Well one thing that factors into that is that I believe the hobby and club have grown substantially faster in the past few years. Since membership grew slower in the past and faster in the present one would also expect that the the number of Life members would be grewing faster now.

On top of that in the earlier days club members would be more skeptical of the club's survival for 15 years (the breakeven point for club dues). The club now has a proven track record and the hobby is growing.

Throw in the fact that because club dues have not gone up for a considerable amount of time, the price of life membership has actually gone down in relative terms.