How exactly do I package latest dev snapshot of Commons locally?
I eventually got the answer straight from ezra-g at Acquia. From a unix-like console you can execute these commands (make sure you have drush and git installed locally):


cd ~ 
git clone --branch 7.x-3.x http://git.drupal.org/project/commons.git ./commons-profile 
cd public_html
drush make ../commons-profile/build-commons-dev.make --prepare-install my_Drupal_Commons_site