New Area Groups

[Julian Evison]

I recently attended the excellent Perth Model Railway Exhibition and met quite a number of local-(ish) members. The subject of a Scottish area group for the Society came up a few times.

As Brian mentioned in a recent thread, we have about 60 members in Scotland located all over the country, but there are a fair proportion in the Central Belt. To get an area group going, we need one local volunteer to co-ordinate the activity. If someone is willing, they should contact Brian Ellsmore (Membership Secretary) who can e-mail members in the relevant postcodes and ask those interested to get in touch with said volunteer.

The Society is happy to underwrite (reasonable) costs of the first couple of meetings (hall hire, etc.) so there is no financial risk in trying this out. (If in doubt, contact me or Geoff Bowyer about what is 'reasonable'!)

Obviously this isn't just about Scotland, but applies to any other area currently not covered.

Being a part of an area group is not for everyone, but many get a lot of pleasure and help from meeting others in this way.

Julian Evison
Chairman

[Stan Williams]

May I say advertising your area group does work as well as making the meetings interesting, you need more than people just chatting.

Our get togethers now average 45 people coming along and we are still having new attendees.

If you remember the famous line from the film Jaws  ,   We need a bigger boat  !!

Well we really need a bigger Hall.

Go for it and you will gain more from being a society member.

Stan.

[Hobby]

I would also add that for a first meeting unless you know you are going to get loads of people an "at my house" is usually the way to get things started. Most houses can fit up to a dozen members and it's unusual for a first meeting to have that many! Once you are up and running and start to outgrow the house meets then you need to look for an alternative home. At that point you will know the location of the group members and can plan a suitable location. Especially where the catchment area is large (i.e. Scotland!) it's probably best to wait until that stage before deciding on a permanent location.

I would also add that the alternative to the "house" first meet is a local exhibition with the arrangement to meet in the catering area at a set time, that worked well last year for a meeting of TT enthusiasts we had at the ERA show.

One step at a time, Stan!