Snail,

Your club clearly takes a laissez-faire approach

No, it does not. We operate a considered policy of giving everybody the opportunity to perform.

It sounds like much the same thing to me, but that's just semantics. However you describe it, your policy is to allow anybody the opportunity to perform, so whether or not they are any good is not a consideration.

We have been doing so for quite a long time. OK, we get the occasional dud ... Most results vary between acceptable and wonderful.

Fine, but if your policy is to allow everyone to sing then that outcome is entirely dependent on your good fortune in having a pool of good singers to draw on. Of course, it is possible that this high standard deters poorer singers from asking to perform and so helps to maintain that standard. But what would happen if you were faced with an influx of poor singers who were not deterred? Presumably under your policy you would allow them to sing.

It should have been perfectly obvious that my final comment was about such clubs which allow poor singers to perform, not about your own club.

But you are accusing us of allowing poor singers to perform.

I was accusing you of no such thing - I have no knowledge of your club other than what you have told us, and I have no reason to disbelieve that. My final comment was an entirely separate point - if you took it to refer to your club then I apologise. Perhaps I should have made it in a separate post, ( which would probably ended up on a completely different forum if my recent attempts are anything to go by :) )

Nevertheless, that could be the effect of your policy - if a poor singer were to ask to perform you would let them. Or have I misunderstood?