Category:
Clubs, Fraternities and Other Self-selecting Organizations
Marine biologist Joel Hedgpeth founded the Society for the Prevention of Progress in 1945. He was its sole member.
According to his obituary in the Journal of Crustacean Biology: "Many a grad student and junior colleague wanted to join this august club, but Joel refused applications—growth in members would represent progress."
However, there were exceptions to his no-membership policy. For instance, Hedgpeth
wrote to C.S. Lewis inviting him to become a member.
The initial inspiration for the Society seems to have been to protect the environment against the "encroachment of material civilization." The Society's statement of purpose (below), as well as
the Society letter-head Hedgpeth had printed up, reflected this intent.
However, Hedgpeth evidently also intended his Society to embrace a much broader spirit of contrarianism, as seen in the manifesto outlined in the article below.

Decatur Herald - Feb 15, 1945
I'm going to assume that there never was a "Farmer's Anti-Automobile Society of Arkansaw" (or any other state) and that the list of road rules they supposedly adopted was early twentieth-century humor meant to poke fun at car-hating farmers.
Although some blogs,
such as here, seem to think that this list of crazy road rules might have been real.

The Carmen Headlight - Sep 10, 1909
Because Marilyn Meissler had always wondered if she was the only person who liked the smell of skunks, in 1989 she placed an ad in
USA Today seeking out other skunk lovers:
Calling all Skunk Lovers. My family and friends think I am the only person in the world that likes the skunk scent. I would like to prove them wrong, so if you or anyone you know likes the scent, please reply.
She got such a positive response that a year later she founded "Whiffy's Club" — a club for people who like the odor of skunks. For $35 members got a t-shirt, button, membership card, and newsletter. And for an extra $11, they got a bottle of skunk aroma.

Montreal Gazette - July 3, 1989

Sequoyah County Times - Jan 31, 1991
Norm Hankoff had the idea for the "International Association of People Who Dine Over the Kitchen Sink" in 1991, while he was standing at the sink using potato chips to spoon tuna salad into his mouth.
The next year he founded the Association. He referred to its members as 'sinkies'. Then, in 1994, he came out with
The Official Sinkies Don't Cook Book, which included "recipes" such as:
- cakeless frosting
- a handful of mashed potatoes
- a cracker topped with mayo, then another cracker, then American cheese, then another cracker, mustard, cracker, pickle chip, cracker and Swiss cheese
- chocolate cake in a glass of milk

Amazon Link
The Association still exists. Or, at least, it still has a website:
sinkie.com.
Sinkies consider the day after Thanksgiving to be their annual holiday. They call it "Dine Over Your Kitchen Sink Day".
The officers of the American Tentative Society insisted that, despite the odd name, the society wasn't a joke. Its purpose, they explained, was to promote the idea that scientific knowledge should always be regarded as tentative — subject to growth, revision, and change.
The three founders of the society were science journalists Alton Blakeslee, Rennie Taylor, and Pat McGrady. They came up with the concept in the mid-1960s, but it remained nothing more than a crazy idea until 1974, when Taylor died. In his will he bequeathed $300,000 to making the society a reality. This left the other two stuck with the problem of how to spend the money. So they solicited ideas from the public.
As far as I can tell, they ended up using some of the money
to give awards to scientists (such as Stephen Jay Gould) whom they viewed as embracing the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. The rest of it was eventually given to the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing to endow
a fellowship awarded annually to students accepted for enrollment in graduate-level programs in science writing.

Science - May 24, 1974
Back in 1979, when being in
Who's Who still had some kind of cultural cachet, Derek Evans and Dave Fulwiler decided to create an anti-Who's-Who, which they called "Who's Nobody in America." To acquire entries, they placed the following ad in newspapers:
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO NOBODY
Will your name be omitted from the 1980 edition of Who's Who?
Nobody Press is currently compiling the 1980 edition of Who's Nobody in America. This handsomely bound and widely distributed reference work will, for the first time, provide a comprehensive list of American nobodies.
If you think you might be a nobody, or know of one, at no cost or obligation, complete the attached request for applications."
Applicants included:
- A woman who complained she had been seeing her psychiatrist monthly for eight years and he often called her Evelyn. Her name was Mildred.
- An entire American Legion post in Newport, Ky.
More info:
Washington Post
In order to become a member of the
Flagon and Trencher society, one has to satisfy the following rule of eligibility:
Those persons, either male or female, who can prove direct descent from an individual who conducted a tavern, inn, ordinary, or other type of hostelry prior to 4 July 1776 (within any of the the American Colonies that existed at that time).
According to their website, the society was founded in 1962 by Walter Lee Shepard and the late Kenneth Stryker-Rodda. As of 2002, they had more than 1000 members.
There's a $200 fee to apply to join. But if you apply and can't satisfactorily prove descent from a colonial barkeep, you'll only get a portion of that fee back.
The International Stop Continental Drift Society (ISCDS) was founded in 1976 by geologist John Holden with these demands: "the continents to stop moving, the sea floor to stop spreading, and such inconveniences as major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to cease immediately." Its motto was "Eschew Sea-Floor Spreading." It also issued a newsletter that "like natural disasters will appear without warning".
By 1981 it had grown to 300 members. Mostly fellow geologists. However, Holden admitted, "So far, our demands have not been satisfactorily met."
By the mid-1980s it seems to have faded away. Although
it does have a Facebook page (set to private) with 154 members.
More info:
Science Year 1982,
lgvweb.nl

"Dutch geologists drive a giant screw into the ground at Leiden, The Netherlands, in an attempt to stop the Eurasian tectonic plate from moving. The scientists are members of the International Stop Continental Drift Society whose purpose is to put some stability in the earth's crust."

Jack Holden - founder of the ISCDS
Longview Daily News - Sep 15, 1981
Uglies Unlimited was founded by Danny McCrory in 1973. Its purpose was to promote the rights of ugly people. As far as I can tell, it remained in existence for only about a year.
Seems ironic that the member the media chose to focus on (below) was obviously attractive.

Camden Courier-Post - Nov 14, 1973