I always thought the point of factions was that like minded people could collaborate on their own direction of role play and work together to accomplish it.
This shouldn't involve having to act as self-appointed in-game admins.
Play your faction and let others play theirs.
Your "glorified get togethers" are defined by what your faction does. Making the role play there fun is your job as a faction for your own members and if that's all you see it as then that's a limitation on your own part--not because you can't control other players. Do you think the point of a succesful faction is to take over as the NPC faction and make everyone play your role play?