Not local to you, just offereing the suggestion that you go along to as many meetings as possible of as many associations as possible - most are delighted to welcome visitors and prospective new members. (Polite 'good form' suggests that you 'ask' the Secretary, rather than just showing up!)
See where you feel most comfortable!
See who is interested in helping/mentoring beginners.
See who has got the best/most loan kit (like extractors).
Look before you join.
And you can join more than one. It is usually very cheap to join as a friend/associate/beeless member.
One large chunk of the "full" membership fee goes to the BBKA 'capitation' (for which you get their 'News' (magazine) and 3rd Party insurance). Another goes to Bee Disease Insurance (for your first 3 hives. You only need to pay those once (per year!), so you can take full membership of one and associate membership elsewhere. And even move your full membership to a different one next year.
Another thing to be aware of is that there is no point in delaying joining.
Membership fees usually
don't relate to 12 months from when you join.
They are based on calendar years, so join later and you get less for the same money!
Last suggestion is that many (most? all?) Associations have some sort of scheme for giving collected swarms to beginners.
This has good and bad points - but it can get you some bees (for basically petrol transport cost) to get started with, essentially something cheap to learn on. And you might just get some very nice bees. (Though you might not!)
