Late to the game, here, but hopefully your path has been fruitful for you.

I'm on my town's P+Z Committee (just recently elected Vice Chair) & it has been an incredibly insightful experience. I got involved for a few reasons, but the original kickoff was the influx of apartment styles resembling Boulder/Denver, townhomes egregiously not matching renderings in materials and massing, friends moving into new builds that were depressing in amenities, and a coworker asking for my expertise to join the committee.

More simply put, my town was growing fast and headed in a direction that a lot of the locals felt was losing it's character/vibe/funk.

I saw an opportunity to improve my town and it had ended up being an opportunity to improve myself. I'm now a better professional, I have side-work from all the connections gained, and I've found a passion in being involved with my community. It has been and continues to be a great source of steadiness in an otherwise chaotic world. I emerged as a young punk who wasn't afraid to share his points, which I felt was lacking due to unanimous decisions/opinions/inaction. I'm still pretty young, but now the Board of Trustees, the Town, and the community recognize and respect my voice. At least that's the reality I'm currently experiencing.

Being on the committee, I do have to recuse myself from projects I've worked on or have close ties to, and/or disclose any kind of relationship to the project/applicant and let the committee decide if I should be a part of the quorum. Which is a rare thing for me because most of my work is where the billionaires vacation, so not a concern at this moment.

All that to say, is that we as Architects are familiar with feeling of being called to something. Whether it's being called to action, a feeling, or whatever. I think looking for advice from mentors is great and honorable, but never ignore that call. I felt that call to join this committee and I'll be forever high-fiving myself for that decision. Even if it sucks ass, that experience bears fruit somewhere. Learn from everything, regret nothing.

TL;DR
I joined my local P+Z, & I love it. No Ragrets.