I am a freelance trainer. I like cycling. And being in a garden.
Plus I like relaxed, healthy meals, prepaired by couchsurfers.

(If you host me, I often propose to make an "omelet aux poireaux".
I often arrived with eggs and leak at couchsurfers their kitchen.
And made an omelet. Plus enjoyed relaxed meals together.)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I surfed people their couches (already before internet-era)
I've had excellent experiences.

Offering our couch.
More extented information you can find on www.bewelcome.org/members/roelguldemond.

I am not VERIFIED

I advice you not NOT get VERIFIED.
CS promotes to be VERIFIED.
Why?
To cover costs?
CS is not open in what is done with the money they collect from us.
Us who open up doors for free.
How much money is involved?

(Note march 2018:
Some years ago I read verifying costed €17.65.
On march 2018 I tried to find how much it costs in 2018.
I had to search, but can not find a clear indicatation on how much it costs in 2018
I did saw a little line reading just before you can click to enter the data of your credit card:
"Just €54 for life helps you meet the world."
Does this mean that it costs €54 in 2018 ? ? ?

A price raise from €17.65 to €54!
Nearly 3 times the price of about 3 years!
Why?
Nowhere CS gives an explanation!!
Strange management of what is pictured as a community.)

If 500.000 members paid €17.65, about 8.800.000 euro has been collected.
(Is that true? 500.000 x €20 is 10 with 6 zeros: 10 000 000 million euro.
So yes, about more than 8 million euro)
What can you do with 8 million euro?
For example one can hire people.
If you hire somebody for € 25.000 a year.
Then 8.825.000 euro / 25.000 is about 8000 / 25, that is more than hiring 300 people on a yearly basis.
300 people in order to run this website.
If you are with 30 people for 25.000 euro a year.
You can pay such a crew during 10 years.

From the other side I also do not mention the income of advertising.
Non verified people do see advertisements.
I have no information on what advertising brings.
I just have the idea that hosting the CS-site can be managed by make sound agreements with the organisations which are advertising nowadays on the renewed CS-site as I see it since 2015.

Sure these are rough calculations.
I do not mention costs like taxes, hosting, hiring consultants for tax, marketing consults etc.
Or rent a period a house in Turkey.
I once read a rumour that the crew who run CS had been renting a house to come together to plan how to improve CS.
I once read in the old forums that somebody went through the accounts and saw that the fee for a gym was paid with money of CS-community.
I do not check these informations.
But if it becomes common practice that people who are managing CS are paying parts of their daily costs from the money collected: show it.
Nothing wrong with the fact that the baker where I buy my bread is spending his money on what he wants with the profit he made on selling me some breads. And a lot of breads to my neighbours.
As long as he my baker is not pretending that we are a community in which we are doing free favours for each other.

Since 2015 the CS-site is showing no information to me on how the community functions.

But apparently CS-owners do see this service as a business.
Nothing wrong with businesses.
But if you act like a business I find it a proper way that CS presents itself as a business.
Now CS is is pictured as a community where members do have a say in what the community is doing.
This is not the case.
If you have a profile on CS you are not heard.
You do not have influence.
Instead it is promoted to pay voor VERIFICATION.
In 2018 I see a lot of statements of people on the CS-site that VERIFICATION is helping to have a better user experience of couchsurfing.
And if this is through.
It is only part of the effects of VERIFICATION.
A lot of small amounts or money are going to the people who manage CS.
But nowhere I find on the CS-site a possibility to see how CS is managed.
People who had remarks in fora, can not anymore.
And on the site in 2018 I read "our values" :
1. Share Your Life
2. Create Connection
3. Offer Kindness
4. Stay Curious
5. Leave It Better Than You Found It

I do not like the functioning of CS today.

Since the introduction of a renewed website early 2015 I see advertisments on CS-site. Since I am not verified. I read that if I verify, I will not see advertisments.
So advertiments where introduced on the new CS-site early 2015.
And there are also things which are disappeared.
I do not find possibilities on CS-site to exchange thoughts with other CS-members.
I remember that there where other CS-members who where expressing their thoughts and opinions on the CS-communtiy.
Since early 2015 I only see editorials written by anonymous people. Who are those people? It is not made clear. Nowadays all the CS-site seems to be the one happy family. Like the happy families of all those organisations whose advertisments can be seen everywhere.
The image that a Coca cola is refreshing you.
Coca cola is not good food.
Like the happy Marlboro-cowboy, which used to appear everywhere, enjoying a Marlboro-cigarette.
I worked at Marlboro producer Philip Morris, and have seen some rather bizar happenings.

And all those other advertisments which I do not like.

But what happened to the criticism of CS-members?
Has CS become a happy family, where everybody agrees with everybody?

I do not see where on the new CS-site I can express my thoughts.
I can not read opinions of other CS-members.
So that is why I encourage you, NOT to pay by getting VERIFIED.
I offer my couch for free.
If an organisation as CouchSurfing needs to pay costs : tell us open, and ask for the money. And show open what you do with the money.
Or present yourself as a business.

(last revisted : june 2018)

Interests

a) Add value by implementing IT-systems
b) Cycling
c) Gardening

• white wine
• gardening
• cycling
• freelancing

Music, Movies, and Books

Music:
"Let it Bleed" of Rolling Stones was first record which impressed me.
And I am impressed by the music played by my sons (they got their talent via their mother). My daughter? She is as gifted as me I suppose: we both listen...

Books:
Franz Kafka's "Das Proces" impressed me.
And I have lots of books I would like read.
Summer 2009 finally I read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow".

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A young child in warm, dusty outskirts in Cairo, Egypt. In May 1981. Flies all over her head. Only wearing a dirty white shirt. We shared a moment of intens eye-contact, at the very same moment I noticed she was letting her urine flow, as she stood there.
At that moment I thought: "What kind of life she has?" The older I get, the more often I am wondering how she is doing now.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can advise you on:
. Setting up, or improving, web sites
. Attracking visitors to your site
. Avoid spam in a decent way
. ... or any other issues around this areas: like stabilise internet access, improve the capacity of your computer, etc. etc.
I might teach a bit on how you can learn to improve these issues.

I like to share a meal with you. I often offer to take care for a meal. If you allow me your kitchen I prepare a meal. I have prepared in more occasions a very simple "omelet aux poireau"/"leak omelet"/"prei-omelet".

What I Can Share with Hosts

A maximum of freedom.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Netherlands

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