There's a lot of talk about the growth of S Scale and what would work and what wouldn't. If the NASG leadership is concerned about it, why don't I see a chart showing the memberchip over the last 30 years? I'd also like to see an estimate of how many S folks there are who don't belong to the NASG since there is a tendency today to avoid organizations in every hobby. The last time I was a member of the NMRA, they published just such a list for the NMRA membership. It has been declining for years even with the WGH campaign. But to debunk the idea that NMRA membership (or NASG) is somehow a good indication of the health of the hobby in general, the attendance at the Springfield, Mass train show every Winter is far in excess of the world-wide NMRA membership. People are sick and tired of organizations (and government) that suck up time and money with no appreciable benefit. The fact that I'll likely never be a member of the NMRA again does not in any way correlate to my love for model railroading. It only indicates my dislike of the NMRA. If I want to socialize with like-minded folks I'll go to Church. For me, model railroading fill a comletely different need. The point is this: how do I know that S Scale participation is declining? Frankly I don't. I do know that the items I want to buy on ebay usually sell for more than I think they're worth. Somebody is out there buying the stuff. If it is declining, I doubt it's declining more than the hobby in general proportionally.
Ed Kozlowsky Sanford, Maine --- On Thu, 11/11/10, Roy <[email protected]> wrote: From: Roy <[email protected]> Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: an unfortunate trend! To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, November 11, 2010, 7:31 AM Actually, Tony Koesters thoughts on the growth of S are not new. Way back in '01, I had just taken over as president and I got to meet Tony over lunch. Kalmbach and the others had just launched the World's Greatest Hobbies movement in order to grow the hobby in general. He said that if we got involved with WGH, as the baby boomers came into the hobby, S could be in a position to grab some of them. I signed up with WGH as an ambassador and went about trying to recruit a bunch of people from the NASG membership to do likewise. Needless to say, it all went nowhere. Why the apathy, I do not know, but if we are to grow, it won't be by shunning such groups as the WGH and the NMRA. Roy [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> 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/
