He's the co-owner of a brokerage focused on income properties and is very active on these forums.There's also a NE Ohio RE Meetup Group.

I would love to find a mentor, or a group of peers  with whom to discuss ideas and work on deals together. 

Lakewood BP Group

Michael S. mentioned Low Or No Money Down Investing, which is a Bigger Pockets ebook that can be downloaded for free.Bigger Pockets has various resources: ebooks, blogs, podcasts, forums, webinars, colleagues, keyword alerts, an awards system, a learn section, informative people in many fields of real estate, and mastermind groups to engage with individuals interested in real estate investing. 

A small group of us will have lunch at a Korean restaurant in East San Jose before we head there.

Please find an agent or investment group in the area you want to invest, you need boots on the ground to get the right properties.

Showing on time is not important, if you make it early, you'll have more networking time, that's all.Do not assume that a REIA (or in our case simply a networking group) focuses solely on the geography in which it is located. 

A bank would only sell you a pool (group) of mortgage notes.

It looks like a novice group of one or two individuals.

Then right after you get that going, are you starting a BP Addicts Support Group?