I have spent time witha few clubs during the last few years but have never been able to be heavily involved with them.

SingleTrack Mudpack: a ladies mtb group. They were great, but due to lack of volenteers it disbanded after I got to participate one season with them. Ususally it was only a small group of women that would show, somewhere between 2 and 6, but I always enjoyed myself. This group was great because I was just starting out that year and it got me out riding a lot and I got to meet people. Price was $20 a year, and we got a little gift basket when joining (with a new tube and a pair of De-Feet socks).

Dal Mtb Club: Club from my university, no membership costs, fell apart because no one would show up for meetings and such (it's a school club, so it have to have elections, and to elect someone a certain percentage of the members had to vote, no one showed up). Didn't really matter in the end, the only people who showed to the rides were in engineering with me, we still go out as a group regarless if it's under the name of a club or not.

SunFlower Squad: I'm not accually part of this club but I ride on the unofficial rides. It's a women's group and again I started riding with them because I am in a new place and wanted to meet people to ride with. People I've met seem really cool, some very strong women there. Price is something like $50 a year, if I was going to be here for more than a few months I would have joined. Does lots of training rides and workshops. Seems like a very good group, very well organized and the members get a lot out of it.

Irulan: the dog thing with you club really bothers me, even more so because the board members seem to ignore that this may be be a problem. It's also too bad that your club has that weird cliq thing. I road once with a touring group that seemed like this, I just couldn't get confortable with them. The women's groups I've ridden with have been the most inviting I've found, which would be why I seek them out or a least other women riders when I move to a new area.