Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director
In order to ensure the financial well-being of the NMRA into the future, there will be a dues increase on January 1, 2012 for U. S. members and overseas members served by the Chattanooga office. Regular memberships will increase by $5 to $44, and subscriptions to NMRA Magazine will increase by $3 to $22. Sustaining memberships (including the magazine) will increase by $13 to $110, and student memberships (including the magazine) will increase by $4 to $32. In addition, our highly successful RailPass trial membership program will continue at $9.95. The current RailPass conversion rate to regular memberships is around 65%. Memberships administered by the A, B, and C offices are not affected.
Di Voss, who’s heading up the Cruise Convention committee, continues to receive results from the survey published in the October issue of NMRA Magazine. To date he’s received around 200 responses, and estimates those “in favor” to be about 75%. In addition, Di would like to remind those who think there won’t be enough time on a Cruise Convention for layout tours, OPSIG meets or other activities, that the ship will be in port from about 8:00 a.m. until about 10:00 p.m.
For some reason, the story that the NMRA membership has been declining over the past few years continues to persist. IT JUST AIN’T TRUE, FOLKS! NMRA membership is holding steady at around 19,500. According to the latest “Membership Thermometer” figures compiled by Marketing, Advertising and Promotions manager Tom Draper, the NMRA lost 104 members between August 2009 and August 2011, but gained 91 members between August 2006 and August 2011. Please help us set the record straight by mentioning this to your membership!
Convention news: Even though Grand Rails 2012 will have dozens of top notch model railroads open for self-guided tours, the convention committee wanted to make sure everyone has a chance to see some of their great layouts. So there will also be several bus tours to some of the area’s best layouts. Layouts include every scale from Z to G, at every level of completion. They’re also offering a very special, exclusive seven-hour limo layout tour for groups of 6 to any of the six layouts on the self-guided list. The price for the limo is only $120 per person. Get all the details and registration info at www.gr2012.org.
Repeat announcement: The Howell Day Museum is issuing a new release of its highly successful Gorre and Daphetid bobber cabooses. Two new bobbers, numbered 3 and 5, are available from Headquarters immediately. A single car is US$19.95 + $4 shipping and handling, and the set of two is US$34.95 + $4 shipping and handling. The new cars are available in HO scale only, and are ready to run. They feature operating magnetic knuckle couplers and free-rolling metal wheels. Watch for the ad running in NMRA Magazine. To order, call HQ at 423-892-2846.
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