I agree. Grumpy, you are half right. When I joined the PDCA years ago, I met a lot of big company owners. Doing mainly wallpaper, I finally, after a couple months, talked them into letting me do a small job at their own house. Usually I'd paper a powder room for pretty cheap, something I wouldnt take a beating on by charging low. After they got to know me and saw the quality of my work, They started sending me smaller jobs that their large company didn't want to deal with. That will snowball as you meet more people at meetings, discussing these jobs, always thanking them for sending it to you, etc. Now I have over 30 contractors in my database that regularly send me jobs, large and small, and the list is growing. I would never had the opportunity to even meet these people if it hadn't been for the assoc. meetings. Same goes for the NGPP. Its not what you know, its who you know. You meet people from the industry in a friendly, out-of-the-office atmosphere, even competitors will grow to like and respect you.
You will also meet losers, scheisters, and crooks. So goes the life of a contractor.