You also might want to discuss at this time if it would be useful to have a membership fee. This might not be necessary right off the bat. Usually the initial membership numbers will taper off as people decide whether or not the club works for their schedule or if they aren't interested enough to commit to a club. For example, our club did not initiate a membership fee until 3 months had passed. And because we had no expenses, we kept our fee very low for the first year.

Information night
So your meeting night finally arrives. You're hoping for a handful of interested members, but don't be surprised if a roomful shows up. Be prepared for either. Pick your future meeting nights and determine what the club is going to be all about.

Make sure you have either an email address or phone number for each potential member, in order to be able to contact them and remind them of upcoming meetings and club events. Assume that for the first little while, you'll likely be the one in charge, organizing meetings and contacting members.

If the info night crowd is small, don't be discouraged. You may only need a few members to get started, and they may have others they can invite in the future. If the crowd is large, even better. But keep in mind that initial interest in clubs often wears off for a few, and numbers may drop a bit after the first few meetings. Eventually, you'll see the dedicated members who want to make your club work and are devoted to coming to all the meetings they can.

Club activities
I have found that the best way for photographers to get to know each other is to get them out doing what they love best--taking pictures. So even before the first official meeting, it might be fun to set up an outing together. It can be as informal as meeting at the local park, or as structured as getting everybody together for a photo scavenger hunt, with rules and partners and multiple locations.

If you meet more than once a month, I would suggest at least one of your monthly meetings be a photo sharing night. Photographers are passionate about sharing their work. From slide shows to portfolios, sharing photos and receiving feedback are some of the best ways to learn new techniques, correct bad techniques, get encouragement, and share passions. You may choose to have themes, or challenges for these nights.

Themes can be as basic as having everyone photograph fall foliage at any location they desire, to having a theme where the photo must have certain elements in it, like S-curves, leading lines, or the use of the Rule of Thirds. A challenge can be a specific target, like everyone must photograph the town fountain and try to be unique about it. Clubs can have a lot of fun with things like this.

When you aren't sharing photos at meeting nights, you might want to share information. Some of the members can take turns sharing their knowledge of technique, equipment, and style. Perhaps the local camera shop can come and do a presentation on new camera gear, or the club's Photoshop guru can give tips on how to do more advanced photo editing.