> meetup.com thinking our meetups would be destroyed at some point
That seems naive, you created a meetup on a free platform that is built to bring users together. You are just the initiator, you don't own the community.
That seems harsh if OP is paying Meetup to create and support the meetup. I think there's an expectation that if you pay for the community, then you actually do own it, at least in some sense.
That's a valid point. It gets tricky because, from my experience, many/most Meetup organizers ask group members to donate to cover those fees.
If they do this, then arguably the members are the owners rather than the organizer.
But not all organizers do ask for donations. Some run meetups more like a business where they charge to attend events and may even make some profit. Some run meetups as a marketing tool for their business. It's less clear that the members are the owners of those meetups.
It's not a free platform. It's $15 to $24/month, depending on the location of the group owner.
https://help.meetup.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001620472-Organ...