You are ready to bring people together for real work, not red tape. The legal requirements for registering an association can feel scattered across government sites, older blog posts, and well-meaning threads. The path is not a maze. You will create a legal shell in your home state, pick the right federal tax lane, file a few core forms in the right order, register for charitable solicitation where it applies, and set light but real governance so annual filings stay dull and predictable.