'HQ' stands for 'Head Quarters'. Your 'my hQ' is where you arrive when you login, and is your jumping-off point for anything you may wish to do on the site. You might also call it your dashboard.

There are countless reasons to do this, but here are just a few:

• when you post to Quentin's Friends or respond to a posting, members will be able to click through to your profile
• one of the benefits of Quentin's Friends is the feeling of trust & security members have, knowing that every other member has been referred by a member, who has vouched for their character. By completing your member profile, you will offer a way for members to get to know you better and thus enhance the feeling fo trust they will have when interacting with you.
• members can search the Member Profiles based on Quick/General, Professional or Dating criteria. They can also search any specific field (in 'Advanced search'). So by completing your profile you can maximize the benefit of your membership
• if you are a professional or company owner you can include all the information about your business which will help with professional networking
• if you are seeking work you can up-load your resume
• include a picture because its just so nice to put a face to a name!

To fill out your profile, log in to Quentin’s Friends then click on ‘View/Edit My Profile’ in the ‘Just Do It’ section on the left.

You must be a current Trial, Paying or Alumni (Past) Member of Quentin's Friends to invite friends to join.

Quick Invite is a way to invite individual members with just 2 clicks, from ‘my hQ’ or from listserv emails. It enables you to bypass some of the usual invitation steps. You do a one-time quick-set-up where you personalize your welcome email, and make a commitment that all your invitees will qualify based on our values, then, each time you invite your friends to join Quentin's Friends using 'Quick Invite', we'll send them your personalized welcome email.

To set up Quick Invite

• Log-in at Quentin's Friends Web Site.
• If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: 'Please Register' under the login boxes.
• In 'my hQ' click on 'Setup / Edit My - Quick Invite' under 'Admin'.
• Follow the instructions.

Quentins Anonymous parties, held every 1-3 months – usually in fun, centrally located lounge bars - offer Trial, Current, 'Alumni' Members and their guests the opportunity to meet 'live & in person' and to catch up on the stories 'behind the emails'. While it's quite possible that you'll make a great business connection or end up meeting your soul-mate(!), these parties are not 'business networking events' or a 'singles mixers'. They are an opportunity to meet a diverse & interesting bunch of people and to enjoy great conversation!

To see what Quentin's Friends events are coming up, check the Events Calendar (Please note: Only Trial, Paying or Alumni (Past) Members can access the Events Calendar).

See photos of past event here.

As a member of Quentin's Friends you can invite other members to 'Q'nnect' with you, and may be invited by other members to 'Q'nnect' with them.

When you are 'Q'nnected' to someone, they will show up in your profile in your 'Q'nnections' list. This tells other members that you know &/or have interacted with the person. So, please only request to Q'nnect with (or accept invitation to Q'nnect from) members that you already know &/or have already interacted with by email, by phone or in person.

Your inviter & invitees will automatically appear in your ‘Q’nnections’ list.

To Q’nnect with a Member:

• Log-in at Quentin's Friends Web Site.
• If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: 'Please Register' under the login boxes.
• In 'my hQ' click on ‘Member Profiles’ under ‘Search/Browse’.
• Search/find the member’s profile.
• Locate the ‘Q’mmunicate’ box on the right hand side of the profile.
• Click on ‘Q’nnect with Member-first-name’.
• Follow the instructions.

To view your Q’nnections list any time:

• Log-in at Quentin's Friends Web Site.
• If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: 'Please Register' under the login boxes.
• In 'my hQ' click on ‘My Q’nnections’ under ‘My Stuff’.

If you reject or ignore a Q’nnection request, the member will not informed, so you need worry about causing offence.

If you just want to contact/email a member, you can do so by replying to a posting from them if you received one. Or via their profile as follows:

• Log-in at Quentin's Friends Web Site.
• If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: 'Please Register' under the login boxes.
• In ‘my hQ’ click on ‘Member Profiles’ under ‘Search/Browse’.
• Search/find the member’s profile.
• Locate the ‘Q’mmunicate’ box on the right hand side of the profile.
• Click on ‘Email Member-first-name’.
• Follow the instructions.

