I am curios about railroad clubs and exactly how they work. The nearest one is just over an hour away and I dont really like to drive. I was kind of thinking of startin one up locally. What should I consider, have and dont have, etc… Thanks.
Establish goals and rules before you get very involved. Goals include what your target for number of members, and written bylaws should be established early in the game in order to
That’s a huge topic.
The big issues are,
What does the club own (versus the members owning), and how is that paid for?
Does it charge dues so that it can rent a location (meaning either lots of members or pretty high dues)?
Or does one member generously agree to host, which is how a lot of teenage type train clubs work, or worked. In which case who really owns that layout and can he terminate the club on a whim (or a job change)? If the host really owns everything then be cautious about chipping in to pay for stuff. IF a guy leaves you do not want him undoing your track work so he can take “his” double slip switch home with him for example.
Who decides what scale, what era, what prototype? DCC or DC or battery? You need a democracy or a dictator.
Who can join? Anyone? Standards? Probation? Lots of clubs have been torn apart by disruptive members (e.g. guys who’d come in on off days and undo other guys’ work and do things their way). I know one club that was nearly torn apart by disruption when they admitted a teen who turned out to have serious ADD issues and they did not know what to do about him.
Are there firm rules? Elected officials? Actual legal incorporation?
I am just listing a few issues.
I think most really successful clubs are started by guys who have been members of clubs before. I do not know of a resource that really guides a person on how to start or run a club. Perhaps the NMRA has something. Decades ago (and I mean the WW II era) Al Kalmbach as “Boomer Pete” published a book on how to start and run a club, using a lot of paperwork from a Detroit club as the basis.
Dave Nelson
You will need to find a cheap location. I’ve heard stories of clubs leasing old depots for $1 a year because they are abandoned and now owned by a local government which will do it in the name of redevelopment.
You will need to find other like minded people to help you make it a club. Elect officers etc. Decided on what you are going to model and how often you meet.
j…
why don’t you start by inviting a fellow model railroader or two over to operate your layout? You can help operate their layout. You might help each other build each others layouts That will at least see if there are others also interested.
Hello all,
If you are considering beginning a formal club, it might be well worth the time and effort to visit your nearest club, albeit over an hour away.
Let them know your intentions of forming a club. If there truly is a need in your area; “anywhere but here”, I’m sure they would be supportive of your efforts.
You should have some questions going in:
- How did they form?
- Is there a charter or mission statement?
- How many members are there?
- What is the criteria for membership?
- Are there dues?
- Is it a drop-in or are there set times for meetings, op-sessions, building/maintenance, etc.?
- How did they get the word out that there was a club in their area (recruitment)?
- Is there a board of directors or another form of leadership structure?
- What kind of insurance is carried by the club?
- Is the club affiliated with The NMRA?
- What is the tax status; 501(c)(3), etc.?
- Any other Q’s that you might have.
- And, any other information that you might not have considered.
You can also contact The NMRA or a regional board member and see what information they can provide you about starting a formal club.
To start a formal club many of the above questions need to be addressed, especially insurance.
If you are just running informal op-sessions, if there is an incident then the insurance of the homeowner should cover it.
In this litigious atmosphere, if something does happen to a “member”, it won’t be the “member” who sues, it’s typically the insurance company/lawyer that will pursue the action.
For now you might consider hosting informal op-sessions on your layout without the formalities of a club, as has been suggested.
Establishing a formal club is more complex than just announcing, "
I’m a 23-year member of my club, a club that is 78 years old. We’ve seen it all.
My advice is to either be a full-on By-Laws, Rules & Regulations kind of club like mine (with officers, elections, committees, “Robert’s Rules of Order”, etc.), or go for the Round Robin type where everyone meets at a different member’s house, and that member sets the rules for his layout. Going halfway invites trouble.
Be careful of the people you bring into the club. You’re trusting them with your models, perhaps thousands of dollars worth. One wrong guy can destroy a club because the good members leave. No one wants to hang out with people they can’t stand or trust.
Make it difficult, but not impossible, to change the rules/by-laws. You don’t want to be changing them constantly, but you don’t want to stifle change. Our By-Law changes require a week’s posted notice before the next monthy business meeting where it is simply read out loud, not voted on. The next monthly business meeting after that is when we vote on it, and it takes a 2/3rds majority to pass it. So it’s hard (and slow), but not impossible to change our By-Laws.
Make sure all the rules apply to everyone equally. Sometimes you get folks who think the rules don’t apply to them, which whips up resentment. Just because someone does a lot for the club, or is the elected leader, or is a friend of someone else, doesn’t mean they get to violate the rules.
Set high car/loco/track standards. No one likes to run a club where derailments (or uncouplings) are common.
Do things together away from the club. Have a holiday party, or a summer cookout, or a pot luck supper. Take a railfan trip somewhere. Build comraderie. It will hold the club together through tough times (and you will have them).
