I did mean to add to my original post that I think clubs are 94% of the problem with the direction mountain biking is going. I ran a club for yonks and tried to make it as care free for all involved as possible. I ran the thing basically by myself and staged some of the biggest events we've seen. People tried to jump in and make money off my hard work so I turfed it. The lazy bunch of people trying to get rich all disappeared and my beautiful trails that staged some of the most fun events ever have decayed. It should never be about making money. Geez, my speadsheet says I'm $15,000 out of pocket for what I pumped into it. Still, I had one of the world's leading commissaires tell me my trails were the best presented he's seen, was very proud. I also loved a comment from a visitor who said my events were so fun and reminded him of some wild west kind of adventure.
A relatively new issue I'm seeing develop is club's being awarded government grant money to build new trails. It sees as though the clincher to get the money over the line is saying you're hiring trail building experts to build trails for adaptive cyclists. I'm not aiming to sound like an arsehole here but this does not help the development of trail networks beyond easy wide green trails that suit only a handful of people Australia wide. For sure, build trails to suit adaptive people getting out for a fang around but build trails to suit all levels of riding skill, not just one. And a $500,000 grant for a guy to spend six months on a digger to build one trail is a rip off. I could build the same trail by hand in that time and you'd still have $450,000 left over.
The club system stinks and you're all just running scared of the big bad insurance man. That is a big problem in this country and dictates far too much of getting people involved in riding bikes.
It isn't really public knowledge but I'm part of the reason MTBA went arse up. They didn't support mountain biking whatsoever and were nothing more than an insurance company. The amount of money they wanted clubs to pay them to host a big event only to have no support with staffing an event was fucking outrageous and needed to stop. It stopped.