Hi Will,
Well the group is sponsored by a small CPA firm. This firm reasoned that it was a good marketing strategy to make connections with local bookkeepers. Their staff arranges the meetings and the speakers. And there was a small fee to be part of the group (I think it's about $50 annually now), and if you wanted to have a nice meal at the meeting (which was usually at a nice restaurant), you had to pay the extra $10 - $12 bucks. But the cost of the meal was generally well worth it and made it more fun and probably motivated more of us to take time out to go (I know that was true in my case!).
So maybe other people can approach a CPA who might be in this type of situation - without their own in-house bookkeeping. It must have some value for this firm in Marin, since they are still doing it after all these years!
Good luck!
azur'yana

Hi Gary,

You will find that nearly all (if not %100) of the bookkeepers in the Marin group use QuickBooks to some degree, and for the majority it is their specialty. So plenty of networking there if you use QuickBooks. When I was a member, one memorable meeting featured Doug Sleeter from the Sleeter Group as the speaker (check out www.sleeter.com if you're not familiar with his QuickBooks Consultanting Materials). Many in the group attend the Sleeter conference held usually in Las Vegas in October -- so indeed there are some knowledgable bookkeepers in the group.

Hope that helps!
~ az