I'm part of a group in my town that's working on starting a new bee
association.  All the current participants are hobbyists and our primary
goals are education and support for local beekeepers, and education
(classroom visits, media input, etc.) and service mostly swarm removal) for
the community.
A few questions have come up.
 
1. Is it important to obtain nonprofit status for such an organization?  We
plan to maintain a budget that covers basic operating expenses but no more.
 We plan to fund the budget with dues received from members.  No plans to
hold fund raisers.  We've been told that it's expensive and a red tape
nightmare, and probably not worth our trouble unless we want to do a lot of
fund raising and take donations.
2. What is a typical honorarium to pay to guest speakers?  I'm sure this
varies by     region.
 
If you are or have been an association officer somewhere in the U.S. and
have info about how your club has answered these questions, I'd appreciate
your input.
Thanks,
Michael Reddell
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http://www.hotcity.com/~mwr