Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Jason, filing for non-profit status starts with establishing sound by-laws that are acceptable to both your state as well as the federal government. After that you need to file the federal form. You need to do this by May to get in ahead of the summer recess.
The federal form is long, painstaking and arduous, but not impossible to fill out yourself. We have already provided sample bylaws to your organization in its infancy. I'm not sure if they were adopted or modified or whether they still comply with the federal laws. You'll have to verify that they meet the state standards as they could be different from state to state.
If you would like further information please feel free to email officers@njreefers.org and someone will get back to you.