Pretty much but I'm pretty sure it's 3 max people (I think that depends on your county). More than that and you are considered a dispensary and must get permits from your city/county to have a dispensary. In some counties that's 300sq feet + 9# dry. And there is nothing in the law saying you can only take part in one collective. Every time you go to a club that makes you sign a form, you are joining their collective (which doesn't mean you are growing for their collective!, start your own!).
I'm in CA and here's the real stuff about growing and collectives. There isn't a limit on how many people can join a collective. Once it's started, anybody with a valid doctor's recommendation who lives in CA can join. You can find out exactly how they're regulated by going to the CA statutes online, and look up Senate Bill 420, which set out the rules for operating and growing legally.
Alos, go to the CA attorney general's website and look up the guidelines he put out last year. That is very specific about how a collective can form, etc., and definitely states that members of the collective should grow for the collective.
That is what the DA's are now using to try and close the dispensaries, in San Diego, and now Los Angeles. Everybody knows that the collectives operating dispensaries buy from commercial growers, i.e., those growing illegally. That is what is going to lead to most of them either being closed by the police, or they'll have to actually follow the law and have thier members grow the product for them.
This could be where you come in, because they'll need their own members to provide the medicine. You can grow six adult plants for each member of the collective, so you can imagine how many can be grown for a large collective!!
Oh yeah!! Anyway, once you get to CA, get a doctor's recommendation for the medicine, go to some dispensaries near you, and learn how they operate that way. (They're listed on the CA NORML website, both the dispensaries and the doctors who give recommendations.)
I do agree with the other responder that you have to get to know them, and then start to provide them with some medicine that you've grown. It is a very personal relationship kind of operation, but once you join a collective, it's not hard to get to know them.
Hope this helps. Grow on.