There is a ‘community’ around autoeth, but like with most creative endeavors, it is made up of creative people who tend to ‘go it alone’ ultimately.
The autoeth email group on Yahoo offers support. There is a community in the UK and Europe (now we are talking small community here) as well as those working in the USA. There are also people in Australia and NZ that I know of. I mention these geographic locations because sometimes support is needed face to face.
The example above in FQS written by Sally: she did her work in Australia, but came to see me just before she had her viva. I believe that my support for what she was about to submit proved helpful at the time. She also returned later after her success and shared her work with people here in a seminar.
Conferences are a great way to build community as well and there are many other than just the Illinois one.
Hope that this helps solidify the concept of community a bit.