Hell yeah, 3-4 is a great size for a starting group! 4 to 6 would be my personal goal if it was me. Tbh you're probably good to go. You might already be doing this, but meeting regularly with those people to lay out each of your "needs" and establish agreed-upon goals in regard to the project would be a great start, then you can prioritize and delegate from there. Really focus on making that core group as strong as possible. Once you feel ready, I'd suggest having meetings with the less-core group as well. You may well already be on this, but I'm going to way over-explain it anyway, but only because it might be useful for others to read in the future.
Probably the first things I'd recommend deciding on are location and then organizational structure, and to what extent each of the core group members is realistically willing/able to engage with the project.
Establish hard boundaries, really be clear and honest with and get to know each other if you don't already. If someone has commitments, like a budding romance for example, that may make them hesitant to actually move across the country to make this work, they should be honest about it. Someone may be unable to invest in this unless they have a guaranteed housing situation. Someone might have a health condition that they might have to deal with soon. Someone might fucking hate the desert. Someone might not be comfortable being on the board of directors and being legally liable for the project. Someone may only be able to do this for the next 2 years or so, but will eventually have to take care of an aging family member. Communicate, build trust. Teamwork makes the dream work. All these things can be worked out and you don't want a big blow up or to be left hanging later when things inevitably get a little stressful. If you have people in mind you'd like to potentially join the core group, invite them in and get them on board.
Knowing what kinds of locations will work for your core group will narrow down your choices, and some parameters will be helpful when asking for input from the larger community.
Some good questions for the core group: What are our accessibility and location needs? Are there any places or types of environment that are OFF the table for any of us? What is our agreed-up "mission" with this project? If we were to start a nonprofit or similar entity, who is potentially comfortable being involved to that extent, and under what circumstances? What do each of us want get out of our involvement with this on a personal level to feel fulfilled? What are each of our biggest hesitations or things we want to avoid seeing happen with this project? What is going on in each of our personal lives where we may need to take steps back or be supported by the group in the future?
In the process of discussing and sorting these things out, you could take input from this thread or another you create and share it with the group, invite people who have been giving input into the conversations directly, or make discussions public and include everyone on here who wants to be involved. Sometimes in situations where broad ideas need to be narrowed down, our decision making meetings at my spot are run by a core group (elected committee, board, etc), but anyone interested is welcome to come and offer input and get involved. Once a solid outline is created by the most interested parties, the ideas are brought to the larger group for crit and adjustment. This saves a lottttt of time and stress and prevents key participants from feeling overwhelmed, so is my preference, but you may want to just do open public involvement from the get-go.
A lot of activist and cooperative type orgs I've been a part of use a system that holds open-to-the-public meetings, but doesn't permit new attendees to "vote" or take on tasks until they've attended at least 3 meetings to avoid wasting time with casual participants who show up a couple times and never again.
You may want to consider establishing accountability processes if there are any members in the group who take on tasks or positions that may put them in positions of power or that the group is relying on heavily.
However you decide to do it, get your core organizers on the same page and have a basic outline, then bring people into the fold and get them involved where they're comfortable, prioritize next steps, delegate tasks/research to individuals or form "teams" and just regularly discuss on here and meet up until you've eventually got everything I mentioned sorted and a place found!
Sorry for the long ass posts, hope this helps somebody someday~~
