RE: The times, they are a changin! Say it ain't so Joe?
I recently took over on the board of our club and up to that point it was the same group of members there some for over 50 years. New members would come and go as there was nothing really exciting happening to keep them. Not that the club was boring(well it was) but it was stale and was decades behind the times and was not attractive to new and very young members. Long story short I revamped the website, started a facebook page, and started organizing FUN events and advertising them all over the area for the general public and of course neighboring RC clubs. The events have grown now and we have got many new members and quite a few young members and have kept them ...so far. Yes for the older core group it's still business as usual,come out one day a week fly one time and sit down and complain about everything for the rest of the day... BUT we still love them and the club would not be what it is without them and their vast wealth of knowledge. However I believe quite a few folks who have been in this for decades have grown complacent and just don't want to work at making a club better, traveling to other clubs events , etc...They just want to go to their field , fly their planes, BS, and go home.
Bottom line is the hobby is fun in and of itself but it takes work to make a club exciting and interesting to draw new members and keep the ones you have.