What does it take on paper to start a club/association?

Im not looking for responses on how to get interest or how to hold events. I want a registered assoc. with non-profit status. I am sure I could do the searching myself by looking up local and state stuff... (which I will do anyways). I just wanted to see who else has gone thru the process and what they did, what they had to go thru, and what worked best.

I am interested in this also, do you have to get a business license or is there some kind of non - profit status for clubs?

Please help!