Hello.
Currently, there's very few actual fan clubs that do anything active. There are remnants of the old fanclubs still alive (Voices website, Your Majesty website, Italian Dreamers website etc etc) with their own activity, but most never do anything anymore. The DTIFC (which really was more a moniker for the collaboration between the different fanclub with Theater of Dreams being the International (english language) variant) had it's last collaboration in 2006 with the Romavarium DVD. Here's the thing though - in 2004, when the last fanclub CD was made, Mike Portnoy basically told us that he would not provide us with any new material. We managed to convince him to do the DVD project, which resulted in "A Walk Beside the Band" and "Romavarium" (both were recorded on the same tour, with parts of the rome setlist ending up on "A Walk Beside The Band", and much of the remaining show on "Romavarium").
We (DTNorway) try to do stuff, but we've started to focus on doing things in the same timespan that DT follows nowadays - we usually release a fanzine every two year, around the time they visit norway. We also have tried to keep up with some free gifts (mainly calendars), but the fact of the matter is simple: The DT machine is a bit too predictable these days, and the band is simply not rock'n roll enough for us to gather material enough to keep a print fanzine with a higher regularity than that. If we try to do a fanzine when DT is on vacation, there's nothing to write about. If we try to do a fanzine when they're in studio, there's nothing to write about. So basically, some time after the album is out and preferably during the tour, there's enough information out there to warrant a proper fanzine. Fanzines are also outdated even before they get released... Internet is too fast, and what we've been providing is not that interesting anymore. And the thing is, we've not been very good at trying to evolve.
DTNorway has tried to keep something up online. Mainly, we've focused on podcasts, but they also suffer the same fate as that of the fanzines - in break periods there simply isn't enough to talk about, and none of the current (or even past members) really want to do a podcast if they don't have anything to promote. When DT visits norway, we have a preshow gathering at the venue, with surprises (in 2009 Jordan came up and visited us at the preshow party, and then we had a meet and greet for 20 of our members selected at random with the full band, in 2011 20 members got to see the soundcheck and say hello to the band and get a picture on stage with the band0.)
There's also, as Setlist Scotty said, the problem of us having lives. We've always done this out of pocket. The money the members pay us goes to cover our costs, but it's not always sufficient, and we do take risks (minor ones at that, because it's never more than we can manage should things not work out). We do this on our spare time, and what we do with the fanclubs is so far removed from what we -really- do in our careers (I mean, I've made many fanzines, but I've never worked as a typesetter ever - I'm a programmer by trade). And when we started the club, we were fairly young (i was 22 when I joined the DTNorway crew, and that was 12 years ago). We have kids to entertain, bills to pay, all that stuff. That's the main factor to why we now are much slower on the turnaround than we used to be.
All that being said - I have thought about the lack of a proper fanclub for a long time, and I do have outlines to a plan that could work. Problem is, it requires people with a certain dedication and willingness to work hard for nothing. If there's to be an International Fan Club again, I think it must be something along the lines of the following:
-Online Community, multilingual (news, forum, social networks)
-Regional "chapters" that can take responsibility for arranging events before/after DT shows, for instance
-Information site (discography, tourography, wiki, faq, etc)
-Member package for paying members (exclusive merch)
-Podcast/video channels
-Yearly gift (special fanzine, calendar etc)
The "problem" with trying to do all of that is that some of already exists, in different shapes and forms. The biggest problem with a fanclub right now is that it -must- be a community for it to survive and grow. You don't get members anymore if there's not a community part to it (look at metclub, a lot of the reason why people join the metclub is because of the community aspect to it). And pretty much any of us that has been working with DT for quite a long time already is not reliable to keep the fire going - the biggest problem with the existing fanclubs dying out was not the lack of access to the band or material, it was not the lack of members - it was that the people running the fanclubs not having the time, and there were noone there to pick up after them! I mean, I know that once me and John stop doing stuff for DTNorway, that means DTNorway is dead.
Some of those problems are solvable though. One thing might be to actually use the existing resources to build the fanclub from (DTF could be the seed of a fan club for instance), and using people with experience from running fanclubs already is very wise - but introduce enough new blood, and preferably a steady stream of new blood to keep things rolling should people get tired of it.
If people are interested in trying to do something more - please feel free to contact me.