How To Join The Animals & Religion Network Community!

If you're interested in joining the Animals & Religion Network Community, it's easy! Just become a member of the Best Friends Network, then join the Animals & Religion Network Community and any other of the over 400 Communities on the Best Friends Network. It's easy...and it's FREE! Here's how!

by Kris Haley, Animals & Religion Community Manager

WHAT IS THE BEST FRIENDS NETWORK?

The Best Friends Network is a place for people of like mind and heart to share ideas and interests, and work together toward common goals. Like “cyber”-ripples of compassion extending across the worldwide web from the toss of a “virtual” pebble of kindness, the Best Friends Network connects people across the planet in an unparalleled ‘Call to Action’ for animals. Through a growing network of almost 27,000 individual members who share information via almost 400 categorized, online communities, covering an A to Z array of animal-centric topics, this planetary grid of like-minded individuals is defining the electronic impact of , The Kindness Revolution. Through innovative web-based campaigns, petitions, Webinars and programs, this grassroots, global, ‘community’ of thousands, is reclassifying the ‘think locally – act globally’ paradigm to one in which the time elapsed between local response and global impact…is virtually, instantaneous.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

It starts with YOU! Individuals can simply browse the site, or can become members of the Network.

IS THE NETWORK DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF THE BEST FRIENDS WEBSITE?

There are two components to Best Friends Animal Society:

1. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the physical location where all the animals are cared for. Information and stories about the Sanctuary can be found at (www.bestfriends.org) and,
2. The Best Friends Network, the online meeting place where people get connected (www.network.bestfriends.org) in local and global community.

For purposes of this article, we’ll concentrate on the NETWORK.

Within the Network, are a number of Communities built around pertinent, animal-centric topics. For example, there is a community dedicated to Pit Bulls called, The Pit Stop and another dedicated to Animal Law and countless more. The Community on which you are reading this article, is theAnimals & Religion (A/R) Community. (www.network.bestfriends.org/religion)

When you click on that link, it takes you to the NEWS page of the Animals & Religion Community. There are a few other pages as well that you can see on the red tabs: FORUM, BLOGS, MEMBERS, CALENDAR, RESOURCES & ABOUT. If you click on ABOUT you will get a brief definition about the A/R Community and a listing of our members. We are currently headed towards 300 individual members and have 25 Community members and growing!

While there have been some wonderful stories on the site, we would love to see more news, forum and blog activity because Animals & Religion is such a wonderful and important topic for animals that is just beginning to come into its own. So, I invite you to consider the following:

• Do you have a NEWS story? Click on the NEWS link and take a look at what's already there. Any ideas? Just click on the link and let the community manager, me, know.

• Have an idea for a FORUM? Click on that and take a look at the current forums listed. This is an area we would LOVE to see grow! The FORUMS take on breath and life for animals. It is truly people working together--connecting--to make change, from all over the world!

• MEMBERS, lists the membership of the A/R Community. We invite you all to become individual members and stay connected to what is going on in this community. You'll feel a connection and a sense of community with others all across the nation and the world! And together, as this Community grows, we will change the world for animals across all faith traditions. There is NO obligation whatsoever; and it’s free to join!

• CALENDAR is pretty much as you see it! If you have (or know of) anything that falls under the umbrella of Animals and Religion, just let the Community manager know and we’ll get it on the calendar for you.

• RESOURCES is an ongoing, ‘work in progress’ designed to provide tools for those people and leaders of faith across the planet who are seeking info to read, from which to learn, to share with their spiritual leaders, etc. If you have any suggestions to add to the RESOURCE area, just send a notification to your Community manager.


HOW DO I JOIN?

If this sounds interesting to you, and we hope it does, the first thing to do is to join the network! If you are on the NEWS page, over to the right you'll see a column with the current date at the top. Just below that is a red box that says, JOIN THE NETWORK NOW! Which is what we hope you will do! You will be encouraged to create a member profile, which can be as simple or elaborate as you wish. You can even add personal photos if you wish!

Once you are a member of the network, and, if you wish, set up a profile, you can go back to www.network.bestfriends.org/religion and click on the link off to the right that says JOIN THIS COMMUNITY as well as any other Community you wish; or several! It's just a fabulous way to stay up on what's going on in the animal world from every conceivable vantage point. There is never a shortage of information on the Network; it’s like an internet…for animals!

We hope you’ll consider becoming a member of the Animals & Religion Community. There are many exciting things on the horizon for people of faith who love their animals. We're working diligently to make this the best Community around for spiritually inspired animal people. Won’t you join us?


WHAT ELSE CAN MEMBERS DO?

As a member (there’s no charge – just log in), you can set up your own member profile with photos of you and your pets, friends, and family. You can also showcase your hobbies and interests, passions and work – whatever you want to share with others. Visit: network.bestfriends.org/Members/ and scroll down to join.

QUESTIONS?

You are emphatically encouraged to ask! Your questions help us to keep the information we provide you updated and pertinent, so please don’t hesitate to contact the Animals & Religion Community Manager at krish@bestfriends.org.

Thanks and see you on the Network!