My strategy, for whatever it's worth.
1. I joined Good Timers immediately, but didn't meet with them right away. The reason for this is that during my practice I learned that if a club has the Rally the Troops perk and you belong to that club, you can use Rally the Troops in ANY club. This basically meant my Sim did not have to eat, sleep, or use the toilet for the first week or so of the challenge, while I was disbanding the premade clubs. Once I joined Spin Masters, I used that as my Rally the Troops club and disbanded Good Timers. I didn't disband Spin Masters until I was ready to start making my own clubs. Oh, I joined Renegades last becaus eof the negative relationship hit. I wanted to make sure my Sim had tons of friends first. While my Sim was out at the nightclubs with Partihaus and Spin Masters I kept my eye out for other club leaders. Chatting while dancing builds friendship pretty quickly. By 3am on the second Tuesday, all 18 premade clubs had been disbanded.
2. I gave my Sim the Dance Machine trait so that when I no longer had access to Rally the Troops she could refill her energy very quickly with Disco Nap. I thought about purchasing the Never Weary reward, but in one of my practice runs I was forced to join the Private Club, so I saved my points for Connections instead. With Connections, I was able to have enough cash on hand to buy all the equipment needed for club activities on my home lot, which saved travel time later on.
3. When I started joining clubs, I was always thinking ahead to future restrictions, so I built skills as I went along. For example, I purchased a portable bar and brought it with me to Upper Crusts gatherings so I could work on mixology. By the end of the challenge, my Sim had 2(+) in at least 18 different skills. Those were the primary club restrictions. I also used one age restriction, her three traits, and finally, the Secret Agent career because she would have the weekend off. She was gathered in the Tech Guru club when she aged up.
4. Club activities were set up the same as what Minnie Mouse described.
5. My Sim was in a club gathering from the time she landed on her lot on Sunday morning until she aged up. There was never a time when she was not in a club gathering.
6. With a few exceptions, it took about 10-12 hours to get to 500 points. I'm not sure what I could have done to get to the 500 point threshold any faster. Maybe my club members weren't as cooperative about staying on task or something?
Congratulations to Minnie Mouse and thekatie!