I think Joe hit the nail on the head, most archers neither know nor care what happens outside their own club. Ask any weekend footballer, cricketer, golfer or angler to name six top performers from their sport and they'll likely as not rattle off a dozen. Ask the same question of the average club archer and you're likely to get the answer Robin Hood and -if your lucky- Alison Williamson & Simon Needham. Most don't go in for tournaments and most don't aspire to reach the highest level, nor are they interested in becoming involved with their clubs committee, county or
GNAS.
I'm afraid to say most seem to view archery as more of a passtime than a sport, nothing wrong with that, but if the grass roots level aren't interested in a competative sence, then
GNAS, FITA etal will have their work cut out to raise the profile of archery as a serious sport.
IMHO The drive must come from club level so until we see a hardcore of club members with the desire to represent their County or Country, or at least become involved (even in a minor way) in the running of the sport, then nothing much will change.
Sorry to be so negative -it gives me no pleasure- but I'm afraid when it comes to being involved with the organisation/ running of our sport or striving to be the best you can be, then apathy rules in all too many clubs, everyone has a gripe but we all want someone else to sort it out.
I'll be offline for the next few days (PC upgrade) I look forward to catching up with this thread at the weekend.