Thanks for your thoughts.  My normal opinion is that most meetings take an hour to cover five minutes worth of information or take care of five minutes worth of business.  I cringe at the thought of adding another hour of meal that I could otherwise eat in five minutes as well.  Worse yet, I usually get burned by committing to a meeting because something usually comes up at the last minute that will cost a lot more to fix if I'm forced to wait until the meeting is over. 

It seems as though I'm in the minority since these community events have a good following and most people really enjoy the meal.  Oddly enough, I have various levels of responsibility for some of these events, but do not have a good feel for why people attend.  I just want to get them done well and pass the torch on to someone with a true passion for this sort of thing.  One thing your responses reinforce here is the quality of the food is important.