Thank you for your interest in and initiative to coordinate a local Company of Friends group. This brief, rough guide is an introduction to how you can coordinate a CoF group in your area. It is by no means complete. And it needs your help. If you have comments, additions, or stories to share about coordinating a CoF group, email us at hrow@fastcompany.com. You might also find the 2000 edition of the CoF ToolBook useful.

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How to Start a Company of Friends Group:

• After registering for the CoF, use the Find a Group tool to see if a local group already exists nearby.
• If one does, contact the local coordinator and inquire about the next CoF get-together.
• If a group doesn't already exist, search the participant database -- using the Find a Member tool ---- for other people in your area.
• Email the people in your area to introduce yourself, to inquire whether other people are interested in attending a local get-together, and to express interest in organizing and facilitating a CoF event.
• If people respond favorably, determine a suitable date, time, and location by consensus, if possible. Fast Company encourages CoF group members to select free meeting spaces such as libraries, schools, restaurants, and cafes if the size of the group gathering allows.
• Don't get hung up on an agenda for the first meeting. Fast Company encourages new CoF groups to use their first meeting to meet each other, to get acquainted, to find common interests, and to suss out how future get-togethers will be organized.
• If you want further assistance, feel free to contact CoF coordinators listed on other CoF group pages to draw on their experiences in the readers' network. Or emai us at hrow@fastcompany.com

Guidelines:

1. The Company of Friends network was established to provide Fast Company readers:

• a way to meet other readers who share their interests
• a forum to discuss the magazine and leadership- and innovation-related topics related to the magazine's content
• a network to further local business and community change and improvement

It was *not* intended to provide names to people who wish to promote products or services, to sell directly to CoF participants, or to use their names in any profit-making venture. Fast Company reserves the right to deactivate a CoF member's profile if the use the network improperly. If you're not sure whether what you'd like to do is an appropriate use -- or if you're unsure how fellow participants will respond -- you should probably follow your misgivings and not take that action.

2. If you're hosting a get-together: Feel free to call it a gathering or meeting of the Company of Friends, to call the local group a CoF group, and to use the magazine name. But please don't use our other trademarked slogans or names in promoting your event.

3.Local coordinators of CoF events are VOLUNTEERS. As such, they do not formally represent Fast Company, act as liaisons to readers, or speak for the magazine. CoF coordinators should also not RECEIVE FUNDS for or profit from their participation in the network. If an event is held for which CoF members are charged, it should be to cover expenses only -- to break even. Any leftover funds should be redistributed among the attendees, set aside to fund future events, set aside in a scholarship fund for readers who cannot afford to attend local meetings and events, or given to charity.

4. All local CoF meetings, events, and material discussed there are the sole responsiblity of the local CoF group and its participants. Fast Company accepts no responsiblity for the quality of speakers engaged, information distributed, or character of discussion or debate at those events. Unless we help organize or attend those events. Then we'll share the responsibility.