Krystya, I know what you mean by having hands on buddies, there is nothing like it. I would love to get some thing going here too. I started a guild back about 20 years ago, the first meeting, one gal showed up, second meeting she and another gal showed up, 3ed meeting we had 4 of us, it took us a year to get 8 of us to meet regular. But a year and a half later we gave our first quilt show, that little group has grown and they still give a show every year, and now are doing 2 shows a year. the one thing I would sugest is to make a mission statment and maybe post that so others will have an idea of what kind of group you are starting, and don't worry if it is slow to start. Just stick with it!
PM me and I can give you ideas I did, that might help.