Grant Berry is making good progress with the planning for the 2024 (10th annual) SMD Mini-Con. As usual it will be held at the Blue Ridge Mountain Fire Company’s hall and is co-sponsored by Mainline Hobby Supply. The date for this year’s event is 6 April. It will follow the same format as last year with informal table clinics in the morning followed by a short lunch break (food available on site) and a modeler’s round table session. We will then return for one more round of table clinics before calling it a day. This worked well last year with less drop-off in attendance than we previously experienced when we had formal clinics after lunch. The emphasis on the round table this year will be layout design and operations. We are planning on having individuals from the layout design, operations, and industries SIG’s participating in the round table. In addition, we will have a representative from the NMRA to address the benefits of NMRA membership to the group. We are making a greater effort this year to use the Mini-Con as a vehicle for promoting the SMD and the NMRA in general. Don Florwick is working to place promotional information in the commercial hobby press and on various NMRA sites. There will be a large banner at the Mini-Con promoting the SMD and the NMRA will have a promotional table. Finally, we have updated the SMD brochure and have had 400 copies printed. This will allow us to give a copy to every individual that registers for the Mini-Con.
Tag: convention
Mini Convention; Saturday, 8 April @ Blue Ridge Summit, PA
The 2023 Mini Con is a joint effort of the NMRA South Mountain Division 10 and Mainline Hobby Supply. This annual “clinics day” will be held in the Blue Ridge Mountain Fire Co., 13063 Monterey Ln., Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214, across the road from Mainline Hobby Supply between 9 AM and 3 PM.
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- prototype and model presentations
- formal and informal clinics
- modular displays
- interaction with fellow hobbyists
- 10% discount at Mainline Hobby Supply
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There is no admission charge. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
This educational event is open to the public for promotion of the hobby of model railroading.
MER Convention Seeks Clinicians
Greetings,
I am the Convention Clinic Chair for the 2023 Around the Curve to Altoona Convention 2023 Around the Curve to Altoona Convention hosted by our Susquehanna Division 11. I’d like to extend a warm welcome and invitation to each of you and any of your Division members who would like to present a clinic at our 18-22 October Convention. As you know, Altoona was the heart of the Pennsylvania Railroad during the heyday of American railroading. The Convention will provide visits to historic railroad facilities, sites, attractions, and provide educational experiences for all attendees.
For those who have never presented at a regional convention they can earn 4 points toward the Author Achievement Program. This could be their first step in the path to achieving MMR status. We welcome any topic associated with model railroading or prototype railroading that is related to our model railroading hobby.
As currently structured, our clinic program will offer 50+ clinic slots over the four-day convention. A clinic slot is based on a 45-50 minute clinic, 10-15 minutes for Q&A, and 30-minutes for setup, tear down, and break time between clinics. Each of our 3 clinic rooms will have a full audio/visual setup, tables for model displays or other support material, and a convention clinic team member who will introduce the clinician and provide any assistance needed during the presentation.
We sincerely look forward to welcoming you and many of your members to Altoona in October.
Best Regards,
Barry Schmitt
[To contact Barry or others on the Convention committee please visit https://www.mer2023.org/lcc.html, or email the SMD at southmountaindiv@gmail.com, and we will put you in touch. -ed]
Carolina Special, 2022 MER Convention Update
Be sure to register soon as the registration cost goes up on September 1st! Here are highlights of the latest Convention information.
The website has been updated several times since the last email I sent about this fun event. The 2022 MER convention website is http://www.carolinasouthern.org/MER2022.htmlwhere all the information you need can be found.
The Banquet will be a great meal with an exciting guest speaker, Shane Wilson, President of Scale Trains. Be sure to sign up.
There are Layout Operating Sessions and information on these can be found at: http://www.carolinasouthern.org/MER2022tours.html
A full clinic schedule, with a broad range of exciting topics, with 4 Make-and-Take clinics of which three of these clinics are conducted in 2 sessions and information can be found at: http://www.carolinasouthern.org/MER2022clinics.html
We have three special tours before and during the convention.
