Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

The Ballot Committee has issued the official results of the Spring election. 7 ballots were unopened since they were postmarked after the deadline..

President

Ballots received – 1680
Valid ballots cast – 1569
Charlie W. Getz, IV, HLM – 1550

Vice President – Administration

Ballots received – 1680
Valid ballots cast – 1637
Dave Thornton – 723
Clark Kooning, MMR 588
Howard Goodwin 326

Vice President – Special Projects

Ballots received – 1680
Valid ballots cast – 1599
Bill Kaufman – 1104
James “Lumpy” Lupfer – 493
Norman Frowly (Write-in) – 1
Charles W Getz, IV, HLM (Write-in) – 1

Eastern District Director

Ballots received – 523
Valid ballots cast – 472
John Roberts, MMR, HLM – 461
Various individual write-in votes – 9 (on each)

Pacific District Director

Ballots received – 90
Valid ballots cast – 90
Mike Bartlett – 53
Robert Peterson – 25
Kelly Loyd = 12

At-Large North America Director

Ballots Received – 1565
Valid ballots cast – 1477
Miles Hale, MMR – 865
Mike Brestel – 610
Dave Barrow – 1
Whit Johnson – 1

The Board of Directors will meet inGrand Rapids on Friday, July 27, Saturday, July 28, and Sunday, July 29. While the Friday meeting is a closed caucus, most of the Saturday and Sunday meetings are open to all members. At this time the meeting room hasn’t been determined, so check with the convention hotel after you arrive if you’re interested in attending.

The NMRA has incorporated in the State of Missouri. One of the driving factors was to enable the Board to conduct electronic meetings (a practice not allowed inOhio, where we were formerly incorporated). This lets the Board vote on matters of significance in the time between the Winter and Summer meetings. The move also provides the proper opportunity to revisit the regulations (bylaws) as we update them to satisfy the Missouri Corporate requirements.

GrandRails 2012 has just signed up a rep from QSI who will be presenting several clinics about their brand new diesel sound system. The system lets users control sound and light functions to match specific railroad practices. Check the clinic schedule for this addition.

Coming soon: an announcement on the convention website about self-guided tours at GrandRails2012. Watch for it

Grand Rails 2012 is looking for volunteers who’d be willing to donate an hour or two of their time at the convention doing things like contest room security, helping with registration check-in, silent auction set-up and tear-down, and bus loading. If you’re interested and have an hour or two you’d like to donate, contact Mark Baldwin, Vice Chair of Volunteers, at gr2012volunteers@gmail.com for more details.