Category: News

Mike Donnelly

The NMRA is now on the Boeing gift match program. Any Boeing employees who are also NMRA members can have their NMRA donations doubled.

Gerry Leone

As you have undoubtedly heard, there has been a rash of devastating tornadoes all across the South. Chattanooga was not immune. A tornado ripped through the city on Wednesday, April 27th, taking some of our Headquarters’ shingles with it. Much of the city is without electricity; there are trees, fences, and power lines down all over. Many roads and highways are closed.

Fortunately, all our staff members were unharmed, although Chief Administrative Officer Jenny Hendricks had her house picked up, rooms ripped open, and the roof blown off. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of our staff, especially Jenny.

Please note that NMRA business will be interrupted for several days until things get back to a sem-blance of normality. If your call or problem can wait, please do so. Thanks.

Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

Plans for The Gallery Exhibit at the California State Railroad Museum are moving into high gear. To date, organizing and fund-raising actions have raised two pledges of matching funds from anonymous NMRA member donors. One donation was for $50,000 and the other was for $250,000. The exhibit should be open by the end of 2012. More details in the May issue of NMRA Magazine.

A special Carpet Cutting Ceremony (an indoor ground breaking) for the Gallery Exhibit will be held on Thursday evening during the x2011 Convention. All are invited.

Speaking of x2011, if you haven’t yet registered for the X2011 West NMRA Convention in July, register now! If you have registered, sign up for tours and operating sessions before they fill up! More information at x2011west.org.

The Members-Only area of www.nmra.org is currently open to all members. Content is still being added, but now it houses copies of all Region and Division newsletter articles cited within the last year by Jim Zinser in his bi-monthly “Division Business Car / NMRA@Home” column in NMRA Magazine. In addition the “NMRA Magazine Classics” section of the Members-Only Area will contain classic articles from past issues of Scale Rails magazine and The Bulletin. We add new material all the time, so check back often.

The NMRA remains active with the two model railroad podcasts. We sponsor The Model Railway Show podcast produced by well-known modelers Trevor Marshall and Jim Martin at www.themodelrailwayshow.com. And Board Member Clark Kooning, along with other NMRA members, appears as a regular guest on Model Rail Radio podcasts at www.modelrailradio. Both of these podcasts can be downloaded from their websites or via iTunes.

Notice of 2012 Elections. The following NMRA Officers and Board of Directors positions are open for election in 2012: President, Vice President-Administration, Vice President-Special Projects, Eastern District Director, Pacific District Director, and At-Large North America Director. Check the NMRA Executive Handbook located here for the districts affected and qualifications. Submit candidate names for consideration by the Nominations Committee to Didrik Voss, davoss@pvmtengr.com, no later than June 15th.

The Summer Board Meeting will be held prior to the Sacramento x2011 Convention on Friday, July 1, 2011 (not Thursday, June 30 as previously reported). The exact start time and room number will be announced when available.

The NMRA is looking to identify and recognize any model railroad clubs that are still in existence that were formed in 1935 or earlier. We would like the name of the club, when it was founded, and a picture from the early years if possible. Send the information to Dave Thornton – NMRA Vice President of Administration, DThorn5552@aol.com, or 2027 Jeffrey Drive, Troy, MI 48085-3816.

Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

Thanks to generous donations of members, The NMRA Online Archives should open by March 1^st. We’ve scanned and posted 10,000 photos, drawings, and plans, which will be available for download at a discount price by NMRA members and at full price by non-NMRA members. Watch NMRA Magazine for the Grand Opening announcement. And remember: the more you donate, the more we can scan!

The NMRA is planning to help Regions and Divisions promote National Model Railroad Month next November with materials downloadable from our website, like poster and flyer templates, press releases, etc. Watch NMRA Magazine for more details this summer.

Jim Zinser’s Division Business Car column is a great place to see how other Divisions and Regions promote themselves, raise money, and have fun with model railroading. Take a few moments every other month to read Jim’s column for ideas.

The winter Board Meeting is being held concurrently with the Budget and Operations meetings this year in Las Vegas at the Palace Station Hotel (about 5 miles from the airport). The Budget and Operations meetings, which are by invitation only, begin on Tuesday, February 22 at 9 a.m. The Board Meeting runs from 9 to 5 (or later) on Wednesday, February 23, and 9 to 5 (or later) on Thursday, February 24. All NMRA members are welcome to attend.

Check the Help Wanted ads in NMRA Magazine. We’ve filled several positions, thanks to generous volunteers, but we still need your help. Remember: we’re a volunteer organization always in need of able bodies. Here are the positions we’re looking for—if you fit the qualifications, email the address in the magazine.

• Electronics engineers with experience in setting up control systems needed to take part in discussions and development of NMRANET. Current bus is designed using CAN. Time commitment: several hours per week.

• IT staff volunteer with experience in Content Management Systems. Able to program in PHP and PostGreSQL/MySQL, and good experience in HTML and CSS. IIS and VB experience a plus. Time commitment: ~3 hours per week.

Gerry Leone

Don’t subscribe to NMRA Magazine? There’s a section on the NMRA website devoted to reporting the same NMRA news found in The Bulletin section of the magazine every month.

We’d also like you to remind your editors about the “Division Business Car” column (also known as NMRA@Home) found in NMRA Magazine every other month. It’s written by Jim Zinser MMR and features interesting summaries of articles he’s found in Division newsletters from all around the world.

John Stevens, our national Boy Scout coordinator, wanted me to forward this to everyone: In order to create the most secure environment possible for its youth members, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has developed numerous procedural and leadership selection policies for its adult leaders. Effective June 1, 2010, those policies included Youth Protection Training. After that date, no adult may register with the BSA as an adult leader in any capacity without first completing this training. The training is good for two years and can be accomplished online. The training can be found at scouting.org. Click “My Scouting” near the top of the page, create an account, and you can then access the training. Upon completion of the training, print a certificate of completion to include with your next Adult Leader Application. The whole process should take under an hour. If you have any questions, contact John Stevens, scouts@hq.nmra.org.

Trainfest, which takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is operated by the WISE Division of the NMRA, set an all-time attendance record this November with 23,476 attendees, the highest in the event’s 39-year history.

x2011, the Sacramento 2011 Convention, report that they’ve now implemented RSS feeds from their website. Attendees and potential attendees can simply subscribe to the RSS feed and they’ll receive email messages when items are added or changed on the website. Go to x2011west.org and click the orange RSS box.

And x2011 online registration is up and running. It’s presently limited to convention registration, but once tour information is released, registrants will also be able to sign up for tours and extra fare events online. Not only will this be convenient, but registrants will be able to see immediately if a tour is sold out.