"Amateurs aren't considered representative of or responsible for the overall condition of any other art-form or discipline that I'm aware of?"
Sorry CC - yes they are if the are part of a set-up that aims to attract audiences from the general public. A bad singer can bring the whole evening crashing down about your ears. At best, the more experienced singers have to work twice as hard to pull up the slack.
The most frustrating thing about this discussion is that if the clubs took the initiative and set up facilities to cater for non singers who wanted to learn, none of this would be necessary. Practice in front of an audience is totally unfair to the audience, to the regulars, and certainly to a new singer. It damages the image of the music rather than enhancing it.
You should never encourage a bad singer by telling them they are good; that only establishes bad habits and complacency. Rather, why not have some of the regulars publicly offer help; it doesn't have to be patronising or insulting if it is done with a degree of sensitivity and it can cover singing, accompanment, instrumental work, even examining and helping build a repertoire.
For a time in London we worked on three levels. We ran a weekly club and we had a fortnightly workshop which catered for all levels of skills; we found plenty of other things to do if there were no newbies needing help (nobody with any sense ever stops learning).
But for simply creating a club atmosphere (as consenting adults in the privacy of....) we took a pub room, or even someone's kitchen, and held private, very relaxed singarounds-discussions over a few bottles. Worked like a charm for the new singers and the seasoned ones. Slow starters were often encouraged to try their hand at storytelling. Anybody who was serious at singing we supplied with recorded examples of voice exercises and we regularly went through simple relaxation techniques.
None of this produced Joe Heaneys or Jeannie Robertsons, but it certainly helped some people not fall apart in a song and get used to singing in front of strangers.
We also set up a (eventually huge) sound archive and a small library.
I don't think anybody can describe any of this as elitist, even if we didn't encourage singers to practice in public.
Going on far too long again.
Jim Carroll