But this is the thing though - it's accused of being Londoncentric but I don't think people would join even if it started putting on events or workshops in Birmingham or Sheffield.

I'm not saying this as a staunch defender of the EFDSS either. I'm a Londoner myself, I have been to quite a few gigs at Cecil Sharp House over the years, I did the Saturday morning banjo courses they still teach, I used to enjoy especially going to the annual christmas shindig... but I've never joined and frankly it's never occurred to me to do so.

I've also organised loads of gigs in pub function rooms, church halls and community centres over the years. It's never occurred to me to even think about insurance or GDPR and it's never stopped me doing all those things. funnily enough the only time I've ever had to think about Public Liability Insurance was... when I enquired about hiring the bar of Cecil Sharp House!

It was a stipulation of the hire I had to have it. Literally the only venue in London that ever asked me that. So I didn't bother, went somewhere else.

My point is not that the EFDSS abandoned the grassroots, it's that the grassroots doesn't really need the EFDSS. I'm in London, I go to some EFDSS events, but even I don't really need them as such - I've never been a member, and treat gigs at Cecil Sharp House much like gigs anywhere else.

I suppose, in other words, I can't really see the EFDSS lasting all that much longer - unless it gets a decent amount of funding. The grassroots scene being mentioned in this thread is by and large pretty old, it's not unfair to say. Even if a large number of 60 and 70somethings from outside London suddenly all joined the EFDSS en masse, that would only help the EFDSS for another 10 years or so.