Groups are the focus of EdGateway; the vehicle around which most of the site's publicity and communications tools are organized. Finding and Joining Groups The easiest way to belong to a group is to subscribe to one that already exists. In the left menu bar, select the "By Region" link and browse for groups in your state, or click the "Find a Group" link to search for a particular group. Click on the name of the group to find out more about about it. Once found, you may subscribe to that group by clicking on "Subscribe" in the top menu bar.     Groups allow you to: Have web pages about your organization automatically created and published, based on the information you provide. These pages are accessible by the entire on-line community and may be modified by you at any time. Post events to state and national calendars for others to see. Focus on a particular discussion topic and share ideas with other interested educators via e-mail. Create small working groups and have a centralized, universally accessible site (via the Internet) to construct an e-mail listserve, store your group's message archive, upload and download formatted files, and maintain a calendar of meetings and activities, all in your own privately managed directory.   Creating a New Group If your organization is not listed in EdGateway (search for it using the "Find" tool if you are not sure), and you want to be the person that represents your organization in the education community, then we invite you to give your organization a presence on the site by creating a group page. To create a new group: Click the "Create a Group" button in the left menu bar. Complete the information request on the next page, and save the form after you've filled it out. Your organization is now registered on EdGateway with its very own web page!   Additional Groups Groups that would like to divide their representation into subgroups may wish to create additional groups within the main group. Each additional group will share the same features as the main group, including calendaring, messaging, and file upload/download. Click the "Create New Associated Group" link at the bottom of the group main page to create an additional group. How to Send a Message