Weelittledrummerboy encompassed many of thoughts which I have been unable to express as succinctly as he has, in his post 02 Jul 08 - 07:59 PM.
There are other elements which I would like to add, but this thread is not the place for me to do so, as I am the first to moan about thread creep.
Maybe someone can re-open an existing or open new thread which addressed or addresses the organisation of clubs and how over many years the nature of them has changed for the better or the (perceived) worse .