You're talking to the right person!
I personally hate Geocities. But that's just me.
I have had excellent experience with Tripod. I've hosted my personal website there for about 7 years and never had a problem with it. I would really recommend them.
Here's some quickie website tips:
--KEEP IT UPDATED.
--if you put pictures on it (which I hope you will), don't put too many on one page. It will take far too long to load. Either put them on several pages, or use thumbnails.
--try to have an extensive history section. Founding, early days, etc etc...this is always interesting to read.
--have the main page organized and simple. A good setup is a frame on the left side that has all the links for the site.
--make sure to include a guestbook for your visitors
I'm an HTML/website buff, so please PM me if you need any help. Also let us know when the site is up so we can all check it out!
Hope this helps!