There is a similar instance in England at the moment with the waters being further cloudied recently.
i) there are the curlers who've joined the ECA, be they full or associate members
ii) there are the curlers who joined the South of England Club (SECC) but not the ECA, the latter is not mandatory
iii) those who curl or have curled at Fentons Rink - a la 10 pin bowling style (ie an evening/afternoon jolly for a giggle) - whether these are classed as curlers is a different matter.

From the rinks point of view the latter are much more profitable and less fussy ...

Interesting real facts from HGLW and David.
The RCCC changed its membership system in the late 90's, I think, when each individual curler through their nominated or mother club became a member of the RCCC. Before Club Secretaries often paid RCCC membership on those players/curlers who played a lot. This meant that one could be a member of the RCCC through several clubs. The system changed so you nominated a club through which you paid RCCC membership.
This produced a huge drop in the number of curlers who paid.   I beleive if you look at the Annuals about this time you will see a decrease in the membership income.
Many Clubs then and still today, DO NOT declare all their members. Many do not want to pay and others do not play enough to make it worth while. Further there are many clubs who are not affiliated and others that do not insist on RCCC membership. So the figures of 14000 - 15000 curlers registered is not a accurate number of those who curl.

Regarding entry to Championships. Entry in the past was through ice rink playdowns -  leading to District Playdowns and this led in turn to the Scottish Championship Finals. Active Ice Rinks with good management and Secretaries encouraged entries which came from teams of LOCAL curlers.  Things changed when curlers started playing with other curlers from other rinks so the content of these teams became stronger. Many curlers not asked to play dropped out and many ice rinks lost strong organisers, managers and secretaries. The format of these Scottish Championships changed because of this. This results in the system you have today. Fewer teams but probably more competitive. You only have to look at the membership of top teams to day to see the variety of where they come from.

Often in stead of grumbling we should all hold our hands up and say we contributed to this ourselves and in stead of sitting back we should get up off our backsides and DO SOMETHING. We should get involved-- possibly even volunteer for something, attend meetings of club and Provinces and the RCCC and stand up be heard. Only then will things change to the way some of the Forum want it. Girning on the Forum wont change anything.

Here endeth the Epistle for the day!

So now that the teams have been named will British Curling be taking taking them on "team bonding" trips over the "off season"?

I believe in the past the squad has been away jollies sorry warm weather training in the canaries and cyprus - why they need warm weather training for a winter sport is a bit unclear!  suppose it will be classed as team bonding just hope that with the recession that the training is moved to Britain to help the UK economy since it is our tax money.  Still suppose it is better being spent on athletes than on cleaning moats or paying of mortgages that have finished!!