chis

Yes, my name here in the forum is different than my handle within the game. But I'm nobody, Shaun. So it doesn't matter.
When I first started playing SuperMechs the great challenge in clan membership was finding a clan where there were more than one or two active players. When my mechs got good enough to get into some clans that had mostly active players, I found it was impossible to retain membership within them. The clans set rules that had to be followed, which is fair enough, but even if I busted my a$$ and met every requirement, there was no loyalty to the clan members. 100 wins in arena, 100 titan tickets, log on every day--whatever the rules, I'd do them all. But what all the clans do is they keep one or two spots open. The second someone of a higher rank joins, whoever is at the bottom of the list gets the axe. It doesn't matter if they made all the quotas or if they had to pull a few late nights to do it. The leader wants their clan to be as strong as possible so the players with the weaker mechs get trimmed every time they get a chance. So even if I did twice the quotas, when the clan managed to recruit enough stronger players, I'd see my mech fall to the bottom of the list. It then didn't come as any great surprise when I'd log on the next day and see that I'd been cut from the clan.
What the clan leaders who follow this method (pretty much all of them) don't understand is that they get the same loyalty from the clan members as they give to them. So each time an individual clan member evolves to become eligible for a stronger clan--particularly if it is a clan with a reputation and a recognizable name--they jump ship and move to what they believe are greener pastures. In the short term, the practice of brutally cutting the members who made you gives a bit of a boost, but it doesn't take long before the clan hits a ceiling and cannot catch those bigger clans because any player advancement that would move them toward that means those same players are going to leave to join the competition.
Awakening was different. You had your rules, as you should. You had to cut people if they stopped trying or if they couldn't be on for a prolonged period of time. You'd have been less than a good leader if you didn't. But if a player in that clan met the requirements, they were completely and totally protected. Nobody ever had to worry that on the next log-on they'd find themselves clanless. It takes longer to develop and advance a clan up the charts that way, but I think it makes for a far stronger clan in the long run. Shaun did it the hard way. He did it the right way. Now, completely apathetic game administrators are happy to let that all fall apart when it is a problem with how the game functions that created the situation. If anyone is wondering why a nobody like me might leave his entrenched lurker status on the forum, sign on, and feel a little bit indignant about what is happening here in this thread, I've explained where I'm coming from as best I can.
At any rate, Shaun, because you are a better leader than most I think people will follow you. I doubt anyone is going to change their minds from the administrative point of view, if for no other reason than they've said no already and as humans they will further dig into their position in preference to admitting they are wrong about it. We all do it so we shouldn't expect any different from them. My advice is to have Doc or whoever it is to who you wanted to transfer leadership start a new clan. The people who are worth having will follow if you tell them where to go in advance. The rest will cull themselves so you don't have to worry about feeling guilty as you lose the dead weight.