Why it felt like a waste
I spend a lot of time networking. If you've ever joined a group and walked away saying it was a waste of time and you didn't get anything out of it, it's usually because you didn't put anything into it.
It's super common for people to join and think business is going to rain out of the sky because they joined. That isn't how it works.
What putting something in looks like
Get involved. Go to the meetings. Reach out to people and set up one on one conversations. Add them to your CRM, connect with them on LinkedIn, and keep working those relationships. If the group has in person events, go to those too.
Relationships take hours
Part of the reason is simple math. Communication professor Jeffrey Hall of the University of Kansas estimated in 2018, in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, that it takes roughly 50 hours together to go from acquaintance to casual friend and about 90 hours to become friends. People who never got past acquaintance had usually spent no more than 30 hours together.
Business relationships aren't friendships, but the principle carries over. Showing up once a month and sitting in the back doesn't add up to much time with anyone.
Give it the old college try
Do all of that for a couple of months. If you still don't see anything, you've officially given it a real try, and you can move on with a clear conscience.
If you want help building more of those one on one conversations, book a networking chat.