BNI is a business and the guy who runs the branch makes his living from recruting new members and signing them up. Our local man keeps phoning me up and offering me a free breakfast but I am not interested.
All this "networking" is OK for some businesses and it could be good for some window cleaners but there is no such thing as a free breakfast. It is very club like and they try to promote that image but actually it is a hard faced commercial operation. As long as you are aware of that and you know where you stand thats fine, go along and give it a go.