group activities and relationships

So, after some hours sunk into the assumption that groups are an environment to increase relationships b/w like-minded sims, and upon further experimentation, I can 99% say that clubs do NOT create friendships. They merely function as a means for doing some sort of action. Ex: I made a club, introduced sims who oddly didn’t already know each other, learned their careers and interests (get to know), but then when they met again, they didn’t know each other at all! It seems like if you want to make friends with group members you have to do it individually outside of the group!? Crazy silly. Makes no sense. Let me know if you’ve experienced otherwise and/or better ways to group friendships within a set of sims.