Sounds great!
You can just make a group on meetup.com
I don't think they charge anything to do that.
That is funny and that's my initial reaction - where does the money go? I hope to a charity or something and not in pockets.
Since you're heading this, some ideas of what our group does - we meet monthly at a local dog park at 5pm on Sundays. Come and go as you please. It's the small dog park area so there's always lots of other dogs there and there's never been a time when it's been too much.
Then, every so often, we do "Urban Walks" by walking in a local downtown boutique area and we go to the dog store(s) nearby and have lunch on the patios. Of course we go to the main dog-friendly areas but if you have something like that, it'd be fun to do. Sometimes the dog stores will give discounts.