Brakie, You and your fellow members are truly wonderful folk! Thank you for the nice warm feeling I experienced upon reading your comments.
I am a little late for responding to the original question about club membership, but would like to add my comments on my experience. Sometime about 1978 I somewhat nervously joined a club. There were several in the North Jersey area, and I had seen them all during open houses. Being very shy by nature I elected to join the least impressive club so as to feel not quite so inexperienced. I should say that I was not actually inexperienced, I just had no idea where I was in relation to others. I brought along a diorama I had made to test my skills, it consisted of a Campbell truss bridge with scratchbuilt abutments, river and trees. It was given a honored spot in a display cabinet and I was welcomed warmly. I soon realized that none of the currant members had had much to do with the constuction of the layout. Membership was falling off and there was a general feeling of apathy. Two young members were excited by possibilities but were kept from doing anything. The club followed Roberts rules. 2/3rds majority was required to get permission to do anything. 2/3rds consistently voted against everything! Nothing was getting done. There was no interest in even performing maintenance. A classic case of those who have ability being ruled by those with none. The layout was well behind the times in materials used for scenery, etc. I finally got several people motivated enough to get a proposal passes at a business meeting. If we first repaired/finished three projects which were in limbo for years (one of which my small group thought was stupid anyway) then we would be able to work on the section we were interested in. Although we had some help, it was Blake and I who did most of the work, much of it in one all night marathon. In one week, between Friday meetings, we had finished the tasks of repairing a yard throat, wiring a passenger terminals trackage and some other repair task I can't recall. I also added a turnout off the main to the industrial area which was our goal. All the industrial trackage was installed in a feverish session Thursday night so as to ward off the possibility we would be told to "amend" our plans to their way of thinking. Despite all the work done in just one week (which had been waiting to be done for years!) there were rumblings about how we had exceeded our permission, although we were mpermitted to finish. The do nothing members started to leave, they were unhappy that "their" club was changing. I swear this is true, these members knew little about railroading, either real or model. They used the Friday night sessions not even to run trains, I never saw half of them behind the control panel. They came to talk, about anything but usually not trains. And they wanted stagnation! I learned later that those who had built the layout had left in disgust at the new members who had taken over. But Blake and I were on a roll we built a new yard which I designed, we started actually operating and new members started joining, having seen progress for the first time in years. Membership had dropped to 5, we were about to throw it in, but the 5 were all doers, and we soon grew. We decided to tear down the old layout and start over. Several plans were submitted, mine was chosen. I had also been elected president a year before. For a brief spell, all members were on the same page. Layout construction went well, our first annual show with the new layout offerd no scenery, which made a lot of people turn around and leave instead of paying to come in (we dearly neede funds to continue) but many stayed and watched our trains run on our plywood roadbed, offering encouragement at the sight of a fresh start. Membership grew, the layout progressed, but problems were on the horizon. Our rules stated that membership was probationary for one year, after that voting members would decide on accepting a member as a full key holding, voting member. When the sudden influx of new members reached full membershio status, the consensus of opinion we had enjoyed evaporated, and the politics became bitter. To skip ahead a bit, Blake, Jim and I left, it was hard to do, that layout was my brainchild, it was like leaving a loved one. Perhaps I had become to controlling, perhaps it was now I who wanted total control. But I don't think so, I was always willing to let those who had a similar goal or vision pursue their work, and to help or teach those who had the right attitude but no experience. It was those who had radically different ideas on what they wanted in a club or layout that I resisted, their ideas or goals were not wrong, they simply didn't match what the layout was designed for. In short (!) I believe even a club layout needs direction, it can't be everything to everyone. I now am 5 years into building the JGL, I had hoped for more help from a round robin type club, but Jim moved a fair distance away, Blake can only make it by once a month or so, and no others have pooped up on my radar screen as yet. But I hope to build a group to help operate once construction is done. Anyone on the Gauge within driving distance who is interested in coming over to check it out is very welcome to do so.
Mery Christmas, Gary