Page 3 - March April 2006

There is probably going to be a controversy this year – by the time you read this it might already have started. It is basically to do with what is, and what isn’t, NMRA-BR. In a word, non-members are not NMRA-BR.
This is not a problem unique to BR. I am a member of an Internet chat group called Traineditors, and it is obvious that to some extent this is going on all over.
Let me ask you a question. You are presum- ably reading this as a British Region member – you have coughed up your £20, and if you are an active division member you probably go along regularly to your division meetings, maybe paying a small sum on the door to cover venue hire.
How do you personally feel about non- members who show up at your meetings, pay the same door fee and nothing else, and as a result enjoy practically the same facilities as you do? I’m talking about people who come time after time, to the point where nobody else really knows if they are a member or not. Do you consider that fair play?
There are numerous ways of stopping it but they all depend on one thing – the local “paid-up” members controlling the situa- tion. For example, you could insist that after 3, or 4, or 5 visits they either join NMRA-BR or go away. You could insist on seeing valid membership cards. You could establish enough differential in entry charges that these people would actually be better off joining NMRA. But ONLY the members on the spot can organise this.
I know a lot of members will say, “We can’t afford to operate without these outsiders,” or else they might say, “these people are our friends, we want them there, member or not.”
How would you feel if someone came into a restaurant where you were eating, joined
you at the table and ate your food, then walked out without paying any part of the bill – and did this once a month, every month? Not only that, you know they’ve got a few bob because of all the brass engines they bring to run! (No, not at the restaurant!)
The BOD realise that little can be done from “outside” the division, if those inside it are happy to put up with non-members taking advantage of them – for that is what they are doing. However, you will have read by now that there are some substantial sums of surplus funds to be “handed back by the BOD to benefit the members” (note – “members!”). The feeling is that if a regular local group, calling itself a division, turns out invariably to be nowhere near mainly NMRA members, then all it can be considered as is a model railroad club, with some NMRA members attending.
Which is fine. But which is not a division, so will not be placed into Division Diary. And no groups absent from Division Diary (except maybe small, proven 100% NMRA groups) can be considered eligible to receive money which represents the hard-earned cash of Region members, paid in good faith to partake of the amenities, history and infra- structure this Region has set up over 60 years.
A final thought. If someone thinks so much of a nominally NMRA group meeting that they come along month after month, where are they going to go if refused (unless they join BR) further admission? If the group is worth attending often, it is worth joining. If someone feels it is not worth paying 39p a week to join properly, they should not be attending.
Martin Boyask
CUPOLA
...FROM THE EDITOR
ROUNDHOUSE ApRIL 2006
CONSIST...
CUPOLA 3 PRESIDENT’S CAR 4 UNCOUPLED CARS 6 gETTINg STARTED IN fOUR-CyCLE
OPERATIONS Roger Sekera 7 DIVISION DIARy 9 A TRIbUTE TO STEVE PARk 10 CONSTRUCTOR'S CORNER 10 NON-SENSE OR SENSE Allan Dobson 15 bOOk REVIEw 16 wHAT’S ON AND wHERE 19 CALIfORNIA IN AUgUST
Bill Hamilton-Turner 20 REgISTRAR NEwS 21 END Of AN ERA W Alan Corkill 21
bACHmANN 1:20.1 SCALE RAILTRUCk Geoff Meek 22
bOOk REVIEw
22 With kind invitation from the Black Diamonds Division, we invite you to an opportunity to see how and why we judge models, at the Convention or at Meets, both for competition and for the Achievement Programme. It has also proven in the past to give more insight into better modelling, and modelling procedures.
I would like to personally invite all past, new and prospective judges to come and bring along a model they have made or altered. It does not have to be scratchbuilt, it does not have to be perfect! The exercise is to demonstrate how we judge, and not to judge that particular model or its owner. It’s just going to be for fun! There will be no pressure to join the judging team, but those wishing to join, full-time or part-time, will be most welcome.
An added attraction will be the Black Diamonds in their native setting and the chance to part with your hard-earned on models and, just a short walk away, in the local hostelry, where I understand food will be available. Come and enjoy.
Keith Webb, Contest Chairman
All You Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask! – About Judging
Judging Seminar
17 June, Kegworth Village Hall
COPy DATES fOR
fUTURE ISSUES...
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apRil 2006