Being a cooperating group means being willing to send your group's current info once a month to scenelink. That's it, nothing more to do, ever.

This page explains why we have coop groups, and how to become one. Once you check this page out and decide you want to particpate...

What ARE cooperating groups?

Coop groups are scene groups that think scenelink is a cool idea. They're groups that think it's cool enough that they want to help out in the easiest way they can. They're groups that can see it's in their own best interest to become a cooperating group. There's no requirement for being a coop group, if you're a scene group, just fill out the info on the coop acceptance page and you're in.

Being a coop group doesn't mean changing anything, except that you agree to make a small effort to help scenelink in one tiny little way, by sending us an update on your group so that we can maintain the scene index. Sure, maybe we could keep track of everyone's nfo, releases, announcements, and retirements, but wouldn't it be a hell of a lot easier if you kept track of your own group?

What do coop groups have to do?

There are actually two things,
1) Coop groups need to fill out the index submission form once a month. This is how you send all your announcements and updates to us, and this is what ends up becoming your group's entry in the scene index. It should take about 5 minutes per month to fill out.

2) Coop groups need to pick one member of their group who will be the "contact person." This is the person scenelink will ask whenever we have questions. They're also the only person in your group who ever needs to think about scenelink. At the very most they will get a short coop group listserv from us once a week, and they'll have to fill in the index submission form once a month. Scenelink will remind everyone about deadlines, all you have to do is want to participate.

What do coop groups get out of this?

For starters, you get the satisfaction of knowing that you're helping to make this cooperative project between groups possible. But you get tangible stuff too, like...

Your group gets an entry in the scene index, where you can display your nfo, releases, announcements, and anything you want. It's a way of making it easy for people to keep track of your group, and you provide all the info so there's no problem with your security.

Your group gets a login / pass for putting news announcements on the front page of scenelink.
You get updates from scenelink, and special correspondence sent only to scene groups. If something big is about to happen that can't be shared with the world, you'll be one for the first to know.
Just remember that for all these benefits you spend 5 minutes a month, isn't that 5 minutes well spent?

Your group becomes part of the scene council for your scene organized by scenelink. You get invited to meetings, the opportunity to voice your opinion, and a vote. Participation is entirely optional, but it's there.

How do you sign up as a coop group?

You need to do three things.
1) Read this page
2) Choose someone as a contact person from your group
3) Have that contact person answer the questions on the coop acceptance page

we will email the contact person with all the specifics of when, how, and what to do once you're a coop group.

What else should coop groups know?

Being a coop group is really straightforward, but here's some non essential information that might be of interest.

To get more info about being a coop group...
Read the coop group details page for a longer explanation

Tell everyone about scenelink...
Advertising for scenelink would help a lot. If you want to add our banner to your site, put us in your nfo, or anything else, go to the scenelink publicity page and find out how.

Tell your friends about scenelink...
We need help recruiting new coop groups, so try to convince everyone you know to at least check out this page. If you're having a hard time convincing them, email us and we'll talk to them personally.

To contact scenelink...
1) Email us at submit@scenelink.org
2) visit #scenelink on efnet
3) visit www.scenelink.org
4) snail mail us at: Scenelink, PO Box 204567, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

and thanks for reading all this, without your help scenelink wouldn't be possible