I have a question about Local guides emails. Last year, I got an email saying that all Local guides level 5 and up could apply for the Connect Live event. That’s honestly the first time I had ever heard of the event and luckily I actually got selected for the Connect Live event 2018. I’ve never been more thankful in my entire life and ever since I’ve been working to improve my Local guiding.
This year, though, I noticed I didn’t receive such an email. This became clear to me when my partner received this email:
I was kind of surprised that I didn’t receive an email telling me that the application period was starting. Luckily I hang out here at Connect and could find all info I wanted on here but was still a little bit confused by not receiving an email about it.
My email preferences are set to send me all kinds of emails (in Swedish):
@ErmesT Thanks for your help Ermes! Yes, I’ve checked my spam folder and I’ve never seen anything from Google, Google maps or Local guides in there (guess that’s quite understandable since I use Gmail). And yes, I still receive other of my Local guide updates, such as the summary for March which I received around midnight tonight.
Hi @Linnea the event organiser is @brittym who may be able to help.
Because of what I do for a living, I can add that email is a chance delivery at best, a bit like your local snail mail deliveries. It might get there through a bunch of mutual arrangements but it might not. There can be network faults, virus scanners, spam detectors and all sorts of things that might cause an email to not be delivered or not be visible if it is delivered. Check your spam/junk folders.
@PaulPavlinovich thank you Paul for your reply. I checked my spam folder, of course, when I realized I missed out on that email. Sadly didn’t find it there either. (Kudos to Gmail btw that has like the best spam filter ever, I never get any legit emails stuck in spam and I never see spam in my inbox )
Hi @Linnea : All Local Guides who are Levels 5+, who are 21+ by the event start date, and who speak English are eligible to apply. Be sure you’re subscribed to emails about Perks and also check your spam folder. You can apply whether or not you got the email here.
@brittym Thank you, Brittany! I’m already done with my application and I got the information I needed since I’m often here on Connect and keep myself updated. I also checked so that I was subscribed to the email, which I was and still am, and I’ve checked my spam folder. So my mystery still remains in why I didn’t receive that particular email, when I was expecting it
@AccedeToVegan thanks for your comment, your thought and opinions are interesting and I definitely see your point.
Although, I don’t see Connect as the forum for me to have rather harsh discussions, not about environment or anything else for that matter. Political correctness is something I really appreciate and not because I can’t take to hear what people really think but because I think it brings professionalism into the discussion.
Great idea about having an event in Europe and that is train-only-traveling, the problem I see with that though is the fact that some people will have very hard to attend, like South- and North Americans, Australians etc. But if you have good arguments for your idea, make sure to post it on the idea exchange board here on Connect. People might be interested and vote you up!
As far as I’m concerned, many local guides has gone the more than one Connect event. The whole idea of the event is just what I think is dangerous when it comes to saying “stop flying”, how are we supposed to connect with each other if we can’t meet? I’m of the opinion that I think the world would get a way bigger problem if people stopped traveling and just stayed in one place. Climate compensation for flying is a great idea that many uses. Stop flying domestic flights is another one, I just recently went by train Stockholm - Umeå and back and I absolutely think it’s worth it even though it’s 6,5 hours of traveling instead of 1 hour by air.
Thanks again for your comment, but I would gladly see a softer tone in my comment section
Are Local Guides who were invited to attend an event before eligible to apply for Connect Live 2019? All applicants will be considered based on the factors listed above. Attending a previous event neither guarantees nor disqualifies a Local Guide from being eligible to attend Connect Live 2019.
So, thank you for applying, Linnéa. I applied too. Finger crossed for both of us
Being respectful of others is one of the basic rules of every community, and is also one of the Five Core Values of Connect
I agree @Linnea and @ErmesT people like @AccedeToVegan can have any thoughts they want and they can feel free to scuttle their own chances of going to any hosted event by not following the Core Values of Connect. Each person’s attitude towards life is entirely up to them.
@AccedeToVegan being abrupt and harsh doesn’t change the world. It doesn’t change thinking. It closes doors. If someone speaks to me nicely about any topic I’ll happily chat and have a good natured argument if a debate is reasonable. I don’t bother with people who cannot entertain any other viewpoint than their own and conversations are harsh and one sided. Ermes knows that he and I while we share similar views on many things we definitely don’t agree on everything and we don’t have to - we can still be mates because we’re good natured to each other and willing to consider each other’s viewpoint in a discussion.
Where I do draw the line is spreading misinformation and there are several points in that post that are simply not correct such as how many events you can go to - I echo our chief Traci’s words when I say that there is no advantage or disadvantage in the application review process to having gone before. Every Local Guide who meets the criteria including here on Connect is welcome to apply and has an equal chance as anyone else to be selected. Google do not allow people to pay to come to the events. Many people have asked over the years and the answer has always been no. Its not about cost its about the logistics of housing, feeding and entertaining this year 200 people and its also about equality. It wouldn’t be fair to someone who cannot afford to pay to allow someone who can afford to pay to come. It wouldn’t be fair in many cases to that person’s family as the family could likely need the money for something else. Google do have open pay events like I/O which is on right now. Anyone can go to that and they’re huge but they don’t house or feed you outside the conference hours.
It would certainly be nice to not have to fly, I personally hate flying and 15 hours floating around in the stratosphere isn’t exactly exciting not to mention the many hours of travel and airport time, however the event is so important to me that I will willingly make that sacrifice to be able to have a directing involvement in Local Guides program for the coming year and to spend time with so many friends old and new.
So in my final thoughts @AccedeToVegan you’re free to express your views here on Connect providing the information you’re delivering is correct, in context and on Topics that are suitable for Connect. As an example, if you’d like to share some images of a vegan meal that you’ve enjoyed from a business and you shared a couple of photos, the story of the place and even how the meal made you feel to Local Stories or Food & Drink then that is a wonderful use of Connect and by sharing a positive vegan post you’d make people think a little bit about their own consumption. An in your face “meat is murder” type post belongs on your social network not here on Connect. Same message, but different context, one is ok, one isn’t.
@ErmesT I had not seen the five core values post before so thank you for drawing my attention to it. Im glad to see that we have such a good set of values guidelines
@Linnea I sympathise with your angst. I don’t think I got an invite last year but because of @PaulPavlinovich I found out about it and went ahead and applied. But to top it off I didn’t even get a response to say that they received my application. I knew they must have received it because I thought I’d double check and try to go back into it but it said I’d already applied so phew!
THEN I didn’t hear from them until I got an email saying that they were still waiting for my response to something like flights or NDA or something and that was when I KNEW for sure I’d been picked! LOL.
So I was still uncertain about it all until the very end when I heard back from the travel agent and my flight was booked! Ah well, hope you don’t have to go though that. And I hope I don’t go though that this year.
At least this year I got the official invite. Yay.
the community is built on Values, that are our core values, being Local Guides.
We have rules, of course, but all the rules started from simple, basic, elementary values that we can summarize in a single word, with different declination. The word is respect, easy to remember, hopefully easy to apply
)
