A post at Nakama Britannica made me consider my local club, which does not seem to be at risk of imminent collapse. One curious thing about it was, very few polled members visited the local convention ("Otakumex"). Perhaps, contrary to what Paul implied with comparisons to conventions, different sets of people go to clubs and conventions, and so the rise of the latter does not necesserily mean the fall of the former.

UPDATE: Glorious days of clubs were not necesserily better in every respect — a timely reminder from a veteran:

The problem was this. Anime clubs soon learned what SF clubs had known for years - that in addition to the fandom stuff, they also had to play combination Ward Supervisor / Mommy and Daddy for a parade of flattened-affect borderline mental cases for whom the rules of polite society were merely hypothetical. Legions of middle-aged creeps who did not bathe or launder their clothes, who did not have indoor voices, whose talents for inappropriate behavior were legendary, who could barely show up for their minimum-wage jobs and yet who never failed to miss an anime club meeting.

Indeed we have a few weirdos in the club even now.