<item>Announce your intentions on <tt>comp.os.linux.announce</tt> and on an appropriate regional hierarchy.</item>
<item>Announce your intention wherever computer users are in your area: bookstores, swap meets, cybercafes, colleges corporations, Internet service providers, etc.</item>
<item>Find Linux-friendly businesses or institutions in your area willing to help you form the LUG.</item>
<item>Form a mailing list or some means of communication among the people who express an interest in forming a LUG.</item>
<item>Ask key people specifically for help in spreading the word about your intention to form a LUG.</item>
<item>Solicit space on a Web server to put a few HTML pages together about the group.</item>
<item>Begin looking for a meeting place.</item>
<item>Schedule an initial meeting.</item>
<item>Discuss at the initial meeting the goals for the LUG.</item>
</itemize>
<sect1>Maintaining and growing a LUG
<p>
<itemize>
<item>Make the barriers to LUG membership as low as possible.</item>
<item>Make the LUG's Web site a priority: Keep all information current, make it easy to find details about meetings (who, what, and where), and make contact information and feedback mechanisms prominent.</item>
<item>Install Linux for anyone who wants it.</item>
<item>Post flyers, messages, or handbills wherever computer users are in your area.</item>
<item>Secure dedicated leadership.</item>
<item>Follow Linus Torvalds's <it>benevolent dictator</it> model of leadership.</item>
<item>Take the big decisions to the members for a vote.</item>
<item>Start a mailing list devoted to technical support and ask the "gurus" to participate on it.</item>
<item>Schedule a mixture of advanced and basic, formal and informal, presentations.</item>
<item>Support the software development efforts of your members.</item>
<item>Find way to raise money without dues: for instance, selling Linux merchandise to your members and to others.</item>
<item>Consider securing formal legal standing for the group, such as incorporation or tax-exempt status.</item>
<item>Find out if your meeting place is restricting growth of the LUG.</item>
<item>Meet in conjunction with swap meets, computer shows, or other community events where computer users -- i.e., potential Linux converts -- are likely to gather.</item>
<item>Elect formal leadership for the LUG as soon as is practical: Some helpful officers might include President, Treasurer, Secretary, Meeting Host (general announcements, speaker introductions, opening and closing remarks, etc.), Publicity Coordinator (handles Usenet and e-mail postings, local publicity), and Program Coordinator (organises and schedules speakers at LUG meetings).</item>
<item>Provide ways for members and others to give feedback about the direction, goals, and strategies of the LUG.</item>
<item>Support Linux and free software / open source development efforts by donating Web space, a mailing list, or ftp site.</item>
<item>Establish an ftp/Web site for relevant software.</item>
<item>Archive everything the LUG does for the Web site.</item>
<item>Solicit "door prizes" from Linux vendors, VARs, etc. to give away at meetings.</item>
<item>Give credit where due.</item>
<item>Join SSC's GLUE (Groups of Linux Users Everywhere).</item>
<item>Submit your LUG's information to all the LUG lists.</item>
<item>Publicise your meetings on appropriate Usenet groups and in local computer publications and newspapers.</item>
<item>Compose promotional materials, like Postscript files, for instance, members can use to help publicise the LUG at workplaces, bookstores, computer stores, etc.</item>
<item>Make sure you know what LUG members want the LUG to do.</item>
<item>Release press releases to local media outlets about any unusual LUG events like an Installation Fest, Net Day, etc.</item>
<item>Use LUG resources and members to help local non-profit organisations and schools with their Information Technology needs.</item>
<item>Advocate the use of Linux zealously but responsibly.</item>
<item>Play to LUG members' strengths.</item>
<item>Maintain good relations with Linux vendors, VARs, developers, etc.</item>
<item>Identify and contact Linux consultants in your area.</item>
<item>Network with the leaders of other LUGs in your area, state, region, or country to share experiences, tricks, and resources.</item>
<item>Keep LUG members advised on the state of Linux software -- new kernels, bugs, fixes, patches, security advisories -- and the state of the Linux world at large -- new ports, trademark and licensing issues, where Torvalds is living and working, etc.</item>
<item>Notify the Linux Documentation Project -- and other pertinent sources of Linux information -- about the documentation the LUG produces: technical presentations, tutorials, local HOWTOs, etc.</item>
</itemize>
<sect>Legal and political issues
<p>
<sect1>Organisational legal issues
<p>
The case for formal LUG organisation can be debated:
<it>Pro:</it> Incorporation and recognised tax-exemption limits
liability and helps the group carry insurance. It aids fundraising.
It avoids claims for tax on group income.
<it>Con:</it> Liability shouldn't be a problem for modestly careful
people. (You're not doing skydiving, after all.) Fundraising isn't needed
for a group whose activities needn't involve significant expenses.
