A few "folk clubs" are real clubs, with a voting membership. However most in my experience are more or less benign dictatorships, run by individuals or a group of people who decided to get off their arses and actually do something. It seems to me that it is those people, who put in the work and risk their own money, who have the right to decide the nature of the club and how it should be run. If the "members" don't like it they can vote with their feet, and maybe set up their own club run on lines which are more to their liking.