Most clubs run for years on goodwill and a checkbook. The paperwork matters the first time something goes wrong: a treasurer moves away, a landlord asks for a certificate of insurance, a member wants a receipt for a donated radio, or two factions disagree about who may call a vote.
Bylaws
Keep them short enough that members actually read them. The parts that prevent real disputes:
- Membership — who qualifies, what dues are, when membership lapses, and whether family or
- Officers — titles, terms, who may run, and how a vacancy is filled mid-term.
- Meetings and quorum — a quorum small enough that business can be done in a bad month.
- Voting — in person, by proxy, or electronically; be explicit, because clubs that never wrote
- Money — who may sign checks, what a single officer may spend without a vote, and who reviews
- Dissolution — where the assets go if the club folds. A 501(c)(3) is required to say assets
- Amendment — the notice and margin required to change the bylaws.
student memberships exist.
this down spent 2020 arguing about it.
the books annually.
pass to another exempt organization.
A separate, easily changed set of standing rules is the right place for anything you expect to revisit: net times, repeater access policy, meeting location, equipment loan terms.
Incorporation
Incorporating as a nonprofit corporation in your state is usually inexpensive and does two useful things: it gives the club a legal identity that can sign a lease or hold title to a repeater, and it shields individual officers from most club liabilities. It also requires an annual report in most states — put the filing date in the club calendar, because reinstating an administratively dissolved corporation costs more than the report ever did.
An EIN from the IRS is free, takes minutes online, and is what a bank will ask for. Do not open an account under a member's Social Security number.
Tax status
Two exemptions come up for radio clubs, and they are not interchangeable:
- 501(c)(3) — charitable and educational. Donations are deductible to the donor, and the club can
- 501(c)(7) — a social and recreational club. Simpler to justify, but donations are not
apply for grants, receive corporate matching gifts and often get discounted or free meeting space. In exchange, activities must genuinely be educational or charitable, and political activity is restricted. Most clubs qualify on the strength of license classes, public demonstrations and emergency communications training.
deductible.
Small organizations can usually apply with the streamlined Form 1023-EZ. Once exempt, file the annual return every year — a Form 990-N e-Postcard for the smallest clubs — because three consecutive missed filings revoke exemption automatically, and getting it back is a paid, months-long exercise.
If your club is not exempt itself, ask whether a nearby exempt club, council or a NARA club council can act as a fiscal sponsor for a specific project.
Insurance
Two policies matter more than clubs expect:
- General liability — required by most public venues, parks and county fairs before they will let
- Property — for club-owned radios, repeaters, towers and trailers. Homeowner's insurance
you set up, and by most repeater site owners before they will let you mount an antenna. Many venues want to be named as an additional insured, which is a routine request to an insurer.
belonging to whoever stores the gear generally does not cover organizational property.
Directors and officers coverage is worth pricing once a club holds significant assets or hires anyone. Clubs working with young people should also adopt a youth protection policy — two-adult rules, parental consent, background checks for organizers — both because it is right and because schools and scouting organizations will ask for it. See youth and schools.
Records
Keep, in one place a successor can find: the bylaws, the incorporation certificate and annual reports, the EIN letter, the IRS determination letter, insurance certificates, bank statements, minutes, the membership roster, and the club station license and trustee documentation. See club station licenses.