Not sure how I missed this post.
Anyway, the year in question was 2011.

I haven't seen the magazine yet so can't comment on the numbers you are looking at, but the version I have shows less than 30% of club funds are in the Life Membership Fund.
Also when comparing year on year please bear in mind one big factor. Convention contracts for 2025 were very late going out. Usually the 'prior year' has around $15,000 of table sales receipts in it. 2024 has zero as it will all show in 2025.
So your 6 year drain at the current rate is rather harsh although it may only be 12.

That doesn't change the fact we continue to lose money. No-one has had the answers so far. Maybe Barry and the new establishment will have to force the digital magazine on the membership. The one thing that concerns me is that of the large proportion of members that don't want to go purely digital, many have stated they would not renew their membership if we abandoned the paper magazine. There is a further factor that has to be considered - if the club does not spend 50%+ of its outgoings on 'education' it jeopardises the 501c3 status. The magazine counts as education. Only the seminar element of the convention counts.

It's fair to say that what we 'charge' has not kept pace with what we spend. There has always been a reluctance to increase charges ever since I've been a member. It wasn't so much a problem when we had 2000+ paying members and 100+ dealers at the convention. Collectors no longer need to join a club or attend a show to buy chips. They don't even need to leave their desk.

During the book balancing exercise you mention, which of course I was very much part of as Secretary, we took two 'bold' decisions, in addition to changing our printing company (which I believe saved a massive 30%).
One decision increased the membership dues from $30 to $35. The second was to cut convention table fees by $50 while increasing pre-reg cost from $15 to $20. Pre-reg/admission fees has long been a bone of contention with many of the opinion that all entry should be free (which would cost us another $6,500).

Our 'fixed costs' - ie magazine printing, storage, insurance, admin etc. have just about doubled since 2011, yet our dues have only increased by $5 to $40, and even that was met with a lot of opposition.
Not only has the convention table cost remained at the $50 reduction price all these years, we also introduced a discounted bonus table scheme in 2024. The current BoD has already decided the $50 would be reverted from next year but that's up to Barry's BoD to implement or otherwise.

We only just accommodated the required tables in the 15,000 sq ft hall space this year, so a smaller space is not really an option. Like for like, the South Point convention costs remain at 50% or less of the next cheapest option, the Orleans.
Unless you are suggesting we simply have a bunch of tables in a room and zero other events.
Our current contract runs until 2026. The last negotiation in 2024 (for 2025 & 2026) was a tough one. SP have an all new convention team tasked with stopping their own internal bleed of money in the convention area. They wanted to cut all our concessions (worth about $8000) in addition to raising the hall price. I had to go as far as Michael Gaughan to get those concessions reinstated and strike a deal where the price increase was only in line with inflation. In a few months time it will be time to re-negotiate again or look elsewhere. Hotels are currently looking at taking convention bookings around 20 months out so it can't wait or we will get nothing. I don't know who in the club will be responsible for that and what luck they will have.

Regarding convention attendance, here are a few other numbers.
Room nights sold from the club block credited against our contractual requirements.... 2011 approx 800. 2019 (pre-covid) 650. 2024 - 437, 2025 - 379.
As actual attendance has been relatively stable, I can't tell if a lot more visitors are choosing to stay elsewhere despite our pleas, but one thing that unfortunately counts against us is that we now have a relatively large group of people who having built up their relationships or stepped up their SP gambling over the last 15 years get rooms comped by the casino for which we get no credit. In 2024 that number was over 160 room nights.
Minimum contractual requirement for 2025 was 368 so we only got past the line by 11.
.