Unfortunately, I agree that it is meaningless with the top teams within an organization. Past that, the biggest complaint was a lack of any kind of response.

For the remaining 75% of players it seems that Clubs have to be more forthright with their invitation. State upfront that they are fielding "X" amount of teams and they need "Y" amount of players and you are number "Z" on the list. Ideally, "X" and "Y" should be disclosed before the tryout. I forget which Club has recently done so on BOTC. This is not an unreasonable demand particularly when a tryout fee is collected.

In my opinion, there is enough people out there who would support Clubs that are upfront and honest making them very successful.