I was a member of the Louisville Conchological Society for many years.
That organization is now defunct through just the sort of decline as
many of you describe.  But I think its death knell was sounded several
years earlier when our beloved Walter Sage made his move to New York to
become the jack-of-all-trades at the American Museum of Natural History.
Before his departure, Walter was doing just about everything. He had
been president for many years, he did all the correspondence for the
club, and secured the programs, arranged for consignment shells, planned
little shell shows, and when my life got too busy, took over "The
Littorina" club newsletter. Shelling was Walter's life and so he gave it
all he had. The club members were his extended family (just as were
shellers all over the world that he visited or corresponded with!)

But the message here is that when he left, he left a huge void. Nobody
was used to doing any work. Nor did anyone think he could replace Walter
at ANY of the jobs he did so well. (For various reasons, I was not
involved with the club at this time. And Bobbie Houchin had gone back to
school and wasn't overburdened with spare time either.) Walter never
insisted on doing this job or that, just took it on when nobody else
would. He would never have hurt his beloved shell club for anything and
did his best for it at all times! But in the process, the club became
crippled. He worried over this and wondered what to do. Back off, I told
him. But that was way too much like "tough love" for our kids...easy to
talk about, hard to put into practice.

So if your club is in a similar position, with only one, or just a few,
mainstays, take stock. It could be that you ought to cultivate some
other people in the group for the various jobs...sharing the
responsibility and knowledge. Believe me, I know how hard this is. But
if you knew how much I miss our shell club still!  Some good suggestions
have been put forward. Give them a try, and if you have done so already,
try again!

I've not been keeping up with all the messages as I ought, having
started a new job and started back to school, and maybe started on the
short course to a padded cell, so forgive me if these suggestions have
been made already: newspaper ads worked for us several times. Also,
newspaper articles about the club or a club member with an outstanding
collection are great ways to get attention. Ditto TV interviews. (This
might be hard in Florida where everything is so shelly already) The
public library and local natural history museums are good places to talk
to desk officials and outreach people and to make fliers available. Make
sure these people know about you. We got a lot of distance once out of
participating in a local art, craft and hobby  show. We sold shells and
little shell craft items and told people about our club. I have always
wondered if it would be worthwhile to man a booth on the beach,
someplace where local people go, on a busy weekend, with shells of the
area on display and fliers and people to talk to. (I suppose salting the
beach would be a little too overboard! :-)

Also, I think it might be good to examine your club meeting structure.
Are the meetings dynamic and lively or do they bog down in details and
club business? I remember one notable meeting when our LCS spent a whole
meeting talking about a new meeting place. At one point I realized the
entire club was looking at the ceiling, counting ceiling tiles as a way
of measuring the room to determine the room size we needed. We went from
that to a discussion of what meat would be served at an upcoming picnic.
snore! We had two new people at that meeting and, of course, never saw
them again! (It was a close one, the next month, whether I would attend
myself! But yeah, I still miss it.)

Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY
[log in to unmask]
Editor, American Conchologist
Conchologists of America, America's Shell Club!