Cap'n - even if I hadn't visited one club - visited a few actually - I could get some indication from what put up on Mudcat on a regular basis.
I have read here that not only are standards unnecessary, but are undesirable as they put off the less talented.
The list I gave at the end of my last posting came as a description of what went on in a club.
I have heard - interminably that there is nothing wrong with reading your way through a crib sheet on stage, with an audience singing along with a guest singer whether invited to or not, and to ask them not to is arrogant, with eejits popping their cheeks while someone is singing, that it's ok to encourage singers who can't make two notes relate to each other to stand up in front of an audience, that an evening of folksongs is BORING, that long ballads are BORING........
You ask how te clubs can be improved - clear out some of this shit and you might make a start.
I've told you a tiny part of what happens here and how it's been made to happen - tell my how anything I've described is either untrue or invalid.   
You don't like my answers - sorry - don't do answers to order,lets here some of yours.
So far, all I've heard is the scrape of deckchairs being rearranged on the Titanic.
Happy Christmas,
Jim Carroll