Creating a Club

  • January 18, 2010 7:09 PM PST
     
  • January 19, 2010 5:40 AM PST
    Starting your own LEMC is not that big a deal. Some of the advice on this board was good and some was overblown or over simplified. Checking with your local COC (Confederation of Clubs) or Motorcycle Coalition (some states have one and some states have both organizations, depending on the affiliation of the dominant club in your area) will do you no good. The 1% clubs that dominate these organizations will not talk to cops and the cops have no love loss for any MC patch wearers. The MCs will not bother the LEMCs and the LEMCs will not bother the MCs, however, do not wear the LEMC patches when you're alone.

    Where I'm from, we have both a Coalition and a Confederation. The last LEMC that came here did not ask for permission. They just started a chapter and informed both organizations of that fact.

    The crux of your question, however, had less to do with getting along with other clubs than with the mechanics of setting up the club itself. I would suggest that you speak to a lawyer about it. All MCs and LEMCs are non-profit corporations, charitable organizations or religious organizations (churches) and registered as such with the state and federal authorities. They have articles of incorporation, by laws and tax forms that need to be properly filled out and filed. There are also issues of trademark and copyright registration or infringement if you intentionally or unintentionally copy another groups intellectual property.

    You want to make sure that your corporate documents do exactly what you want done. Saying that you don't want too many rules sounds great until you find that the club you started is taken from you because you have no rules to prevent yourself and your fellow club starters from being voted out and the club turning into something that you never wanted.

    There are dozens of LEMCs across the country and many of them have websites that have their by laws on them. This can give you a feel for what you may want to consider.