Consul.

He or she should be reliable, open minded, and a good host.

He or she should not be linked to a business that would profit from his/her function as

a Consul.

The Consul candidate should be aware of our Guidelines, especially concerning the

importance of keeping your Activities Albatross only.

Adding another Consul

To add a fellow Consul, please connect with him or her on InterNations first. Then go to the

group portal and click on Invite another Group Consul underneath your profile picture. The

prospective Consul will get an invitation by email and needs to confirm it via the link that is

provided there. The maximum number of Consuls per group is three.

Once you have invited someone to become Group Consul, you are not able to withdraw this

invitation or change his/her Consul status. However, if the person you invited does not

accept/decline within two weeks, the invitation is discarded.

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5. Contact

If you have any questions or encounter any problems while managing your group, please do

not hesitate to contact our Activity Groups Team. Please also get in touch with your Activity

Group Contact if you are unable to organize Activities for a longer period of time due to other

commitments. You can do so by clicking the Support tab on the group page or by sending an

email to activity-groups@internations.org. For questions concerning Volunteer Groups

please contact the Volunteer Program Team via volunteerprogram@internations.org.

The Activity Groups Managers Adela, Annika, Dominik, Evelyn, Kathrin, Maeve, Morgan,

Susan and Susanne are happy to answer your questions and provide you with assistance!

Please also let them know in case you are prevented from organizing Activities for a longer

period of time due to other commitments.

On behalf of the whole InterNations Team we would like to thank you for becoming Group

Consul. We wish you a wonderful time together at the Activities!

Sincerely,

Your InterNations Groups Team