And the participation thread dies.

Exactly what is happening to participation.

Couple of new people expressed an interest, did all you veterans jump up and say "Hey welcome, how can we help you get involved?" "What can we do to help bring "Pattern" to your club?(We love guests and guest presentations at our club meetings)"

As a new person looking in, I get the feeling that your really not interested in having new people become involved.

Bill covered it pretty well. I plan on learning to fly the "Patterns" because I want to and I think that type of flying is cool. Will I be heading to any contests? Probably not.