A ‘ThankQ’ is a great way to say a quick, public thank you to a fellow member. This could be for a helpful posting or response you have received.
It is a short thank you message which will appear on a member’s profile under their name represented by a ‘Q’. It can be read by any member who visits the profile by mousing over the ‘Q’.

The more ‘ThankQ’ messages a member receives the higher their ‘ThankQ’ ranking will be – which will in turn indicate how generous/helpful they have been.

To give a ‘ThankQ’ you can link from under a posting received or viewed in the message archives or in the Fully Formatted (HTML) emails. You can also do it by visiting a member’s profile:

• Log-in at Quentin's Friends Web Site
• If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: 'Please Register' under the login boxes.
• In ‘my hQ’ click on ‘Member Profiles’ under ‘Search/Browse’.
• Search/find the member’s profile
• Locate the ‘Q’mmunicate’ box on the right hand side of the profile.
• Click on ‘Give Member-first-name a ThankQ’ under the member’s name or in the Q’mmunicate box.
• Follow the instructions.

The member will receive a notification by email of your ThankQ message

Whether public or private, we do ask that you always thank members when they have made an effort to assist you.

Because all our members have been vouched for by another member, and have made a commitment to uphold our values, complaints are generally quite rare. Nonetheless, we rely on you, our members, to let us know when you have an issue with our site, with us or with a fellow member! If we don’t know about an issue, we can’t do anything and consequently standards would slip.

We follow-up carefully on all feedback/complaints.

Letting us know is not ‘telling tales’ or ‘snitching’:
Letting us know if a fellow member has acted in a way that is not in line with our stated community Values (Honesty, Integrity, Courtesy, Respect, Generosity, Gratitude, Fun Positivity, Open-mindedness, Sense of Humor(!)), our Code of Conduct or our Membership Agreement is not ‘telling tales’; it is holding fellow members accountable to the values and agreements they have committed to, and ensures that our standards, & what makes Quentin’s Friends so special & different, are maintained and upheld.

Complaints/Feedback about Quentin’s Friends Administration:
If you have a complaint about us or the way we have handled, something, please let us know via ‘Contact Us’. If you want, you can contact Quentin directly via this page. If you wish, supply a phone number & we will be happy to call you to discuss the issue.

Very Serious Complaint about a Member:
If you have a very serious complaint about a member, and you think it may be necessary to halt their membership, then please contact us via ‘Contact Us’. If you want you can contact Quentin directly via this page. Include as much documentation/evidence to justify your complaint as possible – especially emails exchanged. Without some form of evidence it will feel uncomfortable acting on the complaint. If you wish, supply a phone number & we will be happy to call you to discuss the issue.

General Member Complaints:
In most cases, a complaint results from mild to considerable irritation or friction in dealing with a fellow member. In this case, the ideal solution is that you write to the member and:

• state the behavior that has bothered you 'What I observe…'
• express how you feel – e.g. your 'disappointment' at their behavior, given that you met through Quentin's Friends
• indicate which of our stated values.Honesty
  Integrity
  Courtesy
  Respect
  Generosity
  Gratitude
  Fun
  Positivity
  Open-mindedness
  Sense of Humor(!) you feel he/she has failed to live up to
• acknowledge up front any points they may raise about your interaction with them
• express your needs in relation to the situation and (if appropriate) request concrete action(s) you would like the person to take to rectify the situation. Be as specific as possible - 'I would like to receive a refund of $XYZ', rather than 'you at least owe me something…'
• speak from your experience and feelings and avoid judgmental or critical words which will provoke a 'reactive' response from the member
• try to keep your tone rational/unemotional, but express your expectations & understanding of the situation
• open copy us ('cc') at [email protected], so that the member knows we have been made aware of the issue
• include in your email as much evidence to justify your complaint as possible - especially emails exchanged

Feel free to run your email by us, before sending it to the member – we would be happy to provide input.

