Carol,

Maybe the club needs to re-evaluate what they are all about, where they
are going, etc.  We, the High Desert Shell Club in Albuquerque, (where
we put a real meaning into landlocked -- compare your hundred or so
miles to the ocean to a couple of thousand miles!) have decided a small,
informal, mostly social club is what we can support and in fact is what
we want.  We have not advertised in the paper or phone book (both of
which you an do to generate new members) because we like the small
size.  We will never have big shows or great auctions or those neat
field trips.  However, we have gotten to really know one another, there
is a lot of trust and sharing, and we genuinely enjoy getting together
to rehash old stories or show off the newest acquisition.  The stuff
available to the big clubs is almost available to us in that any number
of big clubs will readily welcome participation by members from other
areas.  So the big stuff is there if anyone wants badly to participate.
I hope you do not take this note negatively as I mean it in a very
positive note.  Ours is a great club that suits the needs of the
members.  Admittedly, it would be difficult to down size to our type
existence from an 80 member institution -- but maybe accepting a bit
less would make the experience just as rich.  We have no officers, no
dues and have just started a raffle at each meeting to help support the
newsletter.  So by many definitions we are hardly a club, but we are not
a street gang because we do not have any initiation rites.

Now after saying all of that, I realize that things may change (a
guarantee) with time.  Maybe after 10 years or so we will become
dissatisfied with our present level of disorganization -- maybe not.  We
do seem to get a new member now and then, with new stories, new shells,
etc.  So for right now we are where we are comfortable.

Okay, I'm off my pompous lecture box.  I just wanted folks to know a
shell club can be a very positive experience with only a handful of
members and your e-mail gave me the opening to holler it out.  By the
way, both John Bernard of Shelloak and Paul Monfils of Northeast Natural
History Imports helped us out as we organized -- even though both knew
we would never be big enough to host a "jamboree" or similar event where
a dealer might sell enough shells to almost meet his or her travel
expenses.  So there are options and alternatives available.

Now I'm off that darn box (seems so much easier to get on than to get
off).

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA (editor pro tem of the High Desert
Shell Club Newsletter -- which means editor until someone complains and
then they get to do it)