Been in clubs that had crap equipment and actively discouraged getting better. Same clubs had leadership that did all they could to discourage cross country soaring. Been in clubs that had great equipment and encouraged racing and cross country. Guess which of those two types are the more successful? Unfortunately, club sports of all kinds tend to get taken over by bureaucratic types who love nothing better than to rule. They love to forbid, restrict, deny. Usually in the name of "safety". Oh, and they love love love to trot out the "Oh, we can't do that, it exposes us to LIABILITY!. These people throw roadblocks in the way of anything that is not their idea. God forbid someone suggest we allow a junior to take the club glass single place (obtained by tramping over the dead bodies of those who said we'd buy a club glass ship "over their dead bodies"). We have a particularly talented junior in our club. Superb stick, smart, and absolutely dying to fly cross country. Club leadership pitches the expected hissy and throws obstacles in the kid's way. So, the kid just decides he'll abide and fly as best he can. Of course, one day I ranged out to one our regular turnpoints about 35 miles away. Guess who was there already? Of course, the kid, and he's comfortably centered in a great thermal going up. We flew together for a while until I got embarrassed about being outclimbed. He knew where he was, knew what he needed to get to a landing field, and what he needed to get home. The point is, there was no reason to discourage this young man's progress in soaring other than pure bloody mindedness and the bureaucratic urge to say no (and, I think no small part of jealousy). So, even in clubs that bill themselves as encouraging cross country and racing, the faithful have to constantly fight to actually provide that encouragement and opportunities to the membership. It's fatiguing and stressful to have to fight with people you love and otherwise respect, but sometimes that's what we have to do.