Abstract: The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to those interested in establishing an electronic bulletin board system.The material in this report is drawn from experiences operating one of these boards for the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, at the National Bureau of Standards, and helping many other organizations start new bulletin boards of their own.This report discusses the planning and resources needed to establish a successful bulletin board.In March 1984, the Microcomputer Electronic Information Exchange ( MEIE ) was inaugurated using a software product called the "Remote Bulletin Board System."This information exchange system was to serve a growing federal and private sector constit- uency interested in receiving information about computer technol- ogy using their personal computers.By the end of its second year of operation, MEIE had recorded over 30,000 callers.The electronic bulletin board system mentioned in this report was selected because the software is in the public domain and is representative of similar products available commercially.Because of the nature of this report, it was necessary to mention vendors and commercial products.The presence or absence of a particular trade name product does not imply criticism or