> I am starting a user group here in Hawaii. Naturally, you are all welcome to stop by when you have a chance. Have some questions however.

Check out this thread
http://www.levelextreme.com/wconnect/wc.dll?FournierTransformation~?2,15,549093

>1) What are the costs associated with running a user group?

The biggest cost probably is the room. Hopefully you can meet at one of the offices of your members. One of our members kindly lets us use his projector.

>2) Do most user groups charge fees, or not? If not, how do they cover costs?

Our drop in rate is $5 per meeting for now. Haven't decided on a yearly membership at this point.

>3) How do you go about gettin speakers, and are there fees associated?

We haven't been flying in speakers like some of the big groups such as Montreal. We rely on generousity of local and not so local speakers. Maintain a profile for your group, and maybe if a VFP guru is passing through town on vacation or business they might want to stop in. Microsoft employees have been very kind to us over the years and have driven the 3 hours up from Seattle. John, Mike, Robert, Calvin, Ken and others.

My dream would be to once a year have enough money to fly in a guru for a day of training.

>4) Do you setup as a none profit corporation, or is it not necessary?

I am not sure if we are or not.

>Here is the notice I sent to all the Hawaii UT people.

Make sure you post these announcements on the UT and other boards as well. Also put your user group into the UT user group and meeting tracker. It has a link from the Microsoft VFP page, so people look at it alot.