Start-up meetings can be hosted by anyone who wants to do this, and they can happen anywhere: at a community center, a school, a coffee shop, a workplace, a house of worship, or in someone's home. All you need is the desire to bring people together, and a place in which to do it. Asking a friend to co-host with you might be helpful.

The first and most important thing to do is find a place and set a date for the meeting. (When you post your meeting, you can specify the maximum number of people who can sign up, so a room of any size will do.)

As you plan your meeting, feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions. We'll be happy to help in any way we can, and we'll also be reporting daily on the Idealist homepage about how this initiative is going, sending you more ideas over the next few weeks, and supporting you with a variety of online resources.

Click on the button below and fill in the entry form. (Please note that to post the meeting you need to be logged in on Idealist. If you are, this link will take you straight to the entry form. If not, it will take you to a page where you can first log in or sign up, and then post the meeting.)

Once you've completed the entry form, our staff will review and approve it, or get back to you with any questions we may have.

Your meeting will then go up on Idealist, and you can wait for people to find it and sign up for it, and/or you can invite people you know by sending them the link to your meeting. (You will find this "permalink" at the bottom of your meeting once it's live on Idealist). As people sign up, you can see who has registered, and also read a few sentences about each person, which they can write when they register.

Thanks again for participating in this initiative. We look forward to working with you.