I am making a character that is a leader of a small gang and I thought it would be really neat to flesh out some of the gang members. Looking at it though I am not sure if the rules for contacts would be appropriate. Any have thoughts on how to make followers/gang members work in the rules as is.

Well, it would propbably be a group contact (see Runners Companion). Loyalty 4-6, connection 1 to 3. I'd probably put most resources at very low level or non existant.

You can then flesh out the gangers individually, or groups such as Bob, Joe and Mack have the same stats, while Harry, Larry, and Mary have another set of stats. Jimmy is the technomancer, and Kim is the mage.

My SR2 book is buried, but ISTR that either it or SR1 actually had rules for followers.

I could be thinking of Champions, though, as I also played that game regularly around the same time frame. If I'm wrong about SR having the rules, check out Champions. I'm pretty sure the Followers rules are straight forward enough to be adapted easily into SR.

You could also adapt the gang rules from sr3 companion for it.

Yes, SR2 had rules both for gangs and followers.

In SR4, i'd just use a group contact, it's one of the things they are there for.

Thanks Warlordtheft, this is perfect for fleshing out a gang. Now Marky Poppins and his/her Tea Party gang bring protection and terror to the people of Seattle.

I think Runner's Companion is the book with group contacts, including how much extra it adds depending on how big the group is.