When you sign up for the Company of Friends, you gain access to the network's online connection, communication, and collaboration tools.
You also gain access to several of the network's online tools. You can create a CoF bizcard -- your public CoF profile and digital business card. You can find other members in the CoF based on industry, interests, and geographic location. And you can access a directory of existing local special interest groups.
After signing up for the CoF, you can formally associate with a local or special interest group -- a local or industry-related group of CoF members. Associating with a group gives you direct access to that group's home base, as well as access to its calendar of current events, online discussion forum, archive of minutes and notes, and directory of local participants. It also adds you to the mailing list CoF coordinators use to announce CoF events and activities and distribute group-specific news and notes. And depending on how you set your subscription preferences, you can communicate with other CoF members via a many-to-many mailing list.
If there isn't a local CoF group in your area when you sign up for the CoF, you can help start one. This handbook can help you do so. Initially, volunteer coordinators serve as CoF organizers, facilitators, and leaders. But as groups mature, many groups opt to follow a distributed or syndicated leadership model in which coordination team -- a planning or steering committee -- handles the group's logistical operations and scheduling. Then the volunteer coordinator -- which might become a floating role -- serves as a point of contact for new CoF members and Fast Company staff -- and as a tender of the group's home base.
Coordination team members can add events to the calendar of events, add event reports to the archive of minutes and notes, and email everyone associated with a group. Possible shared leadership roles are detailed below.
... NEXT
