Hey newbie,
to some degree you have a shallow point. I'm familiar with the club you discuss and I can tell you first hand, by the most part your field is almost always empty. Why is that? All I ever see there is the same few people.
Let me interject my opinion on the way your club offer's free flight instruction. It has free flight instruction by appointment only. Only there are no contact numbers on your frequency board. Hmm. That's not the way to attract the budding wonders of our hobby.
There are the brave few that offer flight instruction some by pay or some like me, for free. Unfortunately for the freebie, you get what you pay for and the only people that seem to be wanting instruction (,by the most part) are so desperate there willing to pay and those are the one's that actually learn to fly. There is one hobby shop in your area that offers free, fly before you buy and follows through with free lessons after the purchase but you clubber's steer people to the other places that don't do that and after they crash once or twice well, you don't see any new faces anymore.
So how about being part of the solution and not part of the problem. Put your name and number on the board as a flight instructor and let the next article you wright be of your experience as a flight instructor. Not just a little or sometimes but every time. I guess what I'm saying is, put your money where your mouth is.
I don't suppose it matters if it's the "buddy box" or not, as long as the job is getting done and hats off to those that charge because all in all, at least there getting the job done and are not criticizing those that don't, see.