Perception of the Baritone

As an absolute noobie, I freely admit this question is posed in complete ignorance. I posed a question to the lady who is founder of our local uke club as to which baritone she thought I should get and how much I should expect to pay for something decent. Her response is that she considers the baritone to be a guitar and not a uke.

Does a divide exist between those who play the baritone and those who play the conventionally tuned ukes? Are baritones less "welcome" at uke player gatherings.

Mahalo nui loa.

Sounds like a personal prejudice to me, I've never heard anything like that before.

Personal choice but growing up in the islands to ME personally a baritone is borderline abomination the soprano being the 'ukulele in it's purest form with the concert being acceptable, and the tenor pushing it a tad. I do own a semi baritone my Doane Clone (Skylark) which I actually like but body size more a tenor so maybe a super tenor a better description but play my sopranos and concerts the most. If I want bigger than a tenor I go guitar.

I grew up in a house with a baritone, I had no prejudice. When I started playing uke as an adult, (and acquiring all the sizes) I had to complete my "family" with a baritone. I string mine Gcea to simplify chord shapes. It is one of my favs, 2nd only to my soprano. I also have a banjolele and a sopranino, besides tenors and concerts. All sizes and shapes for different sounds and different songs. The more ukes, the better.

To me, they're all ukuleles. I enjoy that The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain lists a guitar as a bass ukulele.

She's mean. Start a new uke club. Serve brownie squares on tooth picks and you'll be fine.

Seriously though, I would be put off by a comment like that. Does that mean she doesn't want one at the uke club?

I agree, Baritones are ukes too. (sounds like a great bumper sticker)
I have one, but seldom play it, but appreciate when someone shows up to one of our gatherings with one.
The baritone adds some low end to all the sopranos. Can you imagine the Mormon Tabernacle Choir if they only allowed sopranos?
I will add that when I am teaching a class, I care not to have folks with DGBE tuned ukes.
So if the club is a learning venue then DGBE may be an issue, if so either tune your Bari to GCEA (correct strings required),
buy a uke to tune GCEA, buy a capo for you Bari or learn how to transpose really fast.

Accusing her of personal prejudice is pretty harsh. She may just be unfamiliar with baritones, and thus not comfortable with advicing you. After all, baritones are different, unconventional, guitar-like and uncommon, compared to the usual range of sopranos, concerts and tenors.

If someone asked my personal advice, I'd say something similar: Baritones are too much like guitars for me to be interested. Even if I ran a ukulele club.