Sometimes you have to think about what your reading in some of these complainers' posts.

About a year ago, I read about the complaints of someone who wanted to join the club I am a member of. I didn't recognize the club till he named it. His description made us sound so bad, I almost wanted to quit after over 30 years of membership. Then, someone from California sent in a link to our website, emphasizing our instruction program. Our website even has an album of pictures showing members with park flyers, helicopters, about everything up to large scalers. The question was, is THIS the same club?

A few weeks later, I ran into a former member who in conversation echoed many of the sentiments in the post. His first name matched part of the user name from the post, and lived in the post source location. He really bad-mouthed the club to me.

If this was the same person, he was in the club for less than 2 years. He constantly opposed our field rules, including restrictions against taxiing in the pits, flying over the flight line, and even our mandatory use of a frequency control board. He reminded me of someone from a neighboring club who thought "We don't need no stinking rules", flew behind the pits over the property owner's greenhouses, and crashed into one.

A club of itself doesn't have a set personality. The club overal reflects a melding of the oppinions of it's individual members. I doubt that one bad experience with a few members on one day will really reflect more than a small number of that club's overall membership. Of course, there may be a few clubs where it does.