A lot of things have happened Division wise over the past month. Rather than trying to address all these items in this section, I will cover each of them individually below.
Moving on – the first meeting of the 2024/2025 years was held at Rich Randall’s in Gettysburg. The turnout was rather small but those of us who were there had a good series of discussions about some of the issues facing the Division. Thanks to Rich for hosting us.
The second meeting of the program year will be held on Sunday, 13 October. We are doing pretty good on lining up meeting hosts for this year. As of this writing in addition to the October meeting we have hosts confirmed for November and January. Our most pressing need at this time is a host for the December meeting but we will welcome volunteers for any of the other scheduled meetings (February, March and May).
Finally – Don’t forget that we are in desperate need of volunteers to take over the management of your Division starting with the 2025/2026 program year and to serve on a 2027 MER convention committee (see September 2023 Wheel Report). If you might be interested, but want more information, please feel free to contact me.
Remember – this is your Division and it cannot function without your support.
2025 Mini Con
Grant Berry has agreed to take the lead on the Division Mini-Con again this coming spring (April) and Mainline Hobby Supply has again offered to support the event. It will be held on a Saturday in April but as of this writing we do not have a scheduled date from the fire company for room availability. As always, Grant will need help with registration, event set-up, and of course clinicians. Start thinking now as to what sort of table clinic you could present at the event.
The Susquehanna Division has expressed interest in participating in the event with us this coming spring but details have not been finalized. More to come on this development.
NMRA Membership Promotion
One of the topics discussed at the September meeting was the decline in Division membership. As of the last membership report from the MER we are down to a little more than 60 members (NMRA members living in our area) which is down from over 90 just a few years ago. Looking at the number of layouts on the recent Mainline Hobby Supply open house tour, and the number of people participating in the tour, it is obvious that the majority of the model railroaders in the area do not belong to the NMRA. Division member Richard Benjamin (and proprietor of HobbyTown in Frederick) has offered us the use of the meeting space in his store on 14 December to hold a promotional activity. We especially need to reach out to the younger modelers in the area. I am asking all of you for your ideas as to what type of activities we can incorporate into this event that would attract these younger people. My personal feeling is that we need to highlight the use of technology in our hobby by demonstrating things such as computer control, other forms of electronics (DCC, 3D printing, laser cutting, etc). I also think that model railroad operations can be presented as a form of gaming.
I am open to all suggestions and, of course, volunteers to make the presentations.
