@Mark1 We have a group that I started two years ago by messaging hosts in my neighborhood (by contacting hosts through the Airbnb reservation system!). It is very laborous, and I wish there was another way to contact hosts in your own area directly... but not yet 😞
We started with 12 hosts in our group in 2014, and now are in contact with more than 60 hosts out of the approx. 150 in Pasadena, CA. We meet monthly and have a closed FaceBook page and email list for communicating. We share a lot of info and help each other with hosting, too.
We had our Open recap last night and about 25 people came to the meeting ... and it was an overflow crowd because we meet in each other's homes.
It was a pot-luck dinner and we did a slide show and video presentation of some of our experience at Open. We didn't have time to do point-by-point, and will be sharing more specifics at future meetings since we meet monthly.
Good luck with your meeting... let me know what you do for yours... Lia --
-- Lia -- Happy Hosting!