"But of the hundreds of failing , struggling , lost CC's with no direction , no hope and certainly no answers . "
PDB1, A lot to absorb here in your post, but I certainly agree there are CCs that seem to clutter up the freeway. Some have just 1 member, many have under 10. Another funny thing is low tiers opening CCs...unless they are multis or re-treads, they are still learning the basics of the game..what could they know about effectively running a CC?.
As far as "poaching" itself, I know first hand that recruiting quality players, who are nice folks and also actively participate, is a very difficult task...Many large CCs have the numbers, but how many players are active?...our CC clears the dead wood every 3-4 months...we are at mid-eighties in number, but we have people who actually want to belong to a CC and who participate. (Why someone would even join a CC, to then do nothing, is a mystery unto itself).
Like not CC'ing short putts, poaching falls under Gentleman's agreement. No hard rules preventing it, but it is considered poor form. Advertising your CC in here is fine and wgt has a thread dedicated to it.., but posting directly to member's walls, knowing full well they belong to a CC, is not looked upon favorably. I think owners consider it a sign of disrespect.
my .02