Maggie, I've come across this in other groups - suffering from falling numbers (frankly, people dying off and average age 400+) - they say they want to raise numbers of people attending, but they want it all to be *on their own terms* ie they want the group to be viable but never, ever to change or to adapt to people who aren't - well - clones of them.
I think this is why most of these groups have a finite lifespan. The good ones adapt and change over time, and so survive.