Often this will be all that is required to resolve the situation.

We find that this approach is the best first step, as it shows an attempt to resolve the situation directly, while at the same time, by copying us, the member concerned knows that we are aware of the situation. It is less likely to put the other member on the defensive than if we contact him/her with a 'complaint', which may make resolving it harder in the long run.

We will keep your email on file. If we then receive other complaints about the member, we can take your complaint into consideration

If you feel strongly that you do not want to open copy us, then you can blind copy us (bcc), but if you do this, we will not be in a position to address the issue with the member should need arise.

Membership Termination
The decision to terminate a member’s membership due to a complaint or complaints will be made by Quentin if the evidence is irrefutable and the issue serious and extreme. If this issue is more subjective/less clear, the issue will be put to a committee of long-standing members who will reach a decision together. That said, we do not have a full judicial system at our disposal, so sometimes we have to make decisions based on protecting our members without being 100% certain that the ‘evidence’ is conclusive. We do however try to be as fair as possible.

See how you might avoid issues with fellow members in the future!

Generally working with someone you have met through Quentin’s Friends is likely to be a positive experience because all our members have committed to act in line with our stated community Values (Honesty, Integrity, Courtesy, Respect, Generosity, Gratitude, Fun Positivity, Open-mindedness, Sense of Humor(!)).

Despite this, if you decide to enter into any kind of transactional relationship with a fellow member, we very strongly encourage you to agree to terms in writing or even to draft a contract. This is not so much to create a legally binding document (though if that is appropriate you should obviously do that), but more to avoid misunderstandings between friends.

If you are a service vendor, don’t do any work that you expect to get paid for, without agreeing the fees and obtaining prior written agreement from the buyer.

If you are a buyer of services, and someone is doing work for you which you do not expect to pay for, then make that very clear up front – don’t skirt around the issue.

It’s a lot less uncomfortable to deal with money questions upfront, than later on if things turn south.

Should you nonetheless run into issue with a fellow member we are happy to offer our input and do have a complaints process

Members should join Quentin's Friends to participate fully in the community, help their fellow members etc. It is however OK to also promote your project, business, products, services, not-for-profit, charity etc., as long as that is not the primary focus of your membership. There are various ways to do this.

• Business Posting to listserv.
• Personal Profile There are fields in your personal profile where you can include professional information, website links etc.
• Testimonials: If there are other members who are clients of yours or who know you well, you a can ask them for a Testimonial.
• Recommendation: If there are other members who are clients of yours or who know you well, you a can ask them to post a Recommendation message to the community via the listserv. The recommendation will then be broadcast to the group, and stored in our searchable recommendations database.
• Freelancers: If you are a freelancer, you can post for free under 'Seeking Work'. Your posting will then show in this format (for example): 'Seeking Work: F-Lance Lion Tamer NYC'.
• Sponsor a Quentin Anonymous Event.

RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. The RSS feed from Quentin's Friends contains the subject line of each posting we broadcast. You click on the subject line and link through to the Friends website to read the posting.

RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. Common RSS readers include 'Google Reader', 'Live Bookmarks' & 'Bloglines'

To subscribe to the Quentin's Friends RSS feed, once you have logged in to the site, click on 'Get RSS Feed' under 'Admin' in 'my hQ', or click on 'RSS Feed' at the bottom right of the page.

There are a number of reasons why this may have occurred:

• Your Trial Membership ended before you upgraded. In this case we will have unsubscribed you after emailing you several times to invite you to update your information. If this is the case, then go to click here to Upgrade/Reactivate.

