1)Quite small compared to the NW community,most of the people who play N&S anyways are from NW.
2)Yes most people do although there are a few who rarely do and time investment,you really don't need to invest alot of your time,as I know the events are only on the weekend and the events are after the NW ones.
3)Afriad not,there aren't many people who play N&S regularly unlike NW so better luck searching for NW players and convincing them to join.
Hope this helped.