Right....
Let's start off with a few common denominators.

Everyone reading and contributing to this thread loves our respective folk traditions, whether that be English, Irish, Scottish, American, etc. Some (like myself) love folk tradition no matter where it's from, because for me, unlike language, it lets you into the soul of a Nation, and thus it brings people together all the quicker.
I think we all agree, too, that nobody owns the tradition; we got it handed to us on our lap.
I would imagine also that we all wish to bequeath a healthy folk scene to our children & grandchildren, because we know that if the tradition isn't passed down, the tradition gets lost...., and there goes the soul of a Nation.

Audiences seem to be dwindling, folks.
Folk Clubs ain't what they used to be.
Then we only had to deal with the 'The Two Ronnies' on telly as the competition on any Thursday night.
.. yeah, well that was the '70's

Now 'Happy Hours' last all day. If there's a Champion's League game on the box somewhere, guaranteed there'll be a shower of people in the pub that's showing those matches.
Now it's all BUISNESS

To say that a Folk Club is not a 'business', I think, is to overlook certain criteria that is essential to making anything tick over properly, when all around you, your 'competition' is extremely business-like, given the ever-decreasing circles the Service and Entertainment industries have to run in these days.
To call a Folk Club a 'business' does not detract from the intrinsic nature of the Club. Its' integrity remains.
All it does is to open up a way of thinking in the minds of the Club's committee that is constantly focussed on getting your place full every night you have music on, irrespective of who's on the bill.

Getting the word out there and getting people enthused is vital, not for the performer necessarily first and foremost, but for The Club.
The committee should not think of itself as a vehicle to bring artist to audience, in the main.
It should think of itself as a vehicle to bring that audience to The Club

Otherwise the dependency line breaks.
The Club needs to survive, first and foremost.
It needs a fair spattering of 'a cut above average' musicians playing there in order to attract any sort of interest from 'the general public'.
The Club also needs a loyal core of members that will turn out every week, even if it's only to fill the place up a little in case any 'real people' come in.
The Club needs engagement and enthusiasm from the committee, because they are the people on whose shoulders the tradition has come to rest, and it is they who took that upon themselves the day they made the Charter for the Club.
Whether they would realise that or not at the time, is entirely down to them.
But that is the responsibility everyone who takes on a Folk Club bears.

You can nurture it... or you can crush it.

To compete in the ever decreasing circles is getting harder.
Pubs will close in the wake of the smoking ban, and it will remain that downward way for a while, until the tide will turn and people will get used to it.
I've seen it in happen in Norway and Ireland, and it does come right again.

But there will be less pubs around, though by the time it's all levelled out.
And it might take a few Clubs with it before it does level out.
Now is the time to look at what's coming, and re-evaluate the business model.

And if you're not getting the bums on the seats, remember that 90% is your fault.

There's two old men in Mexico; the last survivors of a race of people, and they have their own language.
These two men have stopped talking to each other, and the experts who have been studying the language are afraid that if they don't start talking again soon, the language may be lost.
... now there's a metaphor....

When the last of the folk singers sings the last song, what then?

B.