Richard: Your step by step addressing of my concerns is great. I support the idea with the caveats you outlined.
The local interaction on this forum should be our highest priority, but if opening (pardon technical terminology) "channels", or whatever the term is will provide the benefits metioned without loss of autonomy, that's fantastic.
In that way I would see craftbrewing.ca as a hub for discrete location-based clubs to interact.
We will have to think about it some more and hear from others in FCBA.