Where I fly, the club is literally about 15-20 people in total
and flying is only done on Sunday mornings due to the distance the field is from civilization.

On a good day 10 people will show up of which 2-3 are learners.

In the past many people have come and gone and instructors often felt they wasted most of their mornings instructing people who would lose interest after 6 months.

The decision was made to charge a nominal fee per lesson several months ago for a number of reasons:

1. Charging money would imply that a newbie would have to be serious about the hobby and realise that he had to put something into to get something in return.

2. The club would collect a nominal revenue and instructors would not think they would have wasted their time if the newbies left as usual.

3. Due to the small size of members this money now contributes greatly to cleaning the field etc.