Matt, in one sense you're right. I'm one of the 1970s generation of folkies who the EFDSS turned its back on. For more than 50 years I've been involved as a singer and musician in folk clubs, ceilidhs, sessions and festivals, and I also help to run a regular series of dances; the EFDSS has had no involvement in any of these, and if it were to disappear overnight it wouldn't make any difference to me or my musical activities.

Nevertheless, it could do a lot more to provide the club infrastructure with advice and guidance. There is nothing on the EFDSS website which offers any advice on how to run a folk song or dance club. Back in the 1970s someone would hire the back room of a pub and advertise a club, but these days we have to be far more conscious of health and safety, data protection, licensing and copyright and a host of other stuff. I wonder how many folk clubs have public liability insurance, or are even aware that they might need it?

Of course you can now find information on the internet, but it is often aimed at businesses and it can be surprisingly difficult to find it in a digestible form which is appropriate for small voluntary community organisations.

First of all you need to know what you should look for. For example the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) affect all organisations which hold personal data, including voluntary and community organisations. Any club which keeps a list of members, or has a mailing list, must comply. One (non-music) organisation I am involved with drew this to the attention of its associated clubs and advised them what to do. The EFDSS has nothing, and when I emailed them for help I was ignored. I suspect there may be quite a few clubs out there whose organisers didn't learn about GDPR from other sources and which are not compliant with it.