IMO, I dont think you can have a sucessfull club that has such a huge amount of territory.
because people wont be able to travel such long distances for club events..
you arent going to have people from Nebraska traveling to California for a meeting.
they are making it work in New England, but all of New England is smaller than Texas!
So if its a regional club, it needs to be a *small* region..like a City, or at most a small state.
I am a member of a Garden Railroad club..
all of our members are from within an hour tops of Rochester.
We had some members out in Buffalo (an hour west) but they split off to form their own club, because it was too far away.
There is also another club in Syracuse, one hour to the East..
each of those 3 cities also has its own Bonsai club, rather than one "Western NY" Bonsai club covering the whole west part of the state.
and the territory covered by those three cities/clubs is only half of the state!
I live in New York state, but I wouldnt even consider joining a CP club based around New York City..because its 6 hours away.
gotta think much more locally IMO.
of course, the problem there is that the "Nebraska CP club" might have one member!
thats a probalm with such an obscure hobby as this..
Scot