building

Hello, I am thinking of creating a Drupal Community, for some of the non-profits in my area to better communicate. I am new to Drupal, and though this would be an interesting/challenging project to get started learning about it. I have a friend who has been working with Drupal for a while, but has never built a community. A coworker suggested me this book to get started http://www.duoconsulting.com/capturing-community. Has anyone read this? Does anyone have other suggestions of where to start? Should I even be considering this task?