As a member, it is clear I get out of it what I put into it. The Zealots are largely a social club, with some extremely talented brewers. There are a few that attend just to drink, but for the most part, and under a new president, I am seeing it slowly morph from a social drinking opportunity toward a place where new and experienced brewers help each other - which makes me pretty happy.
We are even trying to have formal tasting/judging panels, with a fun format, to give "good" feedback to someone willing to submit their beer - and the judges then get a sense of what the brewer is doing, because we can ask directly about process. I have been very surprised at some beers that were incredibly tasty, yet little care went into their making (random recipe, no fermentation control, no starter, etc.)
What we have done is try to separate some of the formal competition judging from the club. Having NHC down here hosted, but not officially by the Zealots, allows us to get more local clubs involved, and separate some of the difficulty of organization and running from the club management. Which means, the often less than formal processes of locally run comps, doesn't spill into things like NHC. In the past, it fell onto the club to help manage - and it just was terribly difficult to manage personalities, expectations, and such because it became a club politic.
We also have weekly happy hours at local breweries - and, frankly, that is really where most people get to just drink and socialize. The homebrew shares are pretty much limited to the monthly meeting with a bit more structure.