I could be wrong but I think the AMA membership numbers have increased over the past few years, youth memberships accounting for the largest growth isegment. As for club memberships, I think some are up, some are down. I'd guess there are numerous reasons why that is happening. I can say that many of our new members are showing up primarily with PNP or RTF great from hobby shops, sometimes though it's an older modeler getting back into the hobby. Our club has had some fantasic growth over the past 3 years, we've gone from a "capped" membership of 125 to just over 180. We have 5 events a year, activity promote the hobby at other events, schools etc, encourage the public to attend our events, host schools and boy scouts/ cub scouts, and get them and any visitors that show up on buddy boxes. We also give a portion of all of our events to local charities. Although I like any type of member to join, the ones I like the best are "family" memberships and those that are brand new to the hobby that decided to join after one of our events. There are tons of things clubs can do to get membership. I do recognize however that CT is a densely populated state with some measure of affluence, and many clubs too, so there's that.