I had a very similar situation, although without a club involved.
The chap who taught me to fly through my local flying school in the early 2000's was the same guy I got back in touch with in 2016 when I wanted to go back to flying after about a 10 year hiatus. By this time he had gone independent, but had use of a few aircraft at my local field and got me back to the point where I could redo my skills test and get my license valid again. We became pretty good friends socially, and as he had some contacts with aircraft I could rent I more often than not flew with him.
I always paid him for his time. Not least of which because that was his job and time spent flying with me was time he wasn't spending with students. For the record, he usually bought me lunch!
After about 3 years of this I realised something important. He was a crutch, and it was stopping me being fully confident. Having a friendly flying instructor next to me meant that I wasn't making the decisions which I should have been. It wasn't that he was doing anything wrong, but you often learn more from making a small mistake yorselfyourself and fixing it than someone with miles of head space pointing out the mistake you're about to make before you make it.
I've said it before here, I'll say it again - the best thing I ever did was started flying with other pilots (not instructors).