I am a member of The Tolkien Society, which is an international society based in England. The society`s aims are to promote the knowledge and interest towards the works of J.R.R.Tolkien. If you are interested in becaming a member, please go to The Tolkien Society homepage.
With the membership you will get two magazines, Amon Hen and Mallorn. Amon Hen is published six times a year, and is the news magazine of the society. Mallorn is a journal, and comes only once a year but it's usually worth waiting for. It has great stories and articles. The Society also sales all kind of Tolkien related stuff to it's members, including books that at least in Finland could be otherwise difficult to get. Currently the membership stands around 540, and has stayed there for a long time. There membership fee is 15 pounds in Great Britain and 17.50 in Europe.
The Society also has many local Tolkien clubs, or smials. I am myself still a member of the Buckland Ferry smial (Leicester), and have also attented some meetings of Amon Sul smial (Halifax-area). The society smials currently are (in case you are interested to see if there is one in your area): Taruithorn (Oxford), Armari (postal smial, based in Oxford), Mundeli Sernieva (Rugby), Middle-Earth reunion (postal smial, attemps to research the middle-earth as if it would be a real world. Interesting), Dol Guldur (postal smial?), The Grey Company (Pontypool, maybe somewhere in Wales), Northern Wastes (Manchester), Amon Sul (sometimes said to be in Hull area, but the meetings are in Halifax anyway), Bucklebury Ferry (Leicester), Northfarthing (London, almost a society in society), 1420 (special interested smial. In what...beats me), Fornost (postal smial), Northern Khand (postal smial), Nigglings (writers speacial interest smial...publishes great stories), Minas Tirith (Cambridge), The Golden Perch (Swindon), Brandy Hall (Germany), The young Inklings (Poland) and Lay of Leithian (Netherlands). If you are interested in knowing more, ask the addresses from me or contact The Tolkien Society.
A short history
The society was founded by Vera Chapman (Belladonna Took). In the sixties
a Tolkien Society was founded in United States, and there had for a some
time been an idea to found similar kind of society to England. In november
1969 Vera Chapman put on announcement to an magazine called New Statesman,
and got several replies. How ever the arrangements took some time, and the
founding meeting of the new society was held in january 1970 in London.
The first official meeting was held in january 1972, and the constitution
of The Tolkien Society was approved. In 1972 there was already 140
members. The society was very much a counter-strike against hippies who were
considered to use wrongly the
ideas and world of Tolkien. The society wanted to do something so that
the attention would return to the original ethical point view of Tolkien,
and to protect the original views of Tolkien. In summer 1970 the society
started to publish an quarterly journal called Mallorn. The same journal
is still published, although now only once a year. The journal was however
published too rarely. There was a need for the members to have more
contacts with each other, and to get all the information faster. So the
society started to publish also a bulletin, once a month. It was at first
called simply The bulletin. Soon the name was changed in to Anduril. How
ever Anduril quickly moved towards a general fantasy and scifi magazine,
so it soon cut it's contacts with the society. On november 1972 a new
magazine, at first called Henneth Annun, was published. Almost instantly
the name was changed in to Amon Hen, which is still the membership
magazine of The Tolkien Society.
The society always treated professor Tolkien with a great respect and held it's distance, in order not to get a same kind of bad reputation as msot of the Tolkien fans who didn't leave Tolkien any peace. The society also kept a way from all the hippies and strange Tolkien-related cults that were common in 1960s and early seventies. Thank's to this attitude Tolkien finally agreed to be the honorary president of The Tolkien Society, but died soon after that. His daughter Priscilla Tolkien then became the honorary vice-president of the society, and since then she have held close relationship with the society. Traditionally the society has held a meeting every year in Oxford, called Oxonmoot. It was held for the first time in autumn 1974, and was a kind of pilgrimate. Since that the meeting has how ever got more academic nature, with a many lectures etc, but also with great parties. In the first year Priscilla Tolkien invited all to her appartment for a celebration, and this became a tradition. In nowadays how ever there are so many attentands that only the first timers and committee members are invited. In 1989 there were 142 oxonmooters. The meeting is also very international. In 1995 (when I went there) there were people from Finland, Sweden, Norway, United States, Holland, Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.