Belgium (Freija)/ WWOOF Bulgaria ( Catriona)/ WWOOF Czech Republic (Lenka)/ WWOOF Denmark (Anne) / WWOOF Estonia (Aita)/ WWOOF France (David & Alex)/ WWOOF Germany (Anne, Bernhard, Erika, Frank M., Fred, Iris, Ronald, Wilhelmina)/ WWOOF Independents (Carl)/ WWOOF Italy (Bridget & Allan) / WWOOF Portugal (Rodrigo) / WWOOF Spain (Chemi) / WWOOF Sweden (Jandi) / WWOOF Switzerland (Reinhard)
Minutes:
Bernhard of WWOOF Germany (one of the organizers of this meeting) welcomes the participants.
1. Presentation of the national WWOOF- Groups.(for details check their homepages)
2. WWOOF Europe Homepage
WWOOF Europe Homepage is run by Alan (WWOOF Italy)
· The information should be supplied in as many languages as possible
· Because the situation in Europe is changing so fast the pages have to be updated regularly
· Alan is looking for people to help translate the pages. There were many offers of help from people at the meeting.
3. Insurance In Italy every WWOOFER is insured by joining WWOOF-Italy. Alan informs about an Italian Insurance Association OVEuropa which provides insurance in all countries except Canada and USA. (25,00 per year). It supplies protection for WWOOFers and hosts. The insurance is voluntary. This insurance covers:
· third party damages
· personal damages up to 50.000
· medical costs
4. Criteria for becoming a WWOOF host:
There was a basic agreement that
· only organic farms should be members of WWOOF (not necessarily certified)
· small holdings promoting the WWOOF idea and leading sustainable lives are accepted
· complaints of WWOOFers should be verified because we are responsible of supplying accurate information.
5. Information about the Independents list
The current WWOOF Independents list was started by John Cant in the mid 90's and it was initially based on the WWOOF Australia overseas list. His project became too big too fast so he asked WWOOF UK to take on the work of administration.
At the 2000 WWOOF Coordinators conference in the UK an agreement was made between all coordinators to make one Independents list. The printed list was to be produced by WWOOF Australia and the Online list produced by WWOOF UK. But the follow-up did not work out. It is not clear why this cooperation didn't work out. A commuication breakdown followed. In the meantime WWOOF UK had invested lots of time and money creating the Independents list/operation. The current lists of WWOOF Independents and WWOOF Australia are not indentical. In recent times a dialgue has started between WWOOF Independents and WWOOF Australia. They are slowly working to harmonise the list. Recently they started sharing information regarding host complaints.
6. Mailing lists in packages
Mainly 2 proposals were suggested:
Bilaterial communication ( 2 neigbouring countries e.g. Portugal and Spain produce a common farmlist)
The Independents-list is sent in a package with a national list for no extra fee.
7. Report of the international meeting in Japan (Oct. 2006)
Alan gave an explanation of how the Japan meeting had gone
The meeting had been very scheduled with a very exact agenda which was mostly about things that had already been discussed before, for example What is a WWOOF group? How should it be run, What should it do?, which we all agreed to. When the disucussion came to setting up the IWA we began to disagree, here was much discussion but no agreement so we just decided to go on to other things and talk about it again when the IWA was set up and running properly. We decided to put together some questions to ask all the WWOOF groups about how they worked and what they thought of an IWA. This would be done in a round of consultation.The results would then become part of a second consultaation about forming this IWA.
8. Do we want the IWA ? Do we need the IWA ?
Alan explained the activity that had happened since the Japan meeting and explained that he thought the problem was suspicion and lack of trust between some of the groups, and this suspicion made it impossible to set up an IWA that would be able to function. This suspicion was because of the Independents list and who it was run by.
After much discussion the opinion of the meeting was that
"We agree with the spirit of an IWA but we don΄t see the immediate necessity or the possibilty of taking this step at the present time." We felt that this issue was important enough to require a formal vote. The result is below:
Bulgaria No
Czech - No
Denmark - No
Estonia No
France Yes
Germany No
Italy No
Portugal No
Spain No
Sweden No
Switzerland No
UK/Independents No
The idea of creating three regions, Americas, Europe and Africa and Asia with the experienced groups in each region taking on the task of looking after the independent hosts in their region was discussed and we felt that this idea had possibilities but the first problem was how the list was run now The general feeling was that there should be only one WorldWide/Independents list which should not be affiliated with UK or Australia, and we ask both UK and Australia to consider our request to allow Independents to become an independent organisation.
9. Coordination of WWOOF-groups
WWOOF Sweden offers to link a data-base and website, which is already successfully used by WWOOF-Sweden. Support of new groups
A yahoo-group for the coordinators to stay in contact and to send news-letters will be up and running by Cat and Reinhard (they will be the moderators). When you receive your e-mail to confirm your registration click the link and register.
WWOOF Bulgaria gives advice to Romania for setting WWOOF Romania.
Hosts should be encouraged to become members of their national WWOOF-groups.
To help new WWOOF-groups information/ads should be put up in newsletters or on the homepages of other WWOOF-groups.
10. Next European WWOOF- Meeting
will be in the summer of 2009 in Sweden (alternative: in Denmark).
National funds should be set be up for covering the costs.
WWOOF Czech-Rep. (Lenka) will try to get financial support from e.g. "Youth Europe".
11. Problems with WWOOF Korea
WWOOF Korea has the appearance of a travel agency
People who paid the fee did not receive the list
The newsletters should warn people not to send money to WWOOF Korea
It was noted that Glenn of Japan is already dealing with the Korean situation and that we should refer to him for more information.
12. Legal problems
A group of 5 (Carl, David, Chemi, Alan, Jandi) will work on the issue "Legal situation of volunteer work concerning whole Europe".
13. Membership yes or no ?
In most countries you have to become a member of the national WWOOF in order to get their farmlist. We think it is important to have the WWOOFers` names and addresses, in case there are complaints of the hosts.
14. Problems with WWOOFers:
Motivation:
The communication between the host and the WWOOFer should be clear to avoid disappointment on either side. Visa (letter of invitation):
Denmark asks for a copy of the visa before accepting the volunteer. They recommend to their hosts to check about the visa.
Iris and Erika from WWOOF-Germany
Sohrschied, May 6, 2008