Hello,
Does anybody has any good advices for people wanting to set up a UP association ? Web site, fees, by-laws, schedule, contacts…
Slan Agat
Martin
Martin, it takes a lot of time, effort and organization for the stuff you are talking about. Do you really have enough UP players to justify that amount of effort? I would guess you would need to have at least ten dedicated pipers to make it worthwhile. You also have to have a resident expert piper, or easy access to one. If you don’t have at least one person whose piping is at a level that earns everyone else’s respect, you are not going to be able to keep a cohesive group together for very long.
A lot of associations start off by setting out their goals, their raison d’etre, and what steps they propose to take to reach the group’s goals. Rules can start from there, and usually grow from the group’s experiences. If you want to get official/legal status you will need to get a lawyer to help you get organized.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just play the pipes? 
djm
We’re just getting one off the ground here in Colorado, and it will (hopefully) cover the Rocky Mountain region.
At our first tionol in September, we had a total of 14 pipers in attendance, with several more pipers known to us who could not attend.
It was the general consensus of the group that we become a fairly loosely organized bunch, at least in the early going, but the primary focus was that pipers find out where all of us are located, so that informal gatherings might be held with a few folks, and they could then share tunes, give each other encouragement, etc. After all, there isn’t a great deal of fun in sitting at home alone all the time, and ideas and assistance can come from all quarters - experienced as well as novice.
I would say keep on to what you’re setting out to do - you might find (as we did in Colorado) that there are a lot more pipers out there than you realize.
Stay tuned,
BrianC
Certainly you can settle for keeping in touch and having the odd get together. You don’t have to make a club into some massive endeavour if you don’t want to.
It need not neccesarily be a huge operation, especially the part with Lawyers and 501c3. Now state non-profit status on the other hand is a good idea. Thats about as complicated as handing the clerk $50 and a set of bylaws. (mostly they want the $50) With at least state non-profit, you get some recognition as an organization. To include those public service ads on tv. (once you do one of those to announce a meeting, one can not be surprised when they just show up out of the blue)
A weird pyschological factor involved, is that there are some who might very well be interested in playing… but they are holding back until somebody starts a group. (Ok.. maybe this is more true of GHB Pipers, but I recon it is not) For some having a group to belong to with a similiar interest is just as important as the interest itself.
RockyM, please check where the originator of this thread is located. Non-profit status or anything else to do with government is anything but simple here.
I think Kevin hit it right - just get a bunch of interested folks together to share tunes and learnings withut the claptrap of organization.
djm
Starting a Pipers association…essential ingredients.
Pipers
Meeting room
Beer
Tylenol/Asprin
Hi Martin,
Good question and good replies. I hope you’re asking about this to help with ‘our’ local project. I’m out of town, but will be in touch with everyone when I get back.
Jamie
Ah yes… let the politics begin! 
PD’s comment is more important for what it doesn’t say than for what it does say.
Why bother will all the legal rigamarole?
It really is as simple as the method described so succinctly as Glands states.
There’s my $0.02.
Stay tuned,
BrianC
Thank’s all for the advices and opinions. I agree with those of you saying “don’t get bogged down by politico-admin stuff”.
In fact, the focus of my question was more of the practical type:
-what equipment should we have at meetings;
-how to contact teachers / experts (idea of fees, arrangements…);
-methods of planification for meetings (have people practice some particular songs and then play them at meetings, or else…)
-things to buy or contribute to collectively (For example, I know that some UP club rent practice sets…)
-contacts…
-any good advice of that type.
So you see, it’s quite down to earth stuff. Maybe my mention of “by-laws” in the original thread lead to believe I was looking for complicated mambo-jambo… Not the case at all Every advice welcome !
Hi Jamie. Yes, that thread was to try to help us a wee bit in our project. Haven’t seen you posted on the forum for a while. Was wondering where ye was…
As far as meetings go, once a month seems to be the norm. Pick a consistent day and time (e.g. the SCUPC meets the first Sunday of the month at 1:00pm). If possible, it’s nice to have the meetings in the same location. Allow an hour or so for the “planned” activities and several more for the craic. A potluck/BYOB model seems to work well.
As far as reminding people about the meetings, we’ve been using E-vite, which seems to work pretty well (thanks, Patrick!).
Arrangements with instructors will depend on who is available in your area. We’ve been fortunate enough to have club members volunteer to teach. It’s helpful to break-up into smaller groups based on skill level (beginners, intermediate, etc.). A “tune of the month” scheme works pretty well. Pick a tune to teach at the meeting, go over it again at the next meeting, then move on to a new tune. It’s a great way to build up a common repatoire.
Don’t worry too much about purchasing equipment or practice sets early on. Keep the atmosphere congenial and relaxed.
-Larry Dunn
Geez, Larry - I can’t believe it! You left out the most important part!
“WHOSE TURN IS IT TO BRING THE BEER?”
Hey,take it easy on Larry. He put it right there in the first parapraph: BYOB.
It’s everybody’s turn to bring the beer!
Yeah… if one fella had to provide the beer for everybody we’d be in a terrible poor condition… these are a thirsty bunch!
Yeah, Evite - http://www.evite.com - works well for reminders. It’s good because you can set it to send out reminders for an ongoing event eg. first Sunday of every month etc and it does it automatically. Just don’t forget to change it if a meeting is cancelled… people don’t like driving across the country to a meeting that isn’t happening! 
A group for your club on Yahoo probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either, you can post reminders through that also - http://groups.yahoo.com - one problem is it’s a bit bogged down with advertising these days.
A regular central location is very important. Try to figure out who’ll be coming and where they live and what a central location would be. In our club - www.SoCalPipers.com - we have people attending from everywhere between Santa Barbara to San Diego and inland we’ve had friend’s come from as far away as Phoenix! It’s a tricky one, but now we have meetings at one fairly (very) constant location once a month, on the first Sunday and other varied locations throughout the year between meetings so we get twice as much drinking … em no.. I mean playing, in
Good luck with the club,
Patrick.