I must have missed checking the box about being notified by email for responses.
If USFG still supports the Yahoo list as well as this, then that is a huge part of why so little activity here. I thought that list was to be phased out. Maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part. As Gail noted, having an additional place that one must actually browse to see if there is activity is not motivating. I would really like to see the number of subforums here reduced and have an easy way to get the activity by email. Make it easy to participate.
Unlike Gail, I am not a big fan of the facebook groups. I have looked into them but they are not easy to use for someone who does not wish to spend a lot of time on Facebook. Posts get hidden, there is not a subject, and in general, it has always seemed to me to be the wrong tool for the job.
As for the search, I tried it again. This time it came up with ten members from California. Previous to the changes I was able to do a general search of the membership and was getting something like sixteen. And two of the members which showed up today are not ones that appeared previously. At least one of those who has disappeared from the search is the other individual from my area. I can find his profile if I search and get the public name right.
Obviously if it is 10 or 20 members listing California in their profile, I suspect we need to find ways to encourage our membership to get their information into the database and to participate in the group.