Hi everyone, it's been two weeks since the last update, mostly because there haven't been that many Aussies getting back to me with regards to joining. It seems that the interest in Team Australia is directly correlated to the price of steem.

Feature photo

Today's gorgeous photo comes from @kieranstone and is of the 12 Apostles, along the Great Ocean Road, Victoria. If you like it then go upvote it here.

Meet-ups

Adelaide 

Australia's steemit capital had it's end of month drinks on the 29 March with it's lowest turn out yet—15. Steemit mascot @rustle made his debut, appearing in a bunch of selfies and stealing beers before heading off to Sydney with @ratticus.

Credit: @holoz0r

Melbourne

The next meet-up is scheduled for Saturday 14 April from 3pm at Father's Office bar. Info here.

@ratticus will be in attendance making him the first Aussie to go to meet-ups in three different states, and he will be bringing @rustle with him. Guard your beers Melbournians.

ANZAC Day

These comps are still going if you're interested. The karaoke competition, which has a couple of entries already was summarised in a post this week by @bmj.

@ravenruis' ANZAC soldier writing challenge is also still on. Info here. 

Curie's call for help

As some/most of you know, one of the steemit hats I wear is 'curie curator'. @curie is the oldest and largest curation guide on steemit, with a focus on upvoting undiscovered and undervalued content. It's a cool job and I love doing it. One things we get out of it as curators is feedback from people who've been curied. It's really inspiring to hear how a big upvote has changed someone's views of the platform, or in some cases, their lives. As such, we've launched the tag mycuriestory. It's a way for people to share their stories of what @curie means to them. @holoz0r was one of the first people to post his curie story. I know quite a lot of other Team Australia members have received @curie upvotes as well—hell, I've curied a bunch of you. If this meant something to you, like staying on the platform for instance, we'd really love to hear about it.

@curie has also lost its spot as a Top 20 witness due to some technicalities that were experienced last week. Although the server problems have been resolved the damage was done and several large votes were lost. This combined with losing some big delegations over the past couple of months is having an impact of @curie's operations now. You may have noticed the upvotes aren't as big as they once were. In an attempt to turn this around we've put out a call out for delegations and witness votes. This post sets out our case and provides some statistics on the impact of @curie in terms of user engagement and retention. We are hoping that by showing people the value of @curie though mycuriestory and via our statistics, it will encourage community support of the project. Please check it out feel free to ask questions if you have them.

Mentoring

Given the slowdown in the number of people joining Team Australia at the moment, @buggedout has chosen to put the mentoring project on hiatus. But before he goes, congrats to @lordnigel who volunteered to mentor @what-is-life back in February and won himself a silver STEEM Round as a result.

The usual community notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising and rewarding Aussie creativity by curating quality content.

Check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are here. Come say hi in the #teamaustralia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. 

You should consider voting for the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting the MSP project off the ground. 

Lastly, if you're feeling generous, you can delegate SP to the Team Australia upvote bots @centerlink and/or @mrsquiggle (or any other bot you like) using Vessel. You can delegate to any of the MSP bots using this link.   

Candidate 1

Name and bio

@linnyplant is a software consultant from Melbourne whose interests include writing, reading, running, and cycling.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I'm a disorganized, 'introverted' chatter-box who is mesmerized by colorful lights, loves chocolate, old junky/ tacky/ kitsch/ retro/ mid-century stuff, reading romance novels and is addicted to diet-coke.

Hmm, can you be an introverted chatterbox? I thought being introverted meant the opposite?

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@happycelia is @chenlocus' daughter and she lives in Melbourne. When she's not at school she likes to write stories.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I love creative stuff, especially things that people make and are unique, not like others who just want to show off by being popular. I also like persuasive writing."

Nice. I read some of your short stories and they were pretty good.

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@khagen8te is from Adelaide and @lordnigel's mate. He once sold Shaun Micallef a Walkman and served Thandie Newton (Westworld) a beer.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"Friends and I were walking back from a cinema in town and I was twirling a tiny replica gun-lighter whilst lighting a cigarette heading back to our car. A lady must've reported to the authorities there was a 'gun wielding' young male just off Pirie St. We were actually driving out of the car park and into a connecting side street when my friend who was driving kind of shrieked in terror as five fully-equipped, automatic weapon bearing Star force officers materialized out of thin air stopped the car, removed us (very meekly) from said car and hand-cuffed us on the ground. After a tense situation, it was clearly identified that the weapon in question was a gun lighter I had bought on holiday in Indonesia."

That is an awesome story. I like it a lot.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@riverflows is a qualified yoga teacher from the Surfcoast, Victoria. She's into surfing, paddleboarding, writing and literature, and used to live in a decked-out old truck back in England.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I knew a guy for three days and we decided we were going to get married, so I went back to Australia, packed up everything I had, and moved to the UK to be with him, and we got married eight months later. He only had a truck and £90 to his name, and I had a five year old, who he hadn't met. I guess you can say I'm a bit impulsive at times, but my Dad said the other day that if it wasn't for my enthusiasm and 'loudness' at times we'd be a very different family. I think he meant that in a really nice way."

I love that story of how you met your husband. Risky obviously, but fun. And so far it's worked out so that's good.

Congratulations everyone, you're now part of Team Australia

The rules for joining Team Australia

If you’re not yet a member and want to be, this is what you need to do:

1. Vote here for our resident steemit witness and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank.
2. Send me your introduction post so I can find out a bit about you. If you’re new to steemit you'll have to write one so use the introduceyourself and teamaustralia tags to help boost your following. Use this handy guide by @teamsteem if you don't know what to write.
3. If it’s not mentioned in your introductory post, tell me which city and country you’re in, cos let's face it, a lot of us live in Australia's fourth largest city—London. You need to have a connection to Australia to join.
4. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe you have eight kids and three dogs, or you rode your bike across America, or you won the blue ribbon for javelin throwing at sports day back in high school, or Toadie came into the pub you work at one day and you served him a beer, or, maybe you can fit 55 maltesers in your mouth like Ed Sheeran can. It doesn’t matter what it is, I want a fun fact about you! The more fun, the better.
5. Regularly check the Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote/follow the content you like. You can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in steemauto. Instructions are here.
6. Comment below or DM me in PAL-Discord that you want to join.

Once I receive this information I will try my best to write a good introductory paragraph about you for the official Team Australia membership updates. So the better your information is, the better I can make you sound. Where relevant, please use the teamaustralia and australia tags to promote your work. I will try and post weekly updates. 

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia footer by @bearone

Page divider by @kristyglas