For example, when I owned my Corvette I found a club that had membership fees. I believe it was for charity reasons or special edition New Balances. Needless to say I didn't join because I figured why do I need to pay to hang out with car people when I could do that for free so I looked elsewhere.

Are the owner(s) of these clubs pocketing the cash just to have an exclusive club?

Since most if not all these local car clubs do not have operating costs that are not apparent, do the owners charge fees to get certain deals with businesses or something? I can imagine a custom forum website costing some but many don't have those anymore due to FB and GroupMe chat. But really I'm only going to buy about 1 shirt and 1 sticker and I certainly don't want to pay to get up front parking of some sports bar restaurant once a month.

I was recently invited to join a car club that required $15 at every meet that you attended (once a month usually unless there is a event). They wanted to use the money to buy club shirts and to be able to afford a tent to represent themselves at car shows/drift events/etc. This would be my first club but it's kinda throwing me off that they want people to pay to before they even see if their club is worth joining. It's a relatively new group but they just started another chapter in a different town. Is this typical in meet ups? What are your experiences in paid clubs?