Tour #201 is a pre-convention backstage tour being held at the North Carolina Transportation Museum at 1 Samuel Spencer Drive, Spencer NC. Don’t worry about checking into the convention hotel until after the museum tour. The private tour takes place on Thursday, October 20, 2022 starting at 12:30 pm. Try to be in place at noon. Information can be found at: http://www.carolinasouthern.org/2022%20Convention/NCTM%20Tour%20Notice-V3.pdf
And a map of the Museum grounds can be found at: http://www.carolinasouthern.org/2022%20Convention/NCTM%20Tour%20Map-r.jpg
After the tour you can visit The Little Choo Choo Shop, the largest model railroad hobby shop in NC across the street from the museum.
Tour #202: The second special tour is the UNIFOUR SPECIAL which includes the Southeast Narrow Gauge and Shortline Museum in Newton, NC and six very nice layouts in the Hickory, NC Metro Area. This is a Friday all-day mini-bus tour and will leave the convention hotel on Friday morning and return about dinnertime. Information on this tour can be found at: http://www.carolinasouthern.org/MER2022unifour.html
Tour #203: The third special tour is of Lionel Corporation Headquarters. This will be a self-drive tour on Friday, October 21, 2022 starting at 9:30 am at 6301 Performance Drive, Concord, NC. The Lionel Headquarters is approximately 5 miles from the convention hotel.
A Carolina Special Look South in 2022 convention shirt is now available to purchase during early registration.
One Day Registration is now an option.
We will have hand sanitizer in the clinic rooms and masks are welcome if someone feels safer wearing one.
For our friends in the Southeastern Region, a home layout in Greenville SC will be open on Sunday Oct 23 for our SER visitors returning home!
The Mini-Con is Back!
From Grant Berry
On Saturday, 23 April, 2022, South Mountain Division (SMD) will present a Mini Convention in Blue Ridge Summit, PA, sponsored by Mainline Hobby Supply. Beginning at 9:00 AM, this free annual outreach programming consists of a morning loaded with informal clinics, including a couple of make-and-take opportunities, and then concludes in the early afternoon with a couple of formal presentations. Both NMRA members and the general public are invited to this no-cost gathering.
This Mini-Con activity is a great opportunity for the Division. It offers an occasion to reconnect with one another, encouraging active participation as a way to give back, and a path to promote the hobby to the public. It takes a large staff of volunteers to host this event. Most are Division members. Attendance in past years averaged over 200 persons.
To encourage casual interaction and an exchange of ideas, approximately twenty informal clinics take place during the first four hours. Clinic topics this spring will cover structure building and painting, rolling stock maintenance, upgrades, and weathering, locomotive tuning, DCC topics, a fiber optic presentation, Tortoise machine operations, and more. Clinicians will be seated at tables welcoming attendees to observe their projects. Conversation and questions are entertained as the clinicians work.
In some instances, guests may be invited to try their hand at the work.
Being sensitive to physical distancing protocols, no modular layouts will be present this spring to facilitate enough space between and around clinicians.
As in the past, the SMD will have two make-and-take clinics that focus on the beginner, giving preference to the youth in our hobby. Both culminate with a small structure to take home. An entry-level craftsman kit and a basic plastic kit are the foundation for this activity which is billed as a wonderful parent and child activity.
Two formal presentations are slated for the afternoon hours. Division member John Pursell will offer a program on frugal methods to model railroad, and lastly, member Pete Clarke of the Friends of the EBT has arranged for a talk on the happenings and progress at the East Broad Top Railroad.
The sponsor for this event, Mainline Hobby Supply, is within walking distance from the Blue Ridge Mountain Fire Co location. The Division encourages all to thank owners Bonnie and Brian Wolfe and to support their business. Mainline is offering a 10% discount to every Mini-Con attendee on the day of the event. Additionally, a $150 gift certificate for Mainline Hobby will be raffled off during the day.
The raffle ticket holder must be present at the time of the drawing on Saturday to win.
Watch this site to get all updates regarding this event.