I was a member of IMPS and an Area Model club....I found BOTH to be somewhat of a pain. THe IMPS boys made a "certain person" at the other site look like a beginner rivet counter! (These boys ACTUALLY brought out tech sheets on some models and matched the sheets to models!!!) Funny thing was, I actually was a better modeller than anyone in their group and won most of the competitions. Their answer was to "Make me a permanent Judge" at all Peoria IMPS meets. I grudgingly took it, but I made SURE to ALWAYS display my work at contests!
The club was just as bad. We had Car guys and military guys mixed. The car guys HATED the military guys and vice versa. It created alot of friction at events, and meetings. (Each group wanted THEIR work featured over the others. And the same group of rivet counters and perfectionists existed there as well.
Both groups had a level of infighting and cliqueishness that I just faded out of both. Probably made them happy I went away. They didn't like having me around anyway when it came to competitions!