Our alley has been around since '94. About 3 of the original members still in it and 7 more who joined at various points since then.
It's a struggle to keep it fresh and growing. They voted to switch to every other month meetings this year. I was the dissenting vote.
The main benefits, as I see them
- you can work together on parades and other events
- you can pool resources to buy supplies in bulk
- you can have a scholarship fund to send individuals to trainings
- you can monopolize the market and crush the mimes
I'd heard about the alley years before I was ready to actively track them down, and it took some doing... now, at least, we have a web page
About the Alley the Red Nose Brigade, Olympia’s Clown Alley