• Your credit card expired &/or was declined In this case we may have unsubscribed you after emailing you several times to ask you to update your credit card information. If you think this may be the issue:
  • Log-in at Quentin's Friends Web Site.
  • If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: 'Please Register' under the login boxes.
  • In 'my hQ' your member status will show next to your name. If you are showing as an 'Alumni Member' you can reactivate your membership by clicking on 'My Billing Information'.
  • Update your credit card information
  • Click 'Submit'. (You can also review 'My Billing History', both are under the 'Admin' section.)


• SPAM block or Bulk Email Folder: Your Quentin's Friends emails may be blocked on your end by a spam filter, or they may be being channeled into a Bulk Email folder. Please check this for yourself.

• Bouncing Emails: Our emails to you may be bouncing back due to a problem with your email service provider. This may have resulted in our listserv switching off your emails, or may require a communication with your email &/or internet service provider. If you think this may be the case, please contact us.

There are several ways that you can meet Quentin’s Friends members:

• Quentin’s Anonymous Events: The most obvious way to simply meet Quentin’s Friends members is to attend a
  Quentin’s Anonymous event.
• Members’ Events: You could also attend other Events organized by other members – see our Calendar.
• Post An Email to the Listserv: Post a message in the ‘Introduce Yourself’ or ‘Meeting People’ categories.
• Respond to listserv postings
• Browse Member Profiles and contact them by email.To do this:
  
  • Log-in at Quentin’s Friends Web Site.
  • If you have not yet registered with the site, you will need to do so by clicking on: ‘Please Register’ under the login boxes.
  • In ‘my hQ’ click on ‘Member Profiles’ under ‘Search/Browse’.
  • Browse/Search Member profiles.
  • Locate the ‘Q’mmunicate’ box on the right hand side of their profile.
  • Click on ‘Email Member-first-name’.
  • Follow the instructions.

Currently we only in New York, though nearly 10% of our member are ‘Non-Resident’, and many are from places other than New York, so if you post a question about another city, you will likely get responses.

In the near future we expect to launch Quentin’s Friends LA, we will then begin launching in other cities in the US (such as Washington DC, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago & Boston) and around the world (including for example London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Sydney).

We will grow the sister communities as always, by referral only from you, the current members. In each city we would 'give back' by working with a charity like City Harvest .

As a member of one city group, you will be able to post to, or receive messages via the listservs of the other city communities (subject to the our ‘moderation')…

Imagine… How would you like to be able to connect with other like-minded 'Quentiners' to…

• Swap your Chelsea apartment for an art deco house in South Beach, Miami?
• Get invited to the parties in Paris?
• Find out about the job market for crocodile hunters in Australia?
• Do an apartment swap with someone 'fabulous' in LA?
• Go on a Quentins Anonymous pub crawl in London?
• Tell the world about your website, your art, your band – or even your 'brand' ?!

Based on member feedback & needs, & the opportunities that technology open up to us, we will constantly be improving the features & benefits Quentin’s Friends offers.

In addition, we will soon begin launching ‘Quentin's Friends Communities' in other US cities & around the world, starting with Los Angeles in the near future…

We will grow the sister communities as always, by ‘invitation only’ to new members, from you, the current members. In each city we will ‘give back' by working with a charity like City Harvest.



Imagine… How would you like to be able to connect with other ‘Quentiners' to…

• Swap your Chelsea apartment for an art deco house in South Beach, Miami?
• Get invited to the parties in Paris?
• Find out about the job market for scuba instructors in Australia?
• Do an apartment swap with someone ‘fabulous' in LA?
• Go on a Quentins Anonymous pub crawl in London?
• Tell the world about your website, your art, your band – or even your ‘brand'?!

If we have not yet launched Quentin’s Friends in your city then:

• Join Quentin’s Friends as a Non-Resident Member – about 10% of our members are Non-Resident. Given the many features of the site and the breadth of subject of postings, they still get a lot of value from membership.
• Contact us to let us know that you are interested in hearing about it, when we launch in your city.

We welcome interest in sponsoring Quentin’s Friends events. It can be a great way to increased awareness of and interest in your business, and of making a helpful contribution to the community.

To find out more please contact us.