We discussed charging a membership fee with two lawyers over the past year. Both of them said in order to be a private club in the eyes of states law, private entities must charge a substantial membership fee. What this means is you can't let people in for one dollar or five dollars. We asked how much is 'substantial". Both lawyers said fifty dollars. We compromised on thirty dollars, as substantial is never specified by states law. If you attend four or more parties a year, there is no cost for the next years membership. We will also have several parties a year where we give away memberships (yes, we can give memberships away, as long as we don't don't give them away all of the time)