I wouldn't suggest that the above list is so thorough, except that it is by an umbrella group from the UK. Last winter I was working on a larger list for several countries and bogged down. Part of it was the need to transpose it to HTML. Part of it was conflicting info. I ran across cases of American clubs who have ceased effective operation since a key member passed away. I know in a couple of instances, having attended the wakes of a couple of those key members - several years ago. :(
I wouldn't pretend to have a whole lot of insight into most areas of the U.S. vis-a-vis the aquarium club scene, much less the hobby to the UK. (Though I'd be glad to go do an in-person survey.) Just taking a peek at European, South American, Australian and Asian clubs is fascinating.
Your advice to go to that web site is also a step into the present and the future. At national conventions (and on the mailing lists) of some the the American specialty groups, there is considerable concern over the "graying of the hobby."
I think what they are seeing is a genuine concern. However, when one considers how busy younger people are with school (and more years of schooling per capita than in the past), paying off college loans, jobs, ob insecurity, other interests including all sorts of electronic outlets which weren't available all that many years ago, and how much more time it takes to start a family and pay the bills, it doesn't surprise me that by the time people have the time and a little spare cash to get into a specialty, that they may be in their 30s, 40s or even older.
Having said that, I had the chance to help bag fish at the AKA convention with the newest senior judge. He had to work with several shows, take a test and become familiar with what can be a 1,000 different killies. He is 15.
The average age of people on Internet forums like Guppylog is, interestingly enough, 10-20 or even 30 years younger than the average age for correspondents on some of the specialty e-mailing lists. That may be the future of the hobby in many ways.
There aren't as many general aquarium clubs anymore. That is especially true in the major metropolitan areas. (The smaller metro areas of 100,000 to 500,000 people seem to still have a lot of good clubs, interestingly.) Many of the old "Mom and Pop" pets stores are gone, unable to buy at wholesale what the big box stores are selling at retail. I think of those places where, when I was 12-13-14, I could follow the staff around on balmy summer days like this, picking their brains when they weren't waiting on other customers or when they wanted to take a break (and didn't hide from me). ;)
There are some experienced aquarists at the big-box stores. But where the revolving door of employment brings in different staffers every couple of month though, it is tough to find experienced hands.
However, there are three American Aquarium slicks, probably improving at a faster rate than ever in the past. Imported and specialty magazines are also around, if one knows where to look for them (at either the more sophisticated pets shops or the big-box book store magazine racks or even on-line). Those magazines now have web sites. And one can Google their way to more web sites and forums on-line than we ever could have dreamed of a few years ago.
There are more good aqaurium books being published than in the past. There are some clunkers, but there always have been. Simply, there is a lor more of a knowledge base to draw upon than in the past.
Some of the pioneer e-mailing lists are already gone. The first wave of forums, the atl-aquaria group of Usenetgroup forums are still around. They were quite vulnerable to spam bots and a numbers of members migrated to the e-mailing lists and forums. A quick look for one today (after a couple of tries) suggests how hard they can be to find. :(
Miskairal can probably explain how to get on them. I sure didn't get to places I had no trouble getting to before.
The point is that the hobby is evolving. Even on the Internet, it is changing. But the younger hobbyist and potential hobbyist isn't disappearing. The old-timers may just not know where they are. ;)
The geezers too, need to know that Google can be their friend. :)
All the best,
unc the geezer
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