Shell clubs are not just entities.  They are made up of people
-- and people's interests wax and wan. As other influences and
interests intervene in one's life, it sometimes pulls the core
group away from a shell club.  And "core" is the key word.

Most active clubs have 50-100-150 members at any one time, but
typically only a fraction of that membership make the club
prosper (the core group).  The Long Island Shell Club (LISC)
was typical of this scenario. I was one of the first year
members of the LISC in the mid-1970's.  In its heyday there
were well over 100 members at any one time -- the club had
shell shows, had regular field trips, published a local
molluscan faunal monograph after conducting a ten year field
survey of the shores of Long Island, and many members were
regulars at the annual COA convention. It had its share of
scientific collectors, crafters, and those who would attend
meetings just for a night of sociality.

During a 20-25 year period I watched the LISC grow, prosper,
and also wax and wan.  During that time a few of the prominent
members passed away, others from the core group, like myself
moved to other parts of the U.S.  And as time went on, the
club became of less importance to the remaining members. The
core group had mostly moved on.  It is a familiar scenario.

It has been previously mention and I fully agree -- the
attrition of shell clubs is due to the dissapearance of new,
young members. During the 1950's, 60's and '70's new
generations of collectors found their way to the clubs in fair
numbers and were mostly embraced by the older members.  It was
that way for me at the LISC, New York Shell Club and even COA
in the early years.

Today I can count on my hands (and maybe toes!) the number of
teens and twenty-year olds actively involved in the hobby and
shell clubs.  With other seemingly more compelling interests
for today's youth and with changing lifestyles and family
burdens, shell collecting is becoming a forgotten hobby with a
stigma of being something one does only in retirement. (All
retired people should have such dynamic interests when they
retire!!)

Conchology is not nurtured in most schools and looked upon as
not ecologically PC.  An entire generation has been missed
since the 1980's and and '90's.  Making up for this gap to
find young people to carry the baton is going to be a
challenge.  Can any of the currently active clubs around the
country truly say that they have a youthful core membership
(teens and 20's) to pick up from where the senior members
eventually leave off?  When I first joined the LISC in my
teens there were at least 10 or more young active members.

It may be that the global Internet conchology community will
need to band together to keep the numbers in this hobby
sufficient to sustain itself.  But then, the personal contact
and friendships that have been the hallmark of this hobby
through local and national clubs for generations will have
been lost.

Rich
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www.worldwideconchology.com
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