Flying Blind

After moving to this area ten years ago, I looked for a group to be a part of. I attended a meeting at a new "club" that was called an AA meeting. There was no group, no mention of the Traditions, and no connection through the structure to the rest of AA. The meeting had a format which said, in part, that "pledges" were due, followed almost immediately by the Preamble statement, "There are no dues or fees for AA membership." When the chairperson asked for a subject, I said, "Where does the money from your basket go?" Most of the people there were new, and they didn't know or seem to care where the money went. After the meeting, a couple of guys came up and explained to me that the club was new and they were taking the money and accumulating it so that they could pay rent and operate the club. Not being satisfied with this explanation but unfamiliar with such goings-on (my prior experience was with a small group in a rural area), I resolved to get more informed about what was going on.