Amen. Bill Winans Prescott Valley, AZ
--- In [email protected], "Bill Lane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Scott, > > I started the South Jersey S Scalers (now the South Jersey S Gaugers) with > Roy Hoffman in 1989. It was a slow start, but picked up after a few years. I > am still very close with some of the people I met there even though I am not > active in that club now. > > Here is some advice I have for you. Ban all elections from day 1 and remain > the dictator until they threaten your life. It worked for me for about 4 > years. Stomp on and destroy an American Flyer caboose TWICE per meeting. It > is a great attention getter and greatly relieves the stress from the death > threats of your club members very well. And lastly, this is the most > important part; force all the Good Ole Boys down there to model the Mighty > Pennsy! They WILL love you for it! > > Now here is some more worldly advice from "been there done that" Bill. Even > though you are working towards a permanent layout, I highly suggest that you > at least start out with something that is more portable, built to S-Mod > standards and could possibly be incorporated into the permanent layout > later. You can also take this to shows to get the attention of possible new > members until the 3 of you get tired of humping this thing around! You may > have the luxury of a low cost lease on a building now; but that all can (and > usually does) change once the owner walks in and sees your work. The lease > will increase by how much he figures you will pay to avoid tearing down and > moving again. This happened here locally from a small town that owned the > falling down building. They wanted the club to move out after the club spent > 7 years and thousands of dollars renovating the building that was supposedly > "given" to them for the $1.00 per year lease. > > You have to decide if you are going to be a dues collecting club or a group > of friends involved in a non-club. If you go for the dues, do NOT make the > whole thing about the "business meetings". Trust me in that you will have > more "discussions" about what to do with your money (especially if you host > a convention and have some money left over) and the trains will be all but > forgotten about. Did I mention that I run trains with a group of friends in > a non-club now? > > I may take some heat for this part, but here goes. You have to decide what > your flavor of S will be early on and stick with it. I know that there are > large well established S clubs that welcome all. Consider yourself very > lucky that you can all get along, or maybe you don't and we just don't hear > about it. IMHO, the rivet counters and pure AF guys have NOTHNIG in common. > Since you are in an area that is less populated with S Scaler prospects you > may have to and probably will ignore this part. > > You do NOT have to use rail bigger then code 125 even if you welcome the AF > guys and Hi Railers. Brooks Stover did an unbelievable job with code 148, > but only a small amount of AF needs the larger rail to run on as I have been > told by our resident AF expert. > > So when are you hosting a convention? We have never had one down yonder. I > will make my reservations today! > > Thank You, > Bill Lane > > Modeling the Mighty Pennsy in S Scale in 1957 since 1988 > > See my finished models at: > http://www.lanestrains.com > Over 100 new photos recently added > > Importing a Brass S Scale PRR X29 & G26 > http://www.pennsysmodels.com > > PRR Builders Photos Bought, Sold & Traded > (Trading is MUCH preferred) > http://mywebpages.comcast.net/billlane/PRRphotos.xls > > ***Join the PRR T&HS*** > The other members are not ALL like me! > http://www.prrths.com > http://mywebpages.comcast.net/billlane/PRRTHS_Application.pdf > > See my Altoona train videos here http://www.myspace.com/billlane > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
