In my experience scheduling and my interaction with other clubs doing the same, I have to disagree Ken. While the scenario you mentioned would be great in an ideal setting but really didn't seem to work when it came to putting ink to paper. A fair part of the issue comes from the fact that complicated problems have complicated solutions. Complicated solutions usually take a lot of applied time and effort from talented people. The talented people who are solving the scheduling problem for Conference are all volunteers and pretty much have full time jobs that consume the bulk of their time and energy. Add in the fact that most of the tracks are not under our control - they are less interested in what is best for us than what is best for them, and rightfully so. So I am not saying the schedule couldn't be improved - I'm saying it is pretty close to as good as it can get especially considering the amount of resources available to work on it and the infinite permutations possible considering all the players.
For IRDC even though we have recently had access to an embarassment of riches (TWO tracks!) the truth is that BOTH of those tracks have no problem selling every single week-end of the "racing season" and have other clubs standing two deep hoping one of the big clubs doesn't want a weekend so they can snatch it up. My time on the Board has been an eye opener - there is very strong demand for week-end racetrack rental, much more than I had expected. IRDC even now walks a razor's edge because tracks give priority to renters who take multiple dates and pay a hefty deposit up front that the tracks us to live on during the off season. By splitting our races between two different facilities we actually reduce our favorability to both! We have been lucky to have a long history and good relationship with Pacific and strong friendships at the Ridge along with our track record of being reliable and paying our bills without complication so it has worked out so far. It turns out that this is an unintended consequence of limiting each club to three Championship racing week-ends that we all entered into with the best of intentions following the desires of our members. In reality, IRDC could probably hold at least two events at each track and they would have a reasonable expectation of having decent attendance. The downside would be that would likely create a drain on attendance at races that are longer tows because racers would have additional opportunities in the central Conference area that IRDC is lucky enough to inhabit.
I don't want to speak for Cascade because I only know what I saw when I was coordinating with them for scheduling when I was still on the IRDC Board but I think that they have had one of the toughest times scheduling of any club and, at least when I was there, controlled when we could finalize the schedule to a large degree. It wasn't really any fault of theirs - they were always ready and willing to jump in and coordinate with us on schedule any time we asked. The problem was that PIR takes requests with multiple alternates from all of it's proposed users and then ASSIGNED dates. It happened late enough then that I think they either hadn't recieved them or at least gotten done horse trading with other users before the Fall meetings.
Frankly, I love the diversity of tracks that we have available to us and I don't want ANY of our clubs to fail so it comes down to a decision hierarchy that gets real complicated after just a couple steps. It is already hard to protect the ICSCC clubs directly affected in the scheduling process as evidenced by one or two clubs being measurably hurt by back to back scheduling every year for the last several years. Any schedule that provides each club an opportunity to hold a successful event and provides the membership as a whole no back-to-back weekends is a great accomplishment in my book. Next in line is probably SOVREN as we train a lot of their drivers and our tie to them provides a place for our members to go when their car and/or their competitive fire reaches a more "dignified" pace. After that, if we can stay clear of our "semi-friendly" competitors like SCCA and NASA without too much effort on our part then I guess I am OK with that but I don't forget that there is only so much disposable income allocated for racing available and I would prefer that they come and race with us instead. Past that we just compete with the motorcycle racers for venues, not really for entries. Last but not least we cannot forget that we compete with camping, golf, tennis, baseball, softball, go-karting, travelling, yard work, boating, marriage, having children and laying in front of the tv doing nothing for the time and money it takes to participate. We have lost more racers to those things than all of the other sanctioning bodies combined.
If you have the ability, perpetuate the future of the club and start mentoring a neighborhood kid or a friend across the back fence. Work in his garage and invite him to work in yours. A love of cars and the friendships you can build around that is the core of our sport and that is where the future volunteers and drivers come from.