Check with churches, community centers, etc. and see if they will let you use there facilities once a week. You may have to charge members to cover costs if you cant find anything for free.
Wholesalechess.com is a great site for getting your supplies. And they wil match any price you find that is lower than theres.
Hope this helps.
I live in a somewhat small town and there are no chess clubs around. I have ran into other people who like to play chess as well and I was thinking about starting a chess club. Im not a paticularly strong player, my live rating is around 1200 and turn based is about 1600, (I think this is high due to beating some of the same weaker players several times.) I have no idea how to organize a club and am coming here for some ideas. I have never been to a chess club before and dont know what activities to set up, how to challenge the strong players without alienating the weaker ones. What kind of materials should I have besides sets and tables, is there a place that would help discount equipment, or maybe sponsers for money to keep the club going. So, starting from scratch, what should I focus on?