When looking for F2F networking groups, do you take into account if a membership fee is attached before consideration?

I look at the value of a group before making a decision. I always am sure to attend at least one meeting to check out the group whether free or fee based. Chambers are a great source of networking so they are worth the fee to join. Whereas my BNI group has times and restrictions that have prevented me from joining.

Several meet-ups that I have attended are non-fee based (or little cost such as $2 per meeting) and I have found that some are more social gatherings than business gatherings or not the right fit for my business.

Bottom line for me when joining a group is 1) do they have value to my business and 2) what is the contribution I can make to the group. After those two questions are answered I consider the fees attached to the membership.

Yes, I do take into account free versus fee based. However, I will not exclude fee based networking groups when considering my choices. In fact, as long as I know the first meeting is free so I can get a feel for the group, I don't count it out.

In terms of paying, the group would have to be one in which met many of my networking meeting criteria (local, fits my schedule and I am comfortable). I would certainly pay for a meeting that met all of these. I would probably think twice about paying to attend network meetings that did not.

At the moment, free is the only thing that I can afford. I have visited a couple of fee based groups (Minnesota based networking groups) that I found to be great resources along with two city Chambers. However, I do not have the money to join them at this time, but the moment I do, I will pay the fees to join. I personally would not join a BNI however, because they do not allow you to be a member to any other networking group, charge a lot of money and have a lot of rules, but do not seem to offer you more than the groups that I want to join.

To me, money is always a consideration but not the only one. If I felt I was getting what I wanted from the association at a reasonable price I would most likely join. I did leave one association because I felt it was more like a social club and that was not what I wanted. As far as BNI I did not know that you could not join any other networking groups. That reminds me of the workplace where you sometimes are not allowed to work for another company. I do not like the rules of BNI. My local BNI has a breakfast event at 7am weekly, I am just rolling out of bed then. I don't like weekly meeting unless there is some kind of project that has to be discussed weekly. Monthly works for me.