I also think there's another reason...we're using different places to meet and socialize now instead of at official Deaf Clubs. For example, down here, we have 2 Deaf bowling leagues just on the northeast side area of San Antonio, We have Deaf Nights at Starbucks twice a month, we have a Theater here that provides some CC movies, we also have the DAW festival every year (Deaf Awareness Week), We have Deaf Day Six Flags, We have Deaf Expo, ASL Expo, Mata Expo, we also have several Deaf organizations that meets every month such as TAD (Texas Association for the Deaf), we have a Deaf group home (for anybody who is Deaf that just wants to live with Deaf people only - not just for special needs - but I would NEVER recommend that place - I have heard horror stories
), there are even Deaf sport teams that aren't affilated with schools, just stand-alone teams like baseball teams and stuff like that, we also have Gallaudet University as well as NTID/RIT and they have Deaf organizations there, and we have Deaf churches or fellowships or we have a Deaf "section" or "semi-church" or "mini-church" in hearing churches if you understand what I mean (such as one church I went to a long ago is a hearing church but allowed the Deaf people to form their own little church, complete with a Deaf preacher and everything, in their large basement - the church is extremely large and can occupy up to 2,000 members and probably more now - that church keeps on getting bigger and bigger), other large hearing churches having the ability to afford good interpreters for Deaf members, and stuff like that, and then also there is AllDeaf as well. Since we have so many other avenues of meeting and socializing, we don't really go to Deaf Clubs very much anymore...we have too many other places to socialize now than in the past.
If we have so many other places to meet and socialize with other Deaf people, Deaf people might have not been feeling the need for Deaf Clubs since they have been able to constantly meet and socialize with other Deaf people in so many places, and there's so much to do at these places, and many of those places are affordable or cheap.
We do have a Deaf Club - NEAD - and I love NEAD - but right now we are struggling with funding to rent a meeting place for our NEAD parties - we have not had a party in quite a while because of this. We also weren't able to afford to rent the large hotel reception room for the Superbowl Party this year either - I was so disappointed even though I do not care for sports - I like to go there because up to 100 Deaf people can come and it is so much fun. I think the bad economy have hit us pretty hard and therefore it is getting hard to get funding to rent a meeting room for NEAD. The other places I mentioned above, was easier to accomplish than this. Deaf Expo admission is free. You do not have to pay to go into a Bowling Alley if you just wanna socialize, like me. Deaf Day Six Flags is only once a year and we get a discount for this so we are able to go there. (although their stupid wheelchair rental and security deposit is insane and a ripoff - $20 rental and $40 deposit! Thankfully my fiance helps me with the costs!). Going to Deaf church or hearing churches with a Deaf fellowship is pretty much free except for the few where they like to push you to tithe insane amounts of money - I HATE THAT!) Anyway, the Starbucks meeting place is not really that expensive to meet - just buy a small cup of plain black coffee or a cookie or something small and you are good, so it's really affordable. We meet at places where we can afford it or the dues are cheap or there are no dues. Not everyone can afford the dues. I can afford NEAD though - $5 a year but they can't afford the meeting place so we haven't been able to have parties lately. The DAW festival is free to attend, it is sort of like a picnic but we have to buy the food though but they're cheap and affordable and good food anyway. So many Deaf people always come, even the CIers come. We have so many Deaf events here, so we're seeing each other so much more than in the past when we only had the Deaf Club and Deaf bowling. Deaf "networking" has improved so much in the last 20 years or so. When I was a child we only had the Deaf Club and Deaf bowling and WSD (state school for the Deaf) but now we have so much ways to network now. This is 2009. In the past, the Deaf community was so isolated, the networking wasn't good because there was no technology - no ttys, no VPs, and in the really old days, no cars or only first cars (like in 1920s or so) etc - Deaf people had much more difficult time networking with other people and setting up Deaf events such as Deaf Picnic, Deaf Club, etc, they had to make up their own flyers and pass them out or send through snail mail, there were the only ways, and that kind of networking was real slow and not very effective so Deaf people rarely were able to meet in large group more than a couple times a year unless they lived in large cities - if they lived in rural areas it was so much more difficult, so we set up Deaf Club as an official place to meet, I believe, and there was the state schools for the Deaf. Today we have better technology to network so we can set up so many Deaf events in all kinds of places instead of just the Deaf Clubs.
We also have the VP, especially the free VP-200 from Sorenson - so we are able to chat and actually see each other - we have CamFrog, we have so many other ways to see each other over the internet. No more TTYs - no more having to struggle with the language skills in order to communicate with each other on TTYs - we can VP instead and actually use ASL which is a huge benefit to so many Deaf people.
Things have gotten so much better for us Deaf people now in 2009 than in 1900 or even before that, there are more awareness, etc, there are interpreters now, and all kinds of stuff. I don't think the Deaf community has been dwindling at all, but they have changed in a big way instead. We still exist, but we are not as much alike as the Deaf community from 50 or 100 years ago. Times can change so many things, especially communities, cultures, etc. We are evolving.
Do y'all understand what I mean? I hope so. That's what I see.....this is my POV of how the Deaf community has changed and evolved over the last 100 years, of which the last 28 years I have witnessed (I am 28), I've learned some of the Deaf history in Deaf Studies at WSD, and at the summer college bound program I attended at Gally in 1997, and from reading several books on Deaf culture and Deaf communities. No, I do not know everything about Deaf culture or the Deaf community, but I've learned what I know now, and I keep learning everyday. Society evolves in all kinds of cultures and communities, not just the Deaf community. Society evolving impacts everyone. I took a sociology class at my university (it had nothing to do with Deaf community or culture but it does explain a few things about different cultures and communities in general that could also be applied to Deaf culture and Deaf communities as well if you understand what I mean).
I apologize for the novel but I wanted to say everything that I had in my head about this. I hope all of this makes sense.
Oh, I wanted to clarify...all the meeting places and organizations and colleges and universities and everything else I have mentioned is not in Texas only...I am talking about many various places in the USA that I have been to, have experienced this at, etc. I don't want someone to get confused and think that Gallaudet is in Texas or something like that....no...it is in Washington, DC.
A reason may be from what I have been told by some ladies who stopped going to deaf clubs who are deaf is that they got tired of the men hitting on them all the time. I dunno wasn't there. 
