Part I
Getting Started

First you have to consider, "Am I a proven Scenario/Campaign/Modpack designer that has a degree of respect ammong others that will merit my creating this design group?" You must also consider, "For a community that is downsizing, is another design group really nessicary with the other active, more experianced ones?"

You'll find that these are important factors in deciding if you having a design group will suceed or not. At any given time, there can be no more than 3 to 4 Design groups active.

Part II
Appeal

You have to be able to appeal to people and show that your design group is worth joining. This is usually achived through releasing a decent project under your design group's name before any members join. If people see that this good project was created by a member of this group they will seek you out and ask to join.

You can't go to the crowd and find members, they have to come to you. For instance, the ASD recruitment thread is nothing more than a sign of despairity. If you release works under your design team's name and people aren't motivated to want to join that group, give up now. There is no point to go on after this point as it will only ruin your own reputation ammong others.

Part III
Your Website

A website is the next crutial thing next to your projects and you dignity. The most common choice for a free web host is freewebs. I would agree that freewebs is probably the best option for a small site for your design group, however, I do not believe that using one of the prefabricated freewebs tempates with a bad color scheme is going to be too atractive. I'm not saying that you need to know expert HTML or anything. Make your site in Frontpage! If you want your website to say 'We are a good design group', you want it to look original and creative. This often reflects people's views on your projects.

Part IV
Dedication

Any run of the mill idiot can set up a design group and a website, get members and say "Oh look! I have a design group now, I'm special!" You have to work to hold it together. You have to be involved with what goes on with your group, you have to keep projects running, you need to keep your members involved and you have to make your group look interesting.

Take Clone Campaign Design (CCD). Their group was doing extrodinarily well until their leader left and neglected his duties. Eventual, the website was abandon, the members lost interest and the group lost popularity. Thus, it was annex by DFD because that's just what DFD does to dying groups.

Possibly more later. Thankyou for your time.