Is a buddy box check ride standard for club membership?

Went through almost the exact same thing two years back when I got back in after about 15 years away. My club does require a checkride for anyone joining, returning pilot or not, but the way they structure it makes all the difference. Any one of three or four instructors or club officers can do the sign-off, it's a single session, and if you're obviously competent they'll typically watch you run a few circuits and land and that's it. Whole thing took maybe 20 minutes on my first visit before I'd even paid dues. They told me later they mostly do it to cover the AMA insurance requirements and to weed out the occasional guy who shows up with a 40% scale something and no idea how to handle it. Reasonable, in my book.

Still pretty new here so forgive me if this is obvious, but I'm in a similar spot with time. My club also had a one-instructor situation and his availability was brutal for me, so what I ended up doing was asking the club officers directly if there was any flexibility, and it turned out a senior member could sign off on my proficiency check if the main guy wasn't around. Worth an email to whoever runs the club before you write them off. Does yours have a board or officers you can contact, or is the instructor basially the whole gatekeeping process?

One thing I'd pin down before you burn a Saturday on this: ask wether the sign-off has to be flown on the warbird itself. Plenty of clubs want the checkride done in the actual model you plan to fly, since a slick low-wing electric with a healthy wing loading behaves nothing like the nose-heavy glow trainers most of us sharpened our thumbs on, and some clubs even tier their rules so fast models require a higher standard of proof. If that's the case here, doing it on a borrowed trainer and then showing up with the warbird could mean a second session anyway, so clarify it in writing first.

I'd push back a bit on the 'just email the officers and ask for flexibility' advice. Clubs that funnel every returning pilot through a single gatekeeper usally aren't short on qualified members, they're short on trust. Mine had two guys who could sign off, but the real tell was the attitude. When I rejoined after a long break they asked what I'd been flying and watched me from the benches for ten minutes, no buddy box, no fee. If a club wants a paid multi-session checkride from someone flying clean touch-and-goes, that says more about the club than it does about your thumbs. Might be worth asking how many guys they've actually turned away.