Club Entropy

[benjenbav]

Largely, I think you are right, but there are still pockets of people who do stuff out of "community spirit". The trick for a club is to work out how you attract those people and extract money from the rests to help them do what they want to do! IME a passionate leader who can communicate a vision can make a huge difference. Too many club presidents/commodores (not just in sailing) have got there because nobody else wanted to do it or because they served their time on the committee and people thought it was their turn.

Your money would be safe! This is exactly the challenge that all sports clubs face. Often the only reason people join is because they "have to" to access some facility - whether its a tennis court, moorings or mountain hut or because to compete seriously you need to be a member for license/insurance type reasons. Its a failing of many clubs to sell the advantages (if there are any) of being a member.

In a quite different sport I spent a lot of time with a working group from the national governing body trying to help them tackle exactly this issue - people want to "pay to play" not join the club and volunteer. Despite all the evidence being quite clear, the solutions were just too radical and there was insufficient momentum to support moving away from the status quo.

I wonder if the future for clubs lies in purely paying memberships - with the running of the club largely or wholly in the hands of paid executive staff- rather than participatory membership.

Take, for example, traditional gentlemen’s clubs.

Members derive advantages of somewhere to stay and to eat - usually quite well - at reasonable cost (if one forgets the cost of the annual subscription).

Members get a vote on important decisions but the day to day running of the club is, by necessity as well as design, in the hands of paid staff, possibly answering to a committee to which the Holy Ghost would struggle to be admitted.

Membership numbers of the most exclusive of such clubs are very strong. But there is a clear - as you say, ‘pay to play’ benefit that underpins that.

 

[Alicatt]

Wow - I'd love to see your idea of a formal club!

In our club? No blazers or formal attire, come and go as you please. We do have restrictions on what the club and it's members can do, that is down to the fact that we have to follow the regulations of the Vlaamsewaterweg and the Vlaamse Pleziervaart Federation, The VPF is a lot more relaxed than the VVW ( De Vlaamse Vereniging voor Watersport ) which is very formal in that there is a very strict dress code for when you go to their affiliated clubs/marinas, bottle green blazer with , white slacks, white shirt and club tie.

I am a member of the VPF though our club, and an affiliate or tourist member of the VVW - just to get the discounts on the marina tariffs as there are more VVW marinas than VPF - the VVW usually have a lot more facilities compared with the much more laid back VPF

I just have to remember which pennant to fly before reaching the marina