Isn’t O Scale 2 Rail great?
Hello Gentlemen and Lady, Lady in singular as I only know of one female member as of yet. Last month I issued a challenge for each of us to find a new member. Now I know that several of you are lucky enough to be married to a talented model railroader. One of the things I love most about model railroading is the many facets of the hobby. Now maybe your wife or significant other doesn’t outright claim to be a model railroader. But I’m sure she may just have talents that can be counted as one of those facets we find in all scales of model railroading. So why not ask them to sign up? Heck, you could be a super guy and pay her dues! A lot of these wonderful women come to our various open houses, conventions etc. etc. I was at an estate sale not too long ago where a husband and wife came in and each drew a number for the selection process. I think several of us were rather stunned when she picked her selection that was not necessarily what her husband wanted her to pick. When I became President back in January, one of the issues of the day was / is unhappiness among many with the name of O scale Central. In the course of discussion, the board of directors made two decisions. The first one was to start DBA / referring to ourselves as the O scale 2 Railers. The second was to table the discussion of a name change for one year. The driving force behind the second decision was finances. For multiple reasons including tax reasons and having to change our 501© status if we changed names. I am not trying to reopen this discussion. That will come in another five months. But I have noticed that we have failed to be DBA O Scale 2 Railers. So, I am announcing a contest. ( And maybe to see if anybody is really reading this ) So the first person who comes to me at Strasburg and says I am a O Scale 2 Railer will win a prize.
Want to take couple of lines and plug the 20/20 SONC. Plans are being made at this point to have a co-event with the NMRA convention in St. Louis. John Wubble is our convention chair and is putting a lot of effort into the convention. I will outright beg you to donate some of your talents to help John make this a wonderful 2020 convention. John can use help from the top all the way down to the very bottom. Please, Please, Please volunteer. Having been a member of the executive committee for Rockville in 2018, I can tell you that you will make new friends and have some great experiences if you volunteer.
And Oh, by the way, John will be manning the O scale Central booth and promoting the convention at Strasburg August 10th. Come on by and say hi, introduce yourself and volunteer!
Couple things while thinking about it:
the Board of Directors has decided to post our monthly meeting minutes on the website for all to see what we’re talking about.
After Strasburg our next promotion will be at the INDY meet / show in September. I’m looking for volunteers to man the booth and recruit members. If you have an hour you could donate, or volunteer please let me know. Gang, I’ve said it before, we cannot operate on the STP theory ( same 10 people ) doing it all. We will also have a general membership meeting Saturday morning.
And yes, it is not too early to start thinking about hosting 2021 SONC. I recently reviewed the website club listings and I’ve got to say we have a pretty impressive group of clubs across this great country. I invite those club members to step up for 2021, start having some discussions of what you might be able to offer as a convention location. I know of nothing else that motivates people to get progress made on their layouts then an upcoming convention. The web shows the NMRA convention in 2021 slated for Santa Clara California. Depending on how 2020 works out, a joint event may become the future of SONC.
Lastly, a member’s only discount was worked out with Carolina Craftsmen Kits. I’ll be straightforward and tell you all this has been a disappointment to me. I do not believe that anybody took this opportunity and purchased a kit. However, the owner, Jeff, is willing to continue to work with us on a custom building kit in O scale. At the top of the list of possibilities is a Western Maryland station. If you are interested in this type of arrangement please contact me at Bruce@oscalekings.org If you have another building that would sell a few copies, contact me.
Thanks, Bruce