(Dead-tree newsletters are so 1980.) Not needing a treasury, you avoid
needing to argue over it, file reports about it, or fear it being taxed
away. Meeting space can usually be gotten for free at ISPs, colleges,
Linux-oriented companies, or other friendly institutions, and can
therefore be free of charge to the public. No revenues and no expenses
means less need for organisation and concomitant hassles.
For whatever it's worth, this HOWTO's originator and second maintainer lean,
respectively, towards the pro and con sides of the debate -- but choose
your own poison: If interested in formally organising your LUG, this
section will introduce you to some relevant issues.
<bf>Note:</bf> this section should not be construed as competent legal
counsel. These issues require the expertise of competent legal
counsel; you should, before acting on any of the statements made in
this section, consult an attorney.
<sect2>United States of America
<p>
There are at least two different legal statuses a LUG in the USA may
attain:
<enum>
<item>incorporation as a non-profit entity</item>
<item>tax-exemption</item>
</enum>
Although relevant statutes differ among states, most states
allow user groups to incorporate as non-profit entities. Benefits
of incorporation for a LUG include limitations of liability
of LUG members and volunteers, as well as limitation or even exemption
from state corporate franchise taxes.
While you should consult competent legal counsel before incorporating
your LUG as a non-profit, you can probably reduce your legal
fees by being acquainted with relevant issues before consulting
with an attorney. I recommend the <it>Non-Lawyers' Non-Profit
Corporation Kit</it> (ISBN 0-937434-35-3).
As for the second status, tax-exemption, this is not a legal status, so
much as an Internal Revenue Service judgement. It's important to realise
non-profit incorporation <bf>does not</bf> ensure that IRS will rule
your LUG tax-exempt. It is quite possible for a non-profit corporation
to <bf>not</bf> be tax-exempt.
IRS has a relatively simple document explaining the criteria
and process for tax-exemption. It is <bf>Publication 557:</bf>
<it>Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization</it>, available as
an Acrobat file from the IRS's Web site. I strongly recommend
you read this document <bf>before</bf> filing for non-profit incorporation.
While becoming a non-profit corporation cannot
ensure your LUG will be declared tax-exempt, some
incorporation methods will <bf>prevent</bf> IRS from declaring your
LUG tax-exempt. <it>Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization</it>
clearly sets out necessary conditions for your LUG to be declared
tax-exempt.
Finally, there are resources available on the Internet for non-profit
and tax-exempt organisations. Some of the material is probably
relevant to your LUG.
<sect2>Canada
<p>
Thanks to <htmlurl name="Chris Browne" url="mailto:%20cbbrowne@cbbrowne.com%20">
for the following comments about the Canadian situation.
<p>
The Canadian tax environment strongly parallels the US environment, in
that the "charitable organisation" status confers similar tax
advantages for donors over mere "not for profit" status, while
requiring that similar sorts of added paperwork be filed by the
"charity" with the tax authorities in order to attain and maintain
certified charity status.
<sect2>Germany
<p>
Correspondent <htmlurl name="Thomas Kappler" url="Thomas.Kappler@stud.uni-karlsruhe.de"> warns that the process of founding a non-profit entity in Germany
is a bit complicated, but comprehensively covered at <url
democracy, and turnover" section, Web site suggestions, and link
to "Recipe for a Successful Linux User Group" essay. Fixed mis-tagged
sections under "Legal and political issues".</item>
<item>1.6.8: Fixed small glitches. Rewrote section concerning
Linux news outlets; parts of sections concerning consultants, businesses,
and elections.</item>
<item>1.6.9: Minor corrections.</item>
<item>1.7.0: Caught up with GLUE membership having become free
of charge.</item>
<item>1.7.1: Added a bunch more newly supported embedded CPUs.</item>
<item>1.7.2: Added more on processor support; furnished matching URLs. Added details about Linux in India, and Linux For You magazine. Expanded legal issues section.</item>
<item>1.7.3: Added mention of Debian GNU/NetBSD to the CPU ports
section. Reorganised and further expanded the latter. Recorded Linux
Gazette's move to new hosting. Added LinuxFocus.</item>
<item>1.7.4: Added LinuxWorld Magazine, fixed URL of Recipe for
a Successful Linux User Group, which I moved. Added Tux.Org and
LinuxUserGroups.org as LUG support organisations.
<item>1.7.5: Added several more embedded CPUs to the supported list, implemented licence change to Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 after securiing permission from Kendall Clark.</item>
</itemize>
<sect1>Acknowledgements
<p>
I would like to give a big thank-you to Kendall Grant Clark for the
initial versions of this document in 1997-1998, and for trusting me to take
over and renovate his creation starting in 2003.
Warm regards and thanks to <url name="Chris Browne"
url="mailto:%20cbbrowne@cbbrowne.com%20"> for describing the situation with
non-profit and charitable groups in Canada, his thoughts on financial
donations as a way to participate in Linux and the free software and
open-source software movements, and his ideas about the kinds of
political issues likely to arise within LUGs.
In addition, the following people have made helpful comments and
