Page 5 - NMRA Roundhouse September-October 2019

I’m honoured to become your Vice-Pres- ident, taking over from Charles Hendy and joining the BoD for the next few years. I’m new to the BoD, but not to the Region.I joined the NMRA in 1986, joining Calder Northern Division in Altrincham at the time. I’ve attended many Conventions, often with my sons who were always so excited to come. I’ve also sought to serve the Region in recent years as an Achievement Program Volunteer and managing Roundhouse Advertising. I think I’d always felt that I should do my part for the Region on the BoD and now I hope I can give you the time and attention the role requires.
I was very fortunate as a youngster to have operated Cliff Young’s fabulous DRGW layout.When I met my wife, who is from the US, I found my own way into modeling American, and never looked back.After a lot of research I chose the Great Northern in the Pacific North- west, and have been building my layout,
a little of which appears in my photo, for well over 30 years.I came to recognise that Cliff’s DRGW layout embodied most of what’s really characteristic about American model railroading, especially in its design and operations. I’ve incorpo- rated much of what I learned from Cliff (who was headmaster of my school) into
my layout, notably my main yard which is a mirror image of his Denver track plan.
We’re entering a very important time for our Region, with opportunities and challenges ahead.We celebrate our 75th Anniversary next year, and we are host- ing the NMRA National Convention in 2022.As yourVP I’ll try to do as much as I can to help improve our focus on who we are and what we do, to spread the word about the NMRA and what we can offer members, to build our membership and to promote the Achievement Program, which is unique and offers so
much to participants. For myself, so far I’ve achieved 4 AP certificates:Associa- tion Volunteer, Dispatcher, Cars and Electrical Engineer, and am working to- ward reaching MMR as soon as possible.
So I’d like to start by asking for your help. Could I ask you to e-mail me, or call me, with your thoughts on why you are a member of the NMRA, please; what you get from being a member and how you might go about improving the experience, and how we can be sure to retain our members, recruit new friends and grow the Region, in every sense.
Over the next couple of years I hope to visit as many events as I can and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible.
The NMRA is ours to enjoy, but it’s also entrusted to us for the future. Let’s do everything we can together for our Region – and our fabulous pursuit of modeling railroads!
Warmest best wishes to you all.
Jonathan Small
Vice President NMRA British Region
Visit us at the NMRA Convention in Aberdeen, 28/29 September 2019...!
September/October 2019 - ROUNDHOUSE 5
FROM THE HEAD END