[Geek44]

I joined many years ago but never attended any of their meetings. IPMS themselves have a bit of a reputation for rivet counting down here and also for being a bit narrow minded. The 'P' stands for 'plastic' after all...other materials such as PE or whatever else one uses is (or was) frowned upon. Not my scene really. Things are probably different now...at least I hope so.
The big advanteges to my club are hearing when swap and sell meetings are going to occur (cheap kits), somebody at the club will know the answer to any question I can think of, somebody will know how to do whatever it is I can think of...basically, one gets the benefit of several hundred years of experience if the spirit is right. Also, you'll get to talk to real people about the esoterics of modelling that sure, we talk about here, but it can take days to have a ten minute conversation. I've learned plenty too. To clarify, my club isn't IPMS affiliated.