You need by-laws, a president Vice pres secitary and tressuer.it has to be non profit. Open to all. and edacational most Assoc's are tied in to the state Assoc. and state Ag college extention. thats it in a nut shell.
It comes down to what is your purpose for forming a group? What to you hope to achieve? Our club had discussions about being more "formal" with officers, dues, by-laws, etc, but the members decided they preferred our informal arrangement.Interesting to get two different opinions!
What we did was arrange to get a meeting room at the library on a certain date. Then we placed ads in local papers (free) and on the radio (free) asking that anyone interested in a local beekeeping club meet at the library on that date. Additionally, we personally invited any local beekeepers that we knew. We had about a dozen at the first meeting. We continue to run ads from time to time announcing our meetings.Any ideas on how to advertise the meetings, besides at the beekeeping store?