FC's readers' network keeps getting bigger -- and more international. Here are dispatches from two new outposts of new-economy thinking.

In Romania, readers have formed the first Company of Friends cell to emerge in a former communist country. And you think finding progressive business thinkers in your company is hard! Ioana Jackie Pelin, 32, cell coordinator, says that the lessons of the new economy will be eagerly received in Romania, where political corruption and instability have hampered the transition to a free-market system. 'There is a hunger for knowledge, mainly because we were denied access to it for so long,' Pelin explains. 'Sometimes I feel like we're missionaries, bringing truth and wisdom to a remote people.'

In Melbourne, Australia, members of a Company of Friends cell are evangelizing to a different group: 12- to 14-year-olds. The cell plans to host a series of career nights at local schools. Peter Tunjic, 29, the Melbourne cell coordinator, says that these career sessions will be geared toward teaching kids about the new economy -- and about the skills that they need to thrive in it. 'We know that we're not going to change the world,' Tunjic says, 'but we hope that students will pick up on the optimism of our group.'

From: April 1999 issue