I am not trying to start a flame war nor am I bashing either of the clubs I’m a member of… my predicament is that I am currently a member of two clubs, one is the first one I joined and is a kind of multifaceted in the fact that they have G, O, HO, N, and Live Steam layouts because of this the HO layout is merely a continuous running oval and they have zero operating sessions, my second club is strictly HO and has a very large layout which is also continuous running but is much larger and has many industries and towns along the way and operations are a major part of membership… I have fallen out of going to the first club due to this predicament but I would like to begin going again…
I know not to bash or put down on either club when I’m at one or the other but are the “restrictions” that certain clubs might have? My second club is perfectly fine with my previous and maintained membership at the first should I expect the same from the first?
Any advice, opinions or experiences would be more than helpful, thanks.
Of course you should. Neither club has any right to say that you can’t belong to another club. If a club tried to prevent me from belonging to another club I would quit the first club. Quite frankly, I think you are worrying about something that isn’t going to happen.
Membership is only loosely tied to loyalty, and never to ownership or duty other than to obey the rules in each place. A club that denied me the freedom, on penalty, to belong to other organizations would not be a club to which I would feel comfortable being a member.
I know amateur singers who belong to my choral society and also to other groups of singers who give performances as the choral society does. My take-away is that they enjoy singing a broad range of repertoire. Bravo!
I would be surprised if there was an issue. But I probably would not do it simply becuase of time commitment. I dropped out of one club, non-railroad related, simply because I was not very active in it.
Steven,For me I would ask myself what am I getting in return for my dues and if there is more negative then positive I quit. I would not like the first club and therefore I would walk since the second club sounds like a excellent club.
That’s me.
For you I see no reason you can’t be a member of both clubs.
Someone needs to explain this to the people who run the local established train show. About 14 years ago, another group tried to create a new show, with a larger venue and a better layout (the existing show, unlinke Timonium mixes the scale, tinplete, and tool sellers in with the historical groups, even though they have a similar setup to Timonium where there are several interconnected large ‘halls’, and the aisles are so tight you can;t really stop and talk to a vendor without impeding others). It didn;t compete, the held it on a different week than the existing show. For a first shot, it turned out pretty well. Most of the same vendors of course, local is local, and not as many, but the floor space was alrger and much better organized. Plenty of room to talk to someone without blocking aisles. Then, after it was over, anyone who had a table there that also attened the other show got a notice that if they wanted to keep their table at the established show, they better not sell at any other shows in the local area. As in, it was fine if they were there, then alway want to places like Timonium or Springfield, just no other shows in the same town.
Pretty sure that’s probably illegal on several levels, but it wasn’t spelled out so in wr
Has anyone at the first club said or done anything regarding the second club that would indicate any breach of protocol or even etiquette on your part? Or is this topic just about some perceived bogeyman? I can’t imagine either club would care either way.
I think you’re worrying about nothing. If it’s written into their by-laws, well then maybe, there may be an issue and only if it’s enforced. Then again, if they’re a non-profit, there may be a discrimination issue. We can over think this forever. Like others have said, if you like both clubs, keep going. If one has less interest to you, then drop one and devote more time to the other.
Don’t lose any sleep over this. It could take away from your hobby time…
On the other hand, you would need to keep your opinions to youself. If you start up with a bunch of “at the other club I belong to we did it this way or that”, I think folks would start to get unfriendly rather quickly.
I second that opinion BUT with the caveat that the ‘advice’ should be phrased in an implicitly humble way … ‘you know, we might be able to block in our scenery a different way; I saw it done at xxx club and the results looked pretty good/speed was better or cost lower/etc.’
What you NEVER, EVER do is talk down or badmouth another club, or any of its members. Even if someone else, or even most of the people around you, start doing it. In this case you would not disparage the first club (that has essentially deprioritized HO) to members of the other one. Or even comment on how lame the first club is for having so little…
What Overmod said, I agree. Having been involved with kids sports and many dog clubs to a lesser degree just because of family association. Don’t say what is wrong, say, what do you think about doing this to improve such and such?
The one constant I have observed about clubs is, those that go about saying what is wrong with everything are rarely the ones that roll up their sleeves to improve things. They have the “someone should do something about this attitude”, but them taking care of it doesn’t even cross their mind.
The one club that just has a simple oval needs, someone, to say, “how about we make these improvements to the HO layout and work on increasing membership”. At that point, you can volunteer to lead the charge on that front.
Belonging to more than one organization is just being more involved in the community, there is nothing bad that comes from that.
Ya, I’ve been in the hobby since 1971 and have never heard of a club or historical society or any other organization saying you could only belong to their club. I know there’s at least one guy locally who belongs to both the Hennepin Overland club in Minneapolis and the Newport Club in Newport, MN. He works on both layouts and runs trains during their open houses. I suspect he might belong to more clubs I don’t know about!