The closest clubs to me is about 200 miles away in 2 directions (Las Vegas or Prescott), which is too far to participate in regularly…sometimes it’s rough living in the desert [(-D]
I’d love to see a group or a club started here. how did your group/club get its start? Does anyone have any ideas on how I might get something started here?
First you need some members. For this you have to advertise. Do this forum, do the Yahoo train groups, email, Facebook other train websites. Put up flyers local stores, churches, movie theaters. Contact your local (or perhaps not so local) hobby shop. Run a classified ad in the local paper. See what you can to with Craig’s List. Talk to people. Do some cold calling. Start a club website, or a Model train blog
Any way you slice it, you need members before anything will happen.
I live about 30 miles from the nearest club, and about 100 miles from the nearest metro area, so I can identify. I participate in several forums, including one that is heavily peopled by folks in the Baltimore/Washington area (the aforementioned metro area). By posting information about my layout on the forums and on my own website people are familiar with what I’m up to, which has cultivated several good friendships with people who like the same things I like (proto operations, mid-atlantic theme 70’s/80’s era etc.) I also try to make the train shows that occur within a reasonable radius, and when possible, try to meet up with the friends I’ve met via the interwebs.
The result of this is I have a group of guys that I invite to my house for ops sessions, and I get to go run on some of their layouts. We get together about once a quarter, either to do model railroady things or to chase the prototype. There’s no formal club structure, but there are regular participants, and guys that come and go when they can.
The key is to communicate with people who share your interests, and are reasonably close enough to be able to enjoy some visits at least once in a while.
Lee
dstarr’s answer is right on the mark – you must first find out if there are any modelers in your area, and then get them interested in your idea of forming a club.
I’m in a club here in Sierra Vista, just outside the main gate of Fort Huachuca, that currently has 18 members. Most of us are active duty or retired military. I lived in this area for 15 years before I even realized that there was a club, because it was hardly ever publicized and the clubhouse is in a very out-of-the-way location.
Try to get local news media to broadcast your plea in the newspaper… Most of the larger stores here have bulletin boards and allow us to put up open house flyers, but we rarely have anyone visit us as a result of that. After all, how many times have you gone into Safeway, Fry’s, Target, or Wal-mart and looked at the bulletin board if they have one.
If you have any hobby shops in Havasu City, see if they will let you put a notice on their counter. Print up some flyers that include your phone number and e-mail contact information and invite people to visit your layout if you have one or contact you if they are interesting in forming a club. Be sure to specify what scale(s) you’re interested in.
Don’t try to come up with club rules and regulations until you have signed up at least five or six members and have gotten to know them very well – trying to be dictatorial at the outset will just drive them away.
Good luck!
I live in a town of about 13000 people. Our club got started about five years ago. I seen an ad in the local paper, a couple of guys in town were wanting to start a club. There was a date and time and where to meet (it was at someones garage) and that is how the club got started.
As a group we were able to come up with an empty second floor space in a downtown building that was rent free to us, we were very lucky, but we had to install an electric service and some other costs were involved.
Our membership has grown to about 15 members and now have a 70’ x 40’ layout up and running, its along way from finished but it is operating.
Focus on seeing how much interest there is in your community (and I bet there is a lot more than you think) Once you have a group of interested people, try to determine how serious people are about forming some kind of club. If so then that group can then be very resourceful in finding places / knowing people etc.
One of the successes of our club is that while there is an underlying focus of trying to model the local railroad, each member is free to model and run whatever they wish. It works very well, generally speaking everyone has an interest in the local railroad, either the present or the past. However we can expect to see just about anything pulling a freight train. About the only rule we have is that two mainlines will pass through your module and all mainline turnouts must be #6, other than that do as you wish.
I would expect that a club that focuses on a set railroad and era will end up turning off potential members. For a club that is well established then that is a different matter.
I would suggest the folowing:
Run an ad or an article in local paper and see how much interest there is.
If you get a dozen or so people then great, see how serious they are about starting a club. If you only get a small group of people then maybe try to get something going and see if the group grows. Like it o
Thanks guys for your responces. I’m going to try the media and flyer routes to see if there is any interest.
Do you have a local radio station? Many smaller stations do info about the local community, try contacting them who knows what it may lead to.
That’s another great idea…I’ll add that along with checking the newspaper for inclusion in the local intrest section.