Minutes of May 23rd 2015 meeting

Attending: Brian Sheron, Superintendent, Marshall Abrams, Assistant Superintendent, Tom Brodrick, Paymaster, Bill White, Clerk

Reading of the minutes from previous meeting dispensed with because they were not available.

Program Reports:

Layout tours: We have a tour of Jim Brewer’s Norfolk and Western,

Shenandoah Division set for September 26. No additional tours are scheduled at this time.

Achievement Brian reported that the NMRA has recently simplified the achievement standards.

Paymaster: The financial report was distributed. PD has a current balance of $5002.42. PD cleared a few dollars on the Minicon, rent expense was $600, registration income was $580 plus $112 on white elephant sale of donated items.

Flyer: nearly complete, will come out in July

2016 Minicon:

Location: Brian checked on the availability and cost of the Rockville Senior Center. Facilities seemed adequate but location is not easy to find. They wanted $1185. They are simply too expensive unless we raise registration substantially which we are not willing to do. St. Matthews appears to be the best available option. Tom will check on availability, cost, and date and ensure no conflict with the Scale Model Train Show.

New Business

Disposal Coordinator: Clint Hyde has resigned as the Layout Disposal Coordinator. Although he previously indicated that Jim Kinder was interested in replacing him in this position, Jim has not responded to repeated attempts to contact him. The board decided to eliminate the position of Layout Disposal Coordinator. Marshall will ask Clint if he will write an article that provides guidance to members on how to plan for layout disposal. This will be posted on the PD web page.

PD Files: discussed digitization progress; it will not be comprehensive on the web site; the files themselves are voluminous and will need to be reviewed for inclusion.

Helper Service: If anyone requests help in the future, we will put out an e-mail to all members to ascertain if anyone is willing to assist the requester. Brian will review the web page article to better describe how it works.

Excursion: : B&O Museum and the Walkersville Southern Railroad were discussed for future excursions.. The latter was deemed a good choice since a previous excursion was very popular including a tour of the shops. We should expect about 40 people will attend. Brian will look into possible dates; September or October would be preferable.

1. PD Division Event Visitors: Recent NMRA requirements state that non-members can only attend official NMRA functions (e.g., when business meetings are held) no more than 3 times, and then they must either join NMRA or they can no longer attend official NMRA events. In order to implement this requirement the Board concluded that the only event that the PD holds that falls into the category of official event is the Minicon, during which the annual business meeting is held. It was agreed that at future Minicons we would take attendance and record the names of non-members attending.

Possible Inconsistency between MER and PD By-Laws This matter was raised by a MER vice president without specifics. The Board feels current By-Laws are sufficient and no further action will be taken on this matter. Marshall will serve as Parliamentarian.

2018 MER Convention: After a discussion the board concluded that it would not be desirable to coordinate with the Chesapeake Division as was done in 2013. Brian will contact the MER to determine if we are slated to host the 2018 convention. If we are, he will check on possible conflicts to ascertain an appropriate date and look into a possible hotel.

Contacts: The contact list is out of date and should no longer be used. It even includes some members from the defunct St. Clare Division. Marshall will send out a notice to all people on the contact list to inform them that we are establishing a new list for NMRA members who wish to be informed of PD activities, including distribution of the Flyer. Inclusion on the new list will require an NMRA membership number.

Recruiting New Members The NMRA president had an article in the NMRA Magazine about recruiting new members from the baby boomers who are approaching retirement . Brian has a presentation on Power Point. Marshall produced the current PD leaflet and pointed out it was out of date and needed correction; all agreed to look it over. It was also agreed to suggest to the NMRA through our director that a booth be set up at the Great Model Train Shows in Timonium. Board will look into contacting local service clubs, like Lions, Kiwanis, etc. and offer to make a presentation at one of their monthly meetings.