By Anne Cordon

The Servas “Travel (LOI)” section of your Profile contains your Letter of Introduction (LOI) that you will send to potential hosts in emails or messages when requesting accommodations. The LOI is essentially a summary of a particular trip or a general statement of traveling to an area. Your LOI is important to review and update periodically.

Before editing or adding an LOI, open the “Members” section of your Servas Profile and update the following sections: "About Me," "Interests," "Traveled to," and "Lived in." These sections will automatically transfer to your LOI, so there is no need to repeat this information in the “About My Trip” field when you create or edit your LOI.

You can create and publish customized LOIs for each trip, which can address your travel plans and goals. Your LOI should be current, concise, and give Servas hosts and members a snapshot of yourself. Longer descriptions of you and your interests should be saved for face-to-face conversations.

LOIs should include all the adult Servas members in your household, as well as children under 18, that are traveling on a particular trip. Be sure to add an emergency contact that is someone other than one of the travelers.

Your LOI must have a valid eStamp to prove that you are a current Servas member. If you do not have a valid eStamp and your US Servas membership is current, you need to confirm your profile and then request an eStamp. The April Open Doors article Confused by eStamps and LOIs may be helpful to review.

To confirm your Servas profile, scroll to the “Confirm Profile” section of your Servas profile by clicking the tab or scrolling to the bottom of the Profile page. Click on the green “Confirm Profile” button. Then go to the Travel section of your Profile and look for the Traveler eStamp section. Click on the “Renew” button to request your eStamp. A US Servas volunteer will review your LOI. If your LOI is complete and has a passport-style photo (from the Member section of your Profile) and a confirmed profile, an eStamp will be issued. Each member travelling needs to request an eStamp; all the stamps will appear on the LOI. Please note that you do not have to request an eStamp if you already have a valid eStamp.

Even though your host will have received your LOI in a message or email when you requested accommodations, it is customary and expected that you show your LOI to your Servas hosts in person. Some hosts collect the LOIs in a scrapbook.

When your trip is done, you can choose to delete that trip’s LOI or just unpublish it by clicking “Edit” and scrolling to the bottom to toggle the “Published” button.