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Saturday attendance was much better than on the Sunday. Thanks were given to the many members who organised or helped with events at Ulverston, Rainhill, Benson, Stoke, Tolworth, Derby, Eastbourne, and the NEC.
The BOD had met on 3 occasions and there had been a full day meeting for all appointees. Meeting organisers were being asked to create a differential in admission price so that non-members/visi- tors paid more than regular members. There had been a meeting of the Contest judges and a popular vote system would be tried next year. All officers had access to computers and the spare one would now be offered to the Contest Department.
Vernon Stone had replaced Rod Pickering as Registrar and John Firth was the Renewals Officer. The Directory was going to press soon so any errors, omissions and changes should be notified to Tom imme- diately.
5. Trustee’s Report.
Steve said that National finances were deteriorating. Trying to balance the Budget was increasingly difficult and this coming year will show a deficit of approx. $75K. This could have been reduced by various increases in membership dues and by introducing Re-Rail fees and selective charges to non-US members, for instance requiring us to pay the additional cost of mailing Bulletin to the UK. All these mea- sures were voted down. So we enter the financial year anticipating the deficit and the knowledge that the Trustees in March 1997 will be considering a rise in National Dues, possibly to $35 pa.
There is an anticipation that this year some grant money may be made available for various projects.
The computer replacement project now has about $24K committed to it and the anticipation currently is that completion is expected in November. President Bob Charles is acting as Executive Director until April 1997 by which time a new per- son should have been appointed as ED. Bulletin revenue has increased dramatical- ly following the appointment of someone with professional skills in this field. There were no questions on any of these topics.
6. Reports from Other Officers
As Secretary, Steve said much of the dis- cussion of the BOD had concerned Insurance of Meetings. Currently we cov- ered the 5 or so Regular Region meetings and the Convention. Cover for Division meetings would for the time being have to be undertaken by the Divisions them- selves. Lists of attendees to meetings should be kept and these should clearly show who were members and who were non-member visitors. Some changes were also required within the Achievement Program, where a structure was required within the Divisions to satisfy National wishes. An attempt would be made to find an “AP man” for each Division and effective immediately Dave Gunn would become Assistant Regional AP Chairman.
Paul spoke of his involvement with the visit he organised to the NRM. Recently he had been living in Suffolk and had made attempts to contact every local member, both to introduce himself and to try stimulate activity in the local Division for the benefit of resident members there.
Len presented and explained his sheet of accounts, which have been filed separate- ly. Members liked the figures presented as pie charts. There were no questions about the accounts and proposed by Ellis James- Robertson, seconded by Rai Fenton these were accepted.
Contest Chairman Les Herriot spoke of “a tide of apathy” in this area of the Region. He intended to introduce a popular vote contest at one of the Region meetings in 1997. Bernie Flower reported that he had few requests for information. Supplies Agent Ted Smale told that most items were in stock and that he had a tableful of goods in the Convention. Librarian Calvin Everitt was away on holiday. John Hey thanked the West Midland Group for their help at Warley, and asked to be kept informed of anyone with suitable layouts for exhibition at Warley 1997 and Derby 1998.
7. Future Meetings
The Winter Meeting 1997, organised by Calder Northern, would be at Rainhill on Sunday 19th. January. The Spring Meeting at Ulverston would be a two day affair, Saturday-Sunday 5-6th. April and the Half Yearly Business Meeting would be on the Saturday afternoon starting at 2.30.
A late Summer Meet would be at Stoke on Trent on Sunday 17th. August (Martindales/Knotties organising) and it was intended to have an Early Summer Meet, possibly in June at Nailsea near Bristol, but details were not able to be fixed at the AGM.
8. Future Conventions
John Spratley reported on progress with the 1997 “Cheltenham Flyer” Convention. The contract with the hotel was signed and as Chairman, he had established his committee. Jim Lucas would be the Registrar, Bob Taylor would be arranging the layouts. Messrs. Frow and Welch completed the team. Thanks were due to Jean Silver for getting us a rate of £50 p.p. per night with a £8 single room supplement. Extra nights B&B would cost £40 p.n. and booking forms were available immediately. The Ladies programme was in preparation and visits under consideration were to Westonbirt Arboretum and possibly Gloucester Docks.
John also suggested that the Region should now be considering how it pro- posed to celebrate year 2000.
8A. Leslie Holland
Stan Wall reported the recent death of former President Leslie Holland, aged 76. He spoke on the theme “Who will fill the vacant chair?” and there were moments for reflection on Les’s life with- in the NMRA.
9. Ballot Chairman's Report
Rai Fenton recorded only one nomination for each of the Directors positions. Len Firth was returned as Treasurer and Steve Park as Secretary. Paul Atkinson was elect- ed to President with Mike Spray elected as Vice Chairman. This meant Tom assumed the position of Past President with Jym Phillips retiring from the BOD.
10. New Officers
The Installation of these Officers then took place and Paul introduced himself and spoke of his wish to promote the Achievement Program during his term in office. He welcomed Mike as his assistant and thanks were offered to Tom and Jym for all the valuable and demanding work they had done, particularly in making the Golden Anniversary celebrations so suc- cessful.
11. Any Other Business
There was an explanation about the Region's bell at Bressingham and ques- tions on whether it was insured and whether we could get NMRA promotional material placed with it. Secretary said he would investigate these points. With no other items for discussion the President declared the meeting closed at 9.35 pm.
Stephen S.Park
Region Secretary
Note... The Half Yearly Business Meet- ing will be held (unusually) on a Satur- day, 5th. April 1997, during the course of the Spring Meeting. The venue for this is the Coronation Hall in Ulver- ston, Cumbria. and the proposed starting time is 2.30pm. This should allow sufficient numbers of members adequate time to make the journey, have lunch and yet leave time for the “one-day visitor” to participate in the modelling aspects of the meeting.
1997 NMRA NATIONAL CONVENTION Tom Winlow
I recently received ten copies of a colour brochure describing “The Lake Junction” Convention to be held in Madison, Wisconsin from 28th July to 2nd August 1997. If you are thinking of attending the convention and would like a copy, please send me a stamped, addressed, DL sized envelope (100mm x 220 mm).
The organisers also sent me a video about their convention. Unfortunately this is to American NTSC standard and not usable on normal PAL VCRs. However, if you have an NTSC-compatible VCR and would like to borrow the tape please let me know
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