Page 6 - May June 1999

out of your convention. Being perennially short of time and reluctant to spend the price of a good locomotive on a night’s air conditioned sleep, I tend to be a day visitor. Like John Wright, I find the cost of registration out of proportion to the range of attractions that can actually be enjoyed in the course of a day (or even two days, assuming that the activity lasts for the whole of the Sunday which it doesn’t). I’m not saying that convention teams don’t make every effort to enlarge the bill of fare but a body can only be in one place at a time. As most one-day meets supply me with as much shopping and socialising as I can handle for around £2.50 admission, I need a good reason to part with £15.00. With the greatest respect to those brave enough to tackle the task of laying on such a relatively complex event, I haven’t yet found that amount of “added value” at a B.R. Convention.
LettersSpecial... From Joe Halsall
I’m overcoming a lifelong aversion to letter writing, in order to reply to John Wright’s Convention Comments, and Eric Belshaw’s letter. Mr. Wright invalidates his comments in his first sentence - how can anyone criticise an event without attending? This would account for the several major misconceptions evident in his comments. I’ve never attended an S4 or EMGS event, and I would not judge them from a position of ignorance.
John’s major error is thinking that NMRA meets and conventions are some kind of ‘show’, a word he uses many times. Any such resemblance is purely incidental. The purpose of an MRE is to engage the general public, usually to make money. NMRA events are organised by the members, mainly for the members’ own pleasure. If allowing some non-members to attend produces a membership increase, this is a definite plus, but cannot be considered the main aim of the function.
Mr. Wright’s main complaint is the Convention registration fee, surely an insignificant amount compared to the over all costs of maybe £150 to £500 to a conventioneer, especially if bringing family. Obviously nobody would be paying that sort of money to put on a “show” for the public. Mr. Wright’s other main beef is about layout quality. If he hasn’t been to a convention, how does he know? He mentioned “Genesis Lumber” as an example of high quality, obviously unaware that Leigh Clark has honoured us with his layouts at previous conventions.
However, from the American outline layouts, especially HO, that I’ve seen at shows, I feel Leigh Clark’s modelling is exceptional - the norm at these shows is often a lower standard than is seen at NMRA events. Putting Genesis Lumber
into context, beautiful though it is, the scenic part is not much larger than one of our modules, and one wouldn’t expect Leigh to offer running rights!
But layouts are only one of the convention attractions - bring & buy, our friends the traders, the contests, the clinics, the banquet, the AGM .
While all very important these are outweighed by the purely social aspect of spending time with friends that share our interests. If Mr. Wright does not consider all this worth the money, Conventions will never be for him.
However he is right in principle that we should strive to increase membership and make events better, for ourselves and new members. I’d like to see a return to home layout visits, as we had 30 years ago. Possibly most importantly we should keep a tight control of conventions costs.
In reply to Eric Belshaw’s letter, I cannot disagree with Geoff Meek’s very moderate meet report in December’s issue. In all his many reports, this is the first time he has found it necessary to be critical. Most Black Diamond and Calder Northern members I’ve spoken to agree. One cannot criticise Mr. Belshaw himself, for doing his best. Rather one must ask if this is the best Black Diamonds, as a group, can offer. Six modules from one member seems excessive - surely other Black Diamond members must have been aware of the standard of modelling long before the meet? Rumour suggests that criticism is unwelcome in parts of our Association. Two self-evident principles may have been forgotten:
of the way the group has accepted Andrew since we joined.
Eric (Belshaw) gets a lot of enjoyment from his “empire”, Les and Dennis each had first class modules at the back, and as ever Ken, Trevor and Barry worked hard to keep the trains running. Isn’t that what joint effort is all about?
As to our own efforts, “Saltsburg” was at one end (completed a couple of years ago as our first 8 ft of modules). It includes my first scratchbuilt trestle to SP plans. I tried out landscape techniques, Andrew built and painted structures. Please Mr. Meek, tell us how it “wouldn’t have impressed new members”, or encouraged them to have a go.
The “unrealistic uniform orange rocks”, by the “spectacular bridges” (thanks for that!) are in fact many shades based (from first hand and photographs) on siennas, umber and white - not a spot of orange used! We built the 16ft x 1ft “Mountain River” section to take the mainlines to a different level while a logging line followed the rocky shelves lower in a valley.
It is obvious from the bare ply tunnel mouths and other features that the modules are not fully finished. We built the legs, and wired up, on the Friday, trailored it up and camped in the rain at Weston. The HO group had a good time, will continue to do so, and also listen to what everyone has to say and show.
Incidentally, the attendance couldn’t have reflected the “general feel of the meet”, as nobody could know what it was like till they turned up!
LettersSpecial... From Rai Fenton
(member of the 1999 Convention Committee)
John Wright’s letter in February Roundhouse was an interesting mixture of constructive criticisms and misconceptions.
Registration fees: Over the last few years the full weekend registration fee for members has varied between £10 and £15. The day visitor rate for member’s has usually been half this price - and will probably be so this year at Peterborough. This half-rate is a balance between appearing too cheap to full registrants and too dear to members attending for a few hours. It should be realised that most items at the Convention cost just as much to organise irrespective of how long people attend for - also the Conventioneers staying at the hotel are paying for the hire of the Convention rooms through their individual room charges. The registration fee is set for a break even Convention - over the past few years the bulk of the Convention profit (which goes to Region funds) has consisted of the raffle profit, the latter being considered as outside the
1 ) 2)
You always learn more from criticism than from praise.
Being able to do better is not a necessary qualification for a critic, you just need to be able to discern good from better. Ignoring these principles precludes improvement.
LettersSpecial... Richard Brooks
(owner of some of the modules at the Weston Meet) had been away during this furore and, on returning, makes the following points (heavily abridged!)
It would have been better if Mr. Meek had first spoken to the organisers of the meet, when he would have found out that I and my now 15 year old son Andrew, are relative newcomers, and have been modelling only for 3 years. Mr. Meek stated that the NMRA should encourage newcomers and youth - that applies to us. We are a friendly bunch and like to listen to knowledgeable advice from others. The layouts are open to all-comers for running rights and that’s how I got started in the group.
There is no elitism, but an ongoing spirit of helping each other. I am appreciative
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