[Theogenes]

I am attempting to research creating a 501c3 for the Music City Meet in Nashville, and as this is wildly outside my core competencies, I thought I'd throw out the question to the masses and see if anyone can assist. My primary motivation at this point in considering a 501c3 is that we would gain access to venues we could not otherwise use, and many of them would be free-- an enticing option, given that I am currently paying for the venues out of pocket, and I recently decided I could no longer work with the least expensive venue option we'd utilized in the past. 
 

1. So: does anyone here have experience they'd be willing to share regarding the creation of 501c3 organizations, and whether we'd qualify? 
2. Has anyone set up their meet as a 501c3 before? 
3. Is there a better way to go about this that I haven't considered? 
4. Are there major pitfalls to this approach that I have not yet realized? 

 
I would be greatly appreciative of anyone who could help me make sense of this... I've contacted an attorney in my family who does not specialize in tax law, and his advice was basically to go to the IRS website. I've spent the last 2 hours on the IRS website (and the TN.gov website) making notes, and I actually went through the business entity creation process up to the last step in Tennessee but did not complete it, as I do not currently have a signed Charter Form nor the confidence that I'm doing this correctly. 
 
If it helps, a few notes on our meets: 

1. I do not charge any types of fees to attendees or vendors; I never have, and I would very much prefer to avoid having any such charges in the future. 
2. We have thus far held two meets each year: one in the spring, and one in the fall, and anticipate continuing this pattern as long as possible. 
3. The attendees and vendors will sometimes offer donations to offset the cost of the meets (and one time had a beautiful set of headphones made for me); these have never fully covered the costs of the meets, but have of course always been greatly and deeply appreciated. 
4. People will occasionally buy or sell things at the meets, but I am not directly involved, and do not make any kind of financial impact on the transaction on either the buyer's or seller's side. 
5. There are vendors who attend to represent their companies and attempt to sell their products. They are not in any way financially obligated to the meet. 
6. Some vendors will donate an item to be raffled, with the subsequent raised funds going towards the costs of the event. 
7. The vendors have, on two occasions, been kind enough to purchase food (pizzas) for the ravenous hordes at the meets. 
8. Our event is essentially what you'd expect from a small-to-medium local meet: a bunch of guys getting together listening to different setups, trying to learn more about the hobby, and enjoying each others' company. There are vendors present, but the purpose of the meeting is educational and social in nature, not in any way profit-based (at least on our end-- I'm sure our vendors expect to make a profit by their involvement).
9. We are in the process of organizing the fifth Music City Meet right now, and not a single one has netted a profit, although some of them came reasonably close to breaking even after attendee/vendor contributions. 
10. I specifically do not want to make a profit on these meets; while I can understand differing points of view on this, I prefer this to be an event that exists solely for its own merits, not for any type of monetary gain. 

 
I honestly have zero idea what I'm doing, and would appreciate any direction a knowledgeable person would provide. If this all seems like utter nonsense, please feel free to let me know-- I don't have any ego about it, I'm just a random guy who ended up heading up the first Music City Meet and kept it going because I love the hobby and the people that show up. I freely admit I am wholly ignorant of the best way to move forward from this point, and am open to feedback and direction. Let me know if a 501c3 makes sense (and if so, what I should be doing about it) or, if it doesn't, what other direction I should be considering. 
 
Again, thanks in advance to anyone with a little more knowledge and experience who feels comfortable helping out!

 

[Allanmarcus]

My wife as a lawyer and she's done this a few times. Not simple, but doable.
 
This site might help:
http://form1023.org/starting-a-nonprofit-organization

 

[Theogenes]

Apologies for the delayed reply. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll take a look at that link again!