The answer as to what is a desirable program will vary with each club
member.  Most clubs have a fairly wide diversity of member interests. A
lot of people will differ with emilio's disdain of "travelogs" for
instance. But he is on track saying "Well some are ok though"

The key to a program being well received is usually not the subject but
the talker.  Some speakers could make reading the dictionary an
enjoyable experience since they would select readings with imagination,
speak well and clearly and understandably.

I always take it for granted that a shell club's programs should most
often deal with shells (or their animals).  The programs should differ
in the subject and approach.

My least favorite program is one that deals with one genus or family
(emilio's Liguus, for example) and consists of showing many slides with
the talk confined to the species name.  Only a few in a club will be
vitally concerned with that one family, so the program needs to have
something different about each slide.  The most knowlegable person in
the world on one narrow subject cah bore most of an audience if he is
not one of the good speakers.

Most members of shell clubs travel, at least a moderate distance once or
twice a year, to collect (or observe) shells in a different environment.
 That usually forms a common interest for the members.  The members will
be interested in how to get there, where to stay, where to look for
molluscs, some examples of interesting shell photos, and interesting
events during the trip.  Confine the talk to only shell pictures and
their ID and the talk is often one of the undesired programs.

We find that a pure social event is desirable once or twice a year.  The
club members in HMS enjoy them.
--
Aloha from Wesley M. Thorsson, Editor of Internet Hawaiian Shell News
     122 Waialeale St, Honolulu, HI  96825-2020,  U.S.A
  IHSN URL     http://home.att.net/~w.thorsson/index.html