Hi @Rick L. and @Rebecca B. - yes, we have a BP meet-up every third Thursday of the month. Typically, they are located near downtown - usually at the Caribou Coffee on Ingersoll at 5:30. It's been a good turn-out the last few times with around 20 people attending.
thanks @Taylor Marvin My wife were in town this weekend scouting out areas to live. I'm going to be working in the rural Southeast area (Pleasantville, Knoxville, Indianola) and she's most likely going to take a position in HR somewhere in West Des Moines. We really liked West Des Moines, Clive but would be too far of a commute for me. I think we nailed down our focus are to Norwalk, which would be about a 30 minute commute for the both of us.
I do look forward to attending one of the BP meetups once we move to Des Moines, sometime in May.
My kids go to Norwalk schools and they are great. There is a local REIA group also that you might be interested in http://iareia.org/. They meet the 4th Tuesday of the month. There is a calendar link on their main page. They are a member pay group that brings in speakers to their meetings etc. The local BP meet up is more informal and is more geared around networking and discussing local trends etc.
Both have their merits, I've been trying to get to both of them.