Club "culture"

I joined a club, as a teenager, that was very active in contests, and bought into the idea of competition early.  I do think it made me a better modeler.  I have seen some (smaller) clubs that do change quickly at times, other (usually larger) clubs that are quite stable.  We have four or five in our metro area, and I do think that this helps stability.  It tends to limit individual extremes and drives the clubs towards uniformity, for good or bad.

Your local demgraphic may have changed over the years, younger people aren't ( or so it appears) as interested as the slightly older generation. People tend to move away from things that are stale, if all the club does is want to build for contests and show off how much aftermarket can be stuffed into a perfectly adequate kit, then some folks with shallow pockets and younger people may tend to leave. I wish I had the answer cause I miss my old club.

As far as I can remember, there never was a club existed in my area growing up. Nowadays, the youger generation only care about electronics and the modern techie stuff. Model kits? Nope,