Lew a good morning to you
I don't think it has something to do with countries.I m talking to dutch, belgian,and french clubs and every where they have the same problem. One of the declining memberships was the corona. I have seen our memeberships growing ( not by ten's) but regularly new members presented themselves. During the pandemy a lot of people left our club for various reasons.
I have taken over the presidency of our 121 years of existance because our actual president was suffering with health problems( he is 83). I m a young lad of 74. And i agree the efforts you put in is a days work. We organised an exhibition in a castle and the number of people showed up was fenominal due to the local newspaper and broadcasting company who announced it a couple of days before. This year we go with our 3 divisions( boats, trains and lorries) to an exhibition in Holland, after that in may we have a modelboat and modeltrain day at our second pond.
Over the 2 years i try to increase the PR and show events to attract more people and get new members out of it. I must admit due to all this , the collaboration increases.
So i hope this continues in the future. I have at he moment a fantastic team around me that is helpfull in every way.
will be continued 😂

Hello Lev

I can definitely understand you.
There is also a model boat club in our neighboring town. I did some research and then didn't join. The reason...the members were extremely arrogant and I didn't have the time to get involved. Although I would have liked to.
Instead, I offered that if I could drive my boats on the club pond, I would like to give 20 euros to the club's coffers. They rejected that.
I can understand if you have to keep the area in order and it has to be done by someone. But taking a boat for 1 - 2 hours and spending 20 euros more on your wallet is nothing to sneeze at. Not everyone has the time to get fully involved in a club.

I believe I figured out one more reason that scale model hobbies is declining (at least in the US). I think oversaturation with responsibilities of a few that the majority take advantage of.

I am finding this true in two different clubs, the Suncoast Scale Model Boat Club and the Bay Area Blitzkrieg RC Tank Club.

About 12 years ago I joined the previous club (Bay Area Electric Boaters, over 25 members) at the park. I was pushed in as the "Commodore". I made some major accomplishments with the county in installing a floating dock at no cost to us. Even got better grounds maintenance. With a lot of pain I organized a regatta. Lots of people wanted one but trying to get volunteers (needed about 20) to help was almost impossible. To encourage more people to participate I made the event free. I got donations for the various event prizes. I almost had a meltdown when one of the winners mentioned the cheap junk (yes free new inexpensive tools) that were given out as prizes. Holy $hit! (Sorry about this but this is how I felt.) He paid nothing and did get a winning award certificate, at my own expensive.

As for the current model boat club, I (and help with my son) which I restarted after the other one collapsed I have been organizing the meets, running the website and funding it (now down), advertising in local hobby shops, and trying to keep everyone happy.

Recently, I started working on the docks as I have mentioned a few weeks ago. No much more to do and storage is not an issue. However, there is a lot of work behind the scenes, loading my SUV, unloading and setup at the park, retrieving the docks, cleaning, packing, removal and storage. My son is helping me but he has to bring his young kids along and have to be watched.

Basically ditto for the RC tanks. Instead of the docks it is buildings, trees, a bridge, and other accessories.

As far as help, the tank guys (my son organized this club) are more helpful in getting things set up. I get some help from two of the model boaters. There are some of the "tank guys" that bring a few accessories for everyone to share. None of the boaters do that.

At 82 (in this March) I feel like retiring. I spend more time on "working for the clubs" than I do on model boats and tanks. No one wants to take over anything, but they sure don't mind if someone else does it.

I'm not keen on giving up and I am afraid the club will fold if no one takes responsibility. That exactly what happened when I left the previous boat club.

I know there are a few of you that are lucky and have great organizations even if you do pay. Are Americans "cheap and lazy" or is it me - that is the question.

I don't mean to be whining but I would like to hear opinions from members in other countries as to what you would do, do they have similar situations, and any possible cures for these situations.

Lew