Hello everyone, it's that time of the week again, Team Australia update time! Woo!

I'm going to start off with my own exciting news. Next Wednesday I'm off to Florida for a girls' week with my steemit bestie @kubbyelizabeth, which I'm super excited about. I'll be flying into Miami and she's meeting me there, where we'll spend two nights. Then we're heading back to her place in the Fort Lauderdale area for the unofficial Minnow Support Project (MSP) St Paddy's Day piss up meet-up on the Saturday. 

This meet-up is international since I'm flying in and and so is @crimsonclad (from Canada). We also have @scaredycatguide, @lenadr, and now @aggroed joining us, although @crimsonclad and @aggroed may just be coming for the good weather. Some others may also be coming but haven't confirmed yet. 

Then @kubbyelizabeth, @lenadr and I are heading north to Orlando for possibly our second meet-up (not Jerry's 'banfest' in case you're wondering) and I'll fly back to Panama from there. It's going to be SO much fun meeting all these MSP/Discord legends. And it will be my third steemit meet-up in a third country. 

I. Can't. Wait.

Feature photo

Today's feature photo comes courtesy of @kieranstone and is of Heart Reef in the beautiful Whitsundays, Queensland. If you like what you see, please upvote it here.

Meet-ups

Last Sunday Brisbane Sunshine Coast and Perth had their meet-ups. 

Brisbane

credit: @trudeehunter

There was a good turn out for Brisbane—six steemians (and some friends/partners by the looks). However, only ONE of the them actually lives in Brisbane, with the bulk of people coming down from the Sunshine Coast. Top marks to @juicy-shark for coming up from the Gold Coast for a second time. Seriously though you guys, there are enough of you on the Gold and Sunshine coasts that you could save on petrol money and meet somewhere a bit more local if you wanted.

Check out @melissakellie's vlog here and @trudeehunter's post here.

Given that only one local Brissy steemian showed, I stand by all my earlier comments about the half-arsedness of Brisbane at doing anything. You have not redeemed yourself today fair river city. Go to the back of the class with Sydney.

 Perth

credit: @superoo7

A few hours later the steemians of the west gathered for their inaugural meet-up and they had a great turn out. Nine of them showed (plus @nathanmj briefly) and they found each other thanks to @ryivhnn's awesome steemit blue hair that she got done especially for the day. 

See @bmj's post here, @superoo7's post here and @insideoutlet's post here. 

Upcoming meet-up

Melbourne's Random Drinks is on again this Thursday 8 March from 6:30 pm at Father's Office. Details here. 

Mentoring

This project was started by @buggedout a couple of weeks ago with the intention of getting more experienced steemians to help out the newbies. It is not a formal project like the one your boss would sign you up to, so it should be something that both parties actually enjoy. 

Its purpose is to help build a stronger Team Australia community so I'm pretty much going to plug this on a regular basis going forward. I'm sure a bunch of you are already doing it anyway by following new people you like, upvoting their posts, leaving comments to encourage interaction, and generally helping to make steemit seem a bit less daunting. 

@buggedout just wrote an update post here, so please check it out.

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

@quochuy is of Vietnamese of origin, born in Lao, a French citizen, and currently living in Gosford. He's a web developer who speaks French, English and Vietnamese.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"My name is Huy which is Vietnamese and people have pronounced it in all sort of ways: Huai, Huey, Hoy, Yuh, Yo, Hoo... the almost correct way would be Huey."

Lol, nothing like a proper Vietnamese name to confuse the masses. I don't know how to pronounce Pho either, except I know I'm pronouncing it wrong.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@pandanwaffle is from Sydney. She likes the Vietnamese pastries pandan waffles—hence the name—and pork rolls.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I can honestly say that I have been bitten by a shark... even though it was a baby one... at the aquarium... and it had no teeth."

It sounds more like it sucked on your finger or arm or whatever than actually bit you. But I like your fun fact. It's got good potential for embellishment. 

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@roscoeh is a software developer from Brisbane. His love of computers started at age seven playing Whacky Wheels. In recent years he's focused more on web development.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"@aoart and I are collaborating to make a cryptocollectable called pixel.flowers. It's in very early stages of development so stay tuned for more details."

Hmm, this sounds less like a fun fact and more like a plug for your project. 

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@deanboz is @sanctus' mate and lives in Sydney. He's about to start a university course in advanced computing.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I played handball with Kevin '07 (Kevin Rudd) in a school trip visit during his tenure as prime minister!"

Nice. He used to have his office in the same building I worked in in Brisbane. You could always tell when he was there, cos they'd stick all these 2m tall, built-like-a-brick-shithouse goons on the doors to keep out the protesters.

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@straycat was born in Hong Kong, moved to New Zealand at age 13, then to Rockhampton after she got married. It turns out Australia's beef capital wasn't for her and she now lives in Brisbane.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I really love cats, hence @straycat. My ideal retirement home will have 15+ cats, and I'll be 'that old cat lady' next door."

# lifegoals

Candidate 6

Name and bio

@foodforsoul is a friend of @family.life and @tomekkk. She is into cooking and baking and has completed an advanced course in cake decoration.

Intro post here. 

 Fun fact

"I must admit that I can burp louder than anyone in my family including all the men!"

Lol. Nice. Much to my mother's disgust, I used to be able to burp the alphabet when I was a kid. W is the hardest letter to get out obviously.

Candidate 7

Name and bio 

@superoo7 is a Malaysian student studying electronics engineering in Perth. He also claims to be a jack of all trades and master of none.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I achieved most of the things above things on steemit, isn't that amazing? (P.S. and I got "paid".)"

Yeah, I don't know about this non standalone fact. Now people are going to have to look at your intro post if they want to know what you're talking about. I might have to close this loophole.  

Candidate 8

Name and bio

@leftamessage lives in Victoria somewhere (Gippsland perhaps based on an uploaded drone vlog?). No information is revealed in his/her intro post but from scrolling through posts I see that s/he is the parent of a 15-year-old, and s/he likes writing angry letters to electricity companies. 

Intro post here.  

Fun fact

"I was walking up to a bar with a friend when a barmaid approached. "This is Bec," my friend said. I looked at the barmaid and smiled "Hi Bec" I said to the bemused girl. My friend burst into uncontrolled laughter and pointed to the speaker above the bar. "No, the music, it's Beck," they said.

I can see how this could happen. Funny for them. Probably a bit less so for you.

Candidate 9

Name and bio

@lifeofryan is an engineer on an Australian marine research vessel. When he's not at sea, he's either on the Sunshine Coast or in Hobart. The best thing he's discovered so far is a worm that looks like a dick.

Intro post (including the dick worm) here. 

Fun fact

"I was once asked by a shifty bloke with a facial scar while waiting at centrelink in Launceston if I wanted to make 10 grand for a night's work... didn't take it... maybe should have."

Hmm. I think you should have at least asked him what he wanted you to do. Now I'm curious.

Candidate 10

Name and bio

@cushion is from Bacchus Marsh, Victoria and @dealsy's mate. He's a manager of a small IT support business, who likes computers and guitars. 

Fun fact

"I've been a vegetarian for four years and I plan on becoming vegan soon!" 

Do it! You won't regret it. And once you do you'll wonder why it took you so long to upgrade.

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 dividers by @kristyglas