I'm considering the possibility of trying to set up one of these (with native bees being the breeding focus) either under the auspices of BIBBA or not and either under the auspices of my local association or not.

It would be really helpful if any of you who already run or participate in one of these groups in your own locality could describe the format under which the group operates. The sort of thing I'm interested in is how you recruit members, what the members contribute and anything else you can think of

Where I live there are very few beekeepers and I'm pretty sure I could ensure to a large extent that the group's queens mate with native drones. Ideally I'd like to find an upland mating apiary to base the group's activities but my own apiaries would suffice in the early stages of the group's life.

I haven't even tested the waters to see what the level of interest might be but my attitude is that even if I can't form a group I can do this on my own to a lesser extent.

So any help/advice you can give would be a great help.