Paul A. Cutler III
Do yourself a favor and stay away from any club. Most are a pita with too many know it alls.
Do I take it that you’re not a fan of clubs then???
I am no fan of a club, either!
In my student days many, many moons ago, I was a member of a club. All the red tape necessary to run a club really took the fun out of model railroading. With some 300 paying members, there was a lot of money involved in running this club, meaning the club officers had no time to work on the layout or even run a train.
I left the club and became a member of a round robin group building a modular layout. The modules remain the property of each member and they are set up in the basement of one of the members house. No dues, hardly any rules, just fun!
OK, this works only if you know each other very well. In our group, we know each other now for 40+ years!
Proper liability insurance is an absolute must, and it won’t be cheap. If you are not fully covered you leave all of the members of the club wide open to law suits. Let’s say a ‘member’ is involved in a serious car accident where someone is injured on the way home from a club meeting. By association, all members can be sued for a share of the damages. Let’s say you have a friendly back yard BBQ with your members and somebody has a few too many beers. If they smash somebody else up on the way home you all pay, big time.
Fortunately the NMRA offers club insurance. It should be one of the first items that the new club deals with.
How do I know this? My Royal Canadian Air Cadet buddies decided to form an alumni association a few years ago, partly for fun and partly to benefit the Squadron. We went along merrily for about three years hosting golf tournaments and having regular parties. Then one of our alumni who was in the insurance business casually asked how we were covering our insurance costs since there were no dues being collected. When he found out we were not insured he said in very clear terms that we had our collective heads in the sand, or possibly up some other place that we can’t mention but we pass gas from every day. He explained that an average law suit could cost us about $300,000 each or more! The necessary insurance would have cost us about $3,000 a year total. There were only about 30 of use so we decided that we weren’t willing to pay $100 per year each just to have a few beers together. That was the end of the alumni association.[:(!]
Whether or not that amount is reasonable for the members of a mo
Suffice it to say I help start a club once…Never again will I even consider helping.
As far as club’s there are good and bad…Over the years I been a member of both types.
I have never been a member of a train club and never will join one.
It sure sounds like most forumites who are responding feel the same way as me.
Rich
Rich,One thing I notice over the years in the various clubs I been a member is a new member rolls in and wants to do one of two things change the club policy about pooling models on operation nights or they’re not a people person. At one club we had one to quit simply because none of his equipment would pass the basic car inspection of KD couplers and trip pins at the correct height and wheels in gauge. How childish is that? Several of us even offered to help him bring his stuff up to par.
Of course bad or worthless do nothing clubs leaves a bitter taste in a former members mouth and they wrongly judge all clubs by their bitter experience.
Maybe someone needs to post a convincing message about what is good about joining a model railroad club.
Rich
Well, this thread pretty much seals the deal for me. I’ll do my modeling, and run my small layout the way I want to, when I want to. Nothing against people that are happy being in a club, but I have way to many other interest, activities and commitments in my life. I don’t need anything more that may complicate things.
When it gets to that point, the fun and enjoyment fades, no matter what type of club or organization you belong to, that started out with good intentions.
Mike.
Come on Rich, on what do you base this assumption, three no club posts and only one with a reason.
Model Railroad clubs are by nature social organizations, and with that come all the vagaries of people of all stripes. As some have alluded too, there are good and bad, and an important “trick” to a successful club is to get all these people together, and marshall them to the goal of building and operating a satisfying layout.
Whoever is spearheading a new club is going to have to be a people person as well as passionate about model trains. It means you’re going to have to be good at gathering people, raising funds, conflict resolution, and being a policeman to weed out the bad characters who come along, who may disrupt or drive off the decent folks.
Modelrailroading is full of a diverse lot, but includes a lot of grumpy opinionated old men too, as you can see by some of the replies here. Perhaps it’s better some not be members of a club because it’s important to be able to play nice in the sand box. But a big challenge to any club leader is to recognize who may be trouble and devisive and tactfully ensure they find another venue for their hobby outlet, and get together people who can make compromises, get along, share the load and enjoy the hobby together.
To the OP. If you are a people person and are up to the challenge, and a lot of work, then maybe starting a model railroad club is for you. Others have alluded to other important considerations.
Ja Bear, I base it on simple math. As I said, it sure sounds like most forumites who are responding feel the same way as me. And, as you said, 3 out of 4 responding were negative. I was merely making an observation based upon the number of replies, pro and con, not a scientific statement of fact.
And, in a subsequent reply, I did suggest that it would be informative if someone cared to post a convincing message about what is good about joining a model railroad club.
Rich
Rich,What’s so bad? A person not getting their way? A person that can’t rip into the scenery because he wants to do something his way?
I’ve just about seen every type including members thought they was a living legend and above all members-well,I suppose they was in their own minds because their “super modeling” was average at best.
The cold fact is some folks just ain’t a people person or may be to childish or maybe bullheaded to be in a club.
How can anybody judge a club that has never been a member of one?