Paula,
I don't like the sound of that club president/hobby shop owner.....if possible, find another club in the area....you might have to ask around a bit.....I found a club with nearly 200 members 15 minutes away from my other club field.....never even knew the club was there......I heard about it through word of mouth.
It sounds to me like the president has too much control....being the only hobby shop owner in town.....be prepared to have glaring looks when you show up with a plane that you didn't buy from him.......you certainly won't fit into the "clicks" in the group......having great people to fly with is a big part of this hobby, at least for me it is.
By the way, the Tower .46 engines are nice. RCAddiction mentioned the carb air leak....a friend of mine that has quite a few of these engines uses lock-tite on the carb screws, and it fixed the problem.

Mike