Is there a way to search for members by locale. It would be nice to know if any members lived in my area.

Sorry, this is not possible at the moment. I will pass your question
on so perhaps it can be added.

We've had this request before, and unfortunately some limitations outside of our control sort of de-rail this possibility. See http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&postid=9774 for the previous discussion on this matter.