hi, im from uk I attend AA, I go know of 4 different meetings 2 of which I regularly attend that give out sobriety chips
I also identify with you that some meetings are more of a (shall we say dumping ground) where members tend to moan on how bad things are and can make it come across as depressive, but hey take a positive out of it, they too are alcoholic and haven't drank on it.
don't take other peoples sh!t home with you, there are plenty of decent meetings in the uk, but I would guess (and its only a guess) people dump there depressive negative problems at AA world wide, I don't think its a uk thing.
as said try lots of different meetings, big book study where they concentrate on the book, step meeting where they again concentrate on the book, (which could be the big book or 12&12 book) experience strength and hope meeting which has good long term sober members who get a person to share who has a good length of sobriety.
the meetings are out there and I totally agree with you some are very depressing, but not all of them are like that
keep looking
dave