Where in Ca. are you? If your near me, maybe I can help you find a club. The kind of fees & dues your quoting actually sound very similar to three of the clubs I know of that are all within 30-45 min. of my town. I ended up with the club right here in my town. 1. They are very close to home, 2. They have a real runway, not grass, 3. They are the most reasonable by far! Their dues are just a flat $55 for the first year, then $30 a year from then on. They do have a club membership limit though. I assume this is to prevent over crowding & insure that all dues paying members are afforded ample flying time. I can't think of any other reason for it, so that is my guess. I just started visiting all the clubs around here like these guys are telling you to do. I started meeting new ppl, & asking questions. Was greeted with open arms & invited to join & learn allmost immediately by all four clubs. The one I chose is of course full of members right now, but I'm on their list to get in at the first of the new year. In the meantime they let me guest fly while I'm waiting to join, & pretty much treat me like a member allready as I have become a regular. They are teaching me to fly on my 4-Ch. glow powered Trainer, my progress isn't as rapid as I hoped it might be, but I'm getting it a little at a time & my Trainer has never suffered a hard landing yet, much less the high speed nose slam it would have if I tried to go it alone, without the help of an experienced pilot/instructor.
Feel free to pm me if you want to, if you're in my area I'll do whatever I can to help ya get started.
Mark
P.S. The AMA has a trial membership available now that is like $ 19.99 (or close to it, don't remember for sure) but it will give you 90 days of AMA coverage & benefits to see if your gonna stay with the hobby. If you decide it is for you, contact AMA by phone before you trial membership expires and you will get credit towards your full open membership. Then you will only need to send them an additional $38 & change. That's what I did, it makes it a little easier to get started that way. Good Luck, & welcome to the desease.