A club lives by the spirit of its members, not by the fees they charge. Obviously a small club will not have the financial power to afford big lathes or expensive demonstrators, but they can still organize interesting meetings by using a little brain power.
I can understand why George doesn't want to do demonstrations, it's a personal decision, and every wood turner has to make that decision for themselves. Whilst there will always be turners who don't want to do demos (for whatever reason), there will probably also always be others who do. A free market situation will create a natural balance between supply and demand.
At West Midlands Woodturners we had David Lowe on Sunday, and I had a brief chat with him. He thinks the clubs should just get a little better organized, so that when he travels down from Scarborough to the West Midlands, he can cover 3 or 4 clubs in one long weekend, and then his travel expenses can be shared between these clubs. In that way it can make business sense for both sides, and even smaller clubs can get decent demonstrations.