A difficult problem caused in large measure by oversupply in many metropolitan areas. Our club is in one such area. Here is a variation which appears to be working although one can never tell when one is completely out of the woods. We are a full service family oriented club with a wonderful old Colt & Alison course and a very nice but relatively modest sized clubhouse. Like many clubs, our membership has aged and during the downturn we fell below an optimum size. We took the following steps. To respond to competition we reduced initiation fees. I attended a seminar where the consultant recommended raising initiation fees but we went the other way. We made some improvements in our facilities in response to requests of mostly younger members. But most importantly, we went to the membership and urged it to become much more active in introducing new members, particularly those below the age of 50, to our club. We thought that the facilities and members would sell if people were exposed. Over the last 3 or 4 years , even allowing for the usual attrition, we have increased our membership by more than 10% and we are very pleased with the quality of our new members. There are no "special deals",prospective members, who must be introduced by 2 existing members, get a fact sheet showing the classes of membership, where they fall and what it will cost. We are now in an acceptable range and hope to add another 7-10% over the next few years. Like all clubs there are issues for the long term. We took on some debt to make the improvements which will be paid by the members in the relatively near term. Like Pat, I hate taking on debt. Capital items wear out; in the future we will need to replace our irrigation system (long term) and our equipment shed (somewnat sooner). But we are budgeting for those items now and getting a buy in from the members. A lot of this depends on the atmosphere of a club, if the young and old interact and there is respect for the desires of the various groups, you have a chance. We try to remind the older members (like me) that we were young once and wanted to make the club work for our families so we should understand the motivation of our younger group. We try to tell the young folk that before they know it they will be in our position and they want to be able to enjoy the club then. Of course, not everyone buys in, any group of 200 or more people contains some who don't get it. But if the leadership works to foster camaraderie and understanding a club can thrive because the members have more in common than most would believe. Its just a question of making them understand their common interests. If done right, it can be a lot of fun. I have friends who I play with at the club who are about 20 years older than me and several who are at least 20 years younger. Until you understand that aspect of club life, you really can't evaluate the pluses and minuses. If it is just a dollars and sense proposition, a private club rarely makes sense. Of course it helps if you have a really good golf course in a desirable location.