Introduction
This is a document about setting up and running a local Esperanto group in New England affiliated with the 
Esperanto Society of New England as a Local Chapter of ESNE. It includes a list of suggestions and some links to other useful resources around the web.
Creating an ESNE chapter is simple: choose a place and time to meet, publicize the meetings, and then hold the meetings. Planning ahead is valuable.
When you travel throughout the region (or anywhere) check ahead to see if there are chapter or local group meetings you can attend while travelling. People in other areas are always excited to have guests attend to provide interesting conversation.
Amikumu
There is a new website called Amikumu which can show you Esperanto speakers who live closest to you. Contacting all of the closest people might be a good way to start a new group.
Choose Time and Place
Weekly meetings seem to work better than monthly meetings; they become part of people's lives, like Survivor or Star Trek, and they get used to knowing that Tuesday evening is the Esperanto meeting. (Try to pick an evening without major TV shows like Survivor or Star Trek. :-)
It's a good idea to hold meetings in a public place, rather than someone's house. Rooms are often available at libraries, malls, and community centers. Restaurants can also work well.
Increasingly, it is possible to find places with wireless network connectivity that can let you bring a laptop and get access to internet resources while at the meeting, which can be useful.
Publicizing Meetings
When you're ready to start trying to hold meetings, list your chapter with ESNE, with ELNA, and with Esperantoland. This will help people to find out about your meetings. You can also send occasional announcements about your meeting schedule to the ESNA mailing list. There may be people in your area lurking on the mailing list who will come to meetings, if they know they're happening.
Most newspapers and cable access stations will let you advertise your group for free. Don't pass up this free publicity!
You can publicize your meetings using ESNE Promotional Cards or ESNE Bookmarks. You can write
a brief message on the back and then post these cards on bulletin boards or leave them in foreign language and Esperanto books in libraries and bookstores. You can also copy and put up posters and flyers. ELNA has a large collection of posters that you can draw from. Possibly put a sticker on the
Beer Posters about the local group and its meetings.
It's pretty easy to create a website and mailing list to help facilitate organization. A website doesn't have to be elaborate to be effective. Yahoogroups will let you create a free mailing list with a web interface that can include all the information you need to publicize your group. It's a good idea to make the list moderated so that each message needs to be approved -- its a tiny bit of extra work, but that way you can assure that no spam will get sent out to subscribers via the mailing list.
Many colleges have an "Organizations Night" at the beginning of the school year so organizations can put up a table and tell students what's going on. This could be a very good opportunity to meet people directly, give them Beer Posters and handouts etc.
Local libraries sometimes let you put up displays, leave bookmarks or literature for people to pick up, etc. Also a good place for a meeting notice.
There is more information about guerilla marketing that could be used to get information about your group out there.
Conducting Meetings
Meetings have to be fun. With food.
When you hold meetings, it's a good idea to have some kind of sign or signal to help people recognize that they've found the group. A small Esperanto flag works well.
What happens at meetings is up to the group. Meetings should always include an opportunity for newcomers to ask questions about Esperanto before the conversation is conducted entirely in Esperanto. If there are newcomers, it's a good idea to have everyone introduce themselves and perhaps explain when and how they came to learn Esperanto. To be prepared to answer questions by beginners, there is a useful guide for activitists which has a lot of ideas for how to explain Esperanto to beginners.
There is always interesting conversation at meetings. Often meetings will include Esperanto lessons or reading aloud from an Esperanto book or magazine. Meetings are opportunities to share interesting articles or new books. Some meetings are relatively formal and include a formal speaker who presents some topic or article. Others are very informal, simply meeting over tea or coffee. How your group works is up to you.
For ideas, contact other group leaders and ask them for suggestions. Many of the group leaders have been facilitating meetings for years and have a wealth of experience to draw from.
More Information
There is a lokaj-esperanto-grupoj mailing list where people talk about how to form local groups and get them to do interesting stuff.