blitz,
the meeting before and after the meeting is not a formal meeting but rather a chance to talk to whoever you want to talk to (one-on-one, one-on-two, etc.) A lot of people will suggest that you get to the meeting early and stay afterwards to talk to people. I hope that makes sense.
Jupiter,
thank you so much for your posts, they were very helpful. I've been to a couple of beginner meetings and while they were different in format from the traditional ones, I have not yet been to ones like you described. I think that's wonderful.