Resumes by themselves seldom have a large effect. In times past, I've figured 100 resumes sent for each response received. That's a rough average for many different types of flying. However, as other posters have stated, appearing in person is always the best way to deliver a resume for the types of jobs you're describing. Frequent follow up comes a close second.
You suggested that you've just moved to the area where you intend to work. Remember that here, you're the beggar, not the chooser. Typically you need to move to the work, and you can only do that after being invited to come to work. I can't remember ever moving somewhere and then finding work. Typically it's several states away to get to a job offer, and there have been many moves over the years.
You need to be considering employment where ever you can get it; if a local facility isn't hiring, then you need to be prepared to go wherever work may be. I just saw an ad for instructors in Guyana. I'm not suggesting that you go there, but I see ads all the time looking for instructors...you simply need to be prepared to relocate to where the work is.
You identified your lack of experience as a factor. That's part of the story, but you're right. That you have this endorsement or that doesn't really mean anything. It's nice, but nobody cares. It isn't even really a selling point, because just about everybody else has them, and they don't really do anything for your marketability anyway. No school can say, "we just hired an instructor with no experience who has a conventional gear endorsement...come fly with us!"
The only thing that counts for you at this stage is that you have the basic certificate and are available. Unless the school has a seaplane rating, nobody cares about that. Nobody cares about the high performance endorsement...it's just a given that you should have it; a basic qualification. Nobody particularly cares about the ground instructor certificates; you don't need them for most positions or programs, as you're already an instructor. You're already qualified to provide ground instruction.
Understanding this is important, because it relates to your marketability. As I read your post with your qualifications, the one salient point that struck me as valueable was your former experience in the aero club and management history. That says something about you, where a high performance endorsement doesn't.
What will make you more marketable is an instrument rating and a multi engine rating on your instructor certificate. These are things that the school to whom you apply can use to make money. These are things that the school can sell.
You should be prepared to go to the schools and demonstrate your earnestness in helping bring them business. Ask if they will accept an independant instructor; you'll bring them students if you can use their airplanes. You'll print your own cards (you should have a card printed when you send your resume; attach it. Make it a good bond or parchament paper with raised lettering, rather than something someone whipped up on their home computer). You'll hold ground schools. Offer to put together a ground school for them, and pay them a quarter or half of the cost for facilities useage, if you have rights to the students who stick with the program.
Where you're lacking the instrument and multi engine ratings for your instructor certificate presently, you have a golden opportunity. You need them. Often, schools are inclined to hire their own students. If you can manage the finance to do so, meet with a school and ask if they'll hire you as an instructor if you'll do your remaining ratings with them. Be sure it's where you want to work...if you have a choice between several schools and one has a charter department that you can eventually move into, that should be taken into consideration.
This isn't paying for a job. It's getting hired by the place where you've done your training, and it's training that nobody is going to give you. You're going to have to pay out of pocket to get these ratings anyway...if a school can use you when you've got them, it's a good starting point.
Very few places will take independant instructors now, especially with insurance being what it is. You may need to provide your own policy, and that can get very pricey. But making the offer shows initiative, and it shows a desire to work there. There is less movement in the industry, incuding in flight instruction, than say, five years ago. The entire industry is slow.
I won't give you advice to leave the industry. Only to consider your position, and to maximize your effort to be marketable. No employer is likely to go overboard to jump through hoops for you; your only question then, is what you are going to do about it. You need to be an attractive candidate to the company. You are a utility; you're an asset a company can use, so make yourself the most useful you can possibly be. Do you speak a foriegn language? Sometimes that can be an asset (I speak three; that's one of the first things that I always get asked about on a resume, before flight experience, work experience, education, ratings, whatever. Go figure...).
Do you have advertising or sales experience? Are you mechanically inclined? My first instructing job came concurrent with a lot of hours turning wrenches doing inspections and maintenance, fueling airplanes, balancing books at night, selling flights, advertising, etc. I set up a banner towing operation for the employer, towed the banners, made them, sold them, etc. I made myself as useful as possible. It took an airplane apart and put it together in a local mall, and had a display to recruit students. I towed one of their airplanes through the longest parade in the country as a float, as an advertising gimmick. I held ground schools. I worked day and night. It's all about being the best candidate for the job. When I started, there was no job. At the time, I needed to finish an instructor rating I didn't have. They didn't need an instructor. I finished the rating with the, then made myself as attractive and useful to them as possible, until they literally couldn't hardly say no.
That approach has worked for me in varying capacities time and time again. Find a local drop zone. They may not need a jump pilot yet. Hang out. Make some skydives...jumpers won't trust you until you do. Learn to pack parachutes; make some money on the weekends packing, and before you know it you'll be taking up a load or two, and then dropping jumpers. Work your way in. It's some place a resume won't cut it; being there personally and entering in until you're a recognized asset is what will cut it, and that's what you need to do. You might get a nibble or even a bite on a resume; it does happen. But why rely on chance or fate to put you there?
