Potomac Division Board Meeting
July 30, 2011


The Board of Directors of the Potomac Division of the NMRA was held at Bill Day’s house in Potomac Falls VA.  Attending were Marshall Abrams, Bill Day, Brian Sheron, Mike White and Glenn Downing.  A quorum was present and an agenda approved.

Minutes of the meeting of 14 May 2011, taken by Bill Day, were distributed and approved as written.  The Paymaster’s Report of income and expenses for the period May 14 to July 30 was distributed (see attached).  The period began with a balance of $3,523, had an income of $5, expenses of $46 and ended with a balance of $3,482.  The Paymaster’s report was approved.  

The Computer Clerk’s report showed a total of 18 new members in the MER.  Obtaining 501(c)3 status was briefly discussed as a way of using credit cards to raise funds via our web page. Mike White is to request the Mid-East Region to get 501(c)3 status for the Potomac Division.

There was a discussion of the potential shortage of judges in the Achievement Program.   There are seven available.  The problem of non-uniform decisions of judges needs to be addressed.

Layout tours currently scheduled:  Marty McGuirk in September, none in October, Bill Day in November, and Mike White in December.  Plans call for two events per month (layout tours and clinics), now on Saturdays, but not on the same dates. 

The next Flyer has a deadline of September 1st and will cover events in October, November and December plus a tickler for January. There are no new advertisers. Bill Day, as chair for outreach programs, should invite other railroad and modeling groups to draft short notes for the Flyer to let others know what they are doing.  These would be ad hoc and not be regular inserts.  We need to make sure that our Flyer takes notice of all of our upcoming events.

White Flag Extras were discussed. Bill Day reviewed a list of clinicians in Potomac Division supplied by Marshall Abrams.  They included Clint Hyde on styrene and airbrushing, Marty McGuirk on bridges, Marshall Abrams on signals (both dwarf and occupancy detection),  John Drye on weathering, Tom Brodrick on iron work, Bill Mosteller on decaling, Roger Sekera on coal, and John Glaab on steel mills.  Bill Day will ask Howard Zane and Bruce Greenberg  to conducct a clinic on train shows. 

The 2012 Minicon will be held in the South Columbia Baptist Church in April. 

The 2013 MER Convention will be in Howard County in October.  The question is whether we should have a Minicon in April 2013 or wait until 2014.  In either event, we should plan to have the 2013 or 2014 Minicon in Virginia.

The MER Convention in 2013 is to be called C & P 2013. Marshall Abrams agreed to continue acting as temporary general chair until several other positions are filled.  He is coordinating with Eric Dervinis, the MER Convention Coordinator.  P.J. Mattson will be Treasurer.  Brian Sheron will handle layout tours.  One proposal is to start Thursday evening going to Sunday afternoon.  Call boards would  function Thursday evening and Friday morning, with the main convention to start Friday at noon.  Marshall Abrams will mock up a schedule and coordinate by email, probably with Eric Dervinis. Questions arose about merchants and commercial vendors.  We agreed not to have a large train show, but would consider something like the “made in the MER” theme that Clint Hyde originated. The next board meeting will be at Marshall Abrams’ house, Saturday, October 15, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Day
Acting Clerk