Phil,

You've captured many of my points.  Your suggestion that clubs should be "a
force for positive change" to a culture that educates "to appreciate both
conservation and scientific collecting" is admirable.  My "basic opposition"
to shell clubs is not that they don't do this at all.  My opposition is that
I believe they cannot sincerely do this.  By "sincerely do" I mean not just
talking the talk, but actually living the talk.  Some members or minor
"clicks" within a club may, but the vast majority cannot.  The reality is
that it is the nature of the vast majority of "collector-type personalities"
who join shell clubs "to be focused on the more-better-bigger-prettier" and
for who the social interaction and competition is paramount and the shells
are really incidental.  At their heart, shell clubs attract "general
collectors," people seeking, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying,
and possessing shells.  For general collectors it is the gathering and
possession that is central.  Natural history collectors have as their
central interest the science-oriented study of shells in their natural
environments and are concerned with the identification, classification, life
history, distribution, abundance, and inter-relationships. The differences
are not superficial.  At their core these represent two very different
perspectives, values and objectives.  Differences that, like we've seen
expressed here on Conch-L, are significant and, in my opinion, are so
sufficiently opposed that shell club memberships in the long term can only
be sustained by general collectors.  The natural history collector sooner or
later drops out.  Since clubs are composed mostly of general collectors,
they cannot in practice convert to the culture you suggest.  It would be
contradictory to their very core motivations as collectors.

Many clubs do seek somewhat of a middle ground.  They have "educational
programs" (mostly oriented on how to be better collectors).  They may
mention responsible field collecting.  But, it's all mostly a
rationalization to put an acceptable face on the promotion of an activity
whose objective is to acquire and possess "more-better-bigger-prettier."
So, my lack of concern for the demise of shell clubs is because they on
substantial balance, by their unchangeable nature as entities mostly
composed of general collectors and shell-crafters, materially contribute to
the destruction of a diminishing living resource.  You may not agree with
this premise.  But if you see any reality in it, then why would it be
desirable for shell clubs to flourish and attract ever more "frivolous and
harmful" collectors.

Marlo
merritt island, fl

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