Thus, hotels are not suitable meeting facilities because their rates for room rental and meals is too high to reach a break-even fee that members will be willing to afford. Hotels are used solely for seminar presentations. Once you have selected a suitable meeting facility, send an email to AFDA, and AFDA will set up a billing arrangement with the facility so that you, as the local chairperson, don't have to absorb any expenses. Once the local chapter is up and running with an established member base, meetings should be held on a monthly basis. In the beginning, as the local chapter is developing, bi-monthly meetings are more appropriate, since the attendance at the initial meetings will be low.
Some thought needs to be given to selecting the appropriate day of the week to hold the meetings.
The Los Angeles chapter has found that Tuesday or Wednesday is best. Mondays are out of the question, as the federal criminal caseload in the U.S. Courthouse is heaviest on Mondays. By Thursday, everyone is feeling the weight of the workweek, and Fridays of course are not available. So that leaves Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The L.A. chapter has selected the first Wednesday of each month, and that seems to work just fine.