Basically you are paying for the privilege of volunteering?
Here in Boston we had 2 super involved co-chairs. They pulled off a great NE conference last year with a lot of effort, and by enlisting a lot of help… they both let their memberships lapse this year. I did the same thing after putting in a tone of effort into the CT chapter.
However I continue to volunteer here and the payback is great. A few years ago I helped to produce and coordinate a Core77 design offsite in Portland. We went to capacity (350 people) for a one night, free event. Had some awesome speakers, an open bar, DJ, done. People freaked out, they loved it so much… could it be that it is just not that complicated?