I am president of a club with about 45 members, eight which are youth members ages 15-12. Over the past year we have seen a slow decline in the attendance rates on run nights among our senior members and we suspect it may be to the increased run night attendance shown by the youth members. To be clear, the energy level IS higher when the younger guys are there, but in a good way. They are all good kids who run their trains in a responsible and respectful manner and many of us fully understand these “kids” are the future of our hobby and of clubs like ours. However, we understand that not all (especially some of our long standing and older members) may feel that way so we are taking steps to poll the adult members on their feelings about run nights.
My question to those of you who are in clubs which allow youth members; how have you structured things to allow for joint operations among members of different ages? Has it not been a problem at all and you simply rely on well defined rules about operating so you only have operating sessions - with all ages participating? Or do you have separate sessions which are only for seniors and others only for youth members? If so, have you created additional run sessions on other evenings or days for those to occur? Our board is interested in ways some other clubs may have worked things out so members of all ages are able to enjoy their times at the club.
Thanks,
Dan
23y/o in a club of older members here. What we did (before ops sessions dried up planning for a move) was have one “ops night” a month where only trains following the rules of operations can be run, where we had a full ops session bringing cars between yards and to industries, with passenger trains running around. The rest of the month, people were open to run whatever they want (as long as they are doing so responsibly). This allowed the other couple young people to run whatever silly or fun trains they want, while also giving those more operationally oriented (which I happened to fall into, haha) a chance to get their fill in. I wish you luck in your planning, and thanks for wanting to include us younger folks!
Basically, Ops nights for operations, “run nights” the rest of the time.
An excellent answer, N_Scale_Train_Boy imo.
A mix of operating days, I like it.
When I was a member of a club they were so strict on operating (which is okay) but it was driving members away.
David
i’m not in a club but sounds like a seniors night would help, you could add a extra nigh either once or twice a mouth.
Never belonged to a train club, never will.
Rich
are they that bad Rich? none available in my area.
Thanks guys. We currently have two run night sessions per month ( always on Wednesdays) with one being an OPs night. Two other Wednesday nights per month are scheduled as work nights but running is allowed if it doesn’t interfere with any work being done. One of the work nights also includes a workshop where some aspect of model railroading is taught by a member. Attendance is encouraged but optional.
One option I am considering proposing is having all Wednesday sessions be run nights, two per month for everyone, and the other two for senior members only. Work nights would be rescheduled to a different weeknight twice a month (we also have weekly Monday sessions, 9:00-2:00, for working on the layout). But suggesting changes in an age old schedule routine (going back almost 60 years in our club) can be daunting.
Rich - Thanks for your reply, but just not much help in this instance.
That sounds like a good compromise to me, although I definitely get why that could be a daunting prospect! Inertia is a hard thing to overcome! If you can swing it though, more running would probably help with any pain points experienced by clashing philosophies by letting people work around each other. Again, best of luck!!
Thanks NSTB.
The current board is committed to not turning back the clock to when no youth members were formally allowed (they could be allowed as an occasional guest). This hobby needs these future members if it is going to survive. Just hope we can accommodate those “clashing philosophies” (great phrase) that such growth often brings with it.
Two years ago the board decided to revamp it’s youth policy which had been around since the late sixties. As part of doing so, we polled the members asking for their input concerning ages and how many youth to allow (although we wanted to allow for younger members, we did not want to see the club become one where most of the members were young kids). The board took the results of the poll and rewrote the policy (results: youth are designated as ages 17-12, and no more than eight total at any one time) and so far it has worked out well. We revisit it every six months but have not yet felt the need to change it.
I will add that three years ago when I joined the club, there were 18 members on the books. We have now more than doubled that number. I am not in taking ANY credit for the growth - it has just occurred organically. Only noting that the rapid growth has been the source of some of our problems. Though, in retrospect, they are good problems to have.
Sorry, hound, I thought about not posting, but I should have had second thoughts.
Rich
This sounds like a tricky situation, Researchhound. I agree getting young folks involved is key to the survival of the hobby. One of the main reasons I took it up was because there was a youth specific club in the Denver area back when I was younger. While we learned scenery, weathering, and model building techniques, operations was never a focus.
I think having designated run/ops nights are a great option. It think that is what the Model Railroading Museum in Greeley, CO does. However, maybe reconsider excluding youth members from the ops nights. Part of the solution may be to encourage more experienced members to directly mentor youth membership. It think operations can be both a confusing and daunting activity for newcomers and also likely goes against the natural tendencies of teenagers (so many rules). However, if an experienced member paired up with a youth member to show them the ropes and explain the fun of it, both age groups would likely benefit and it would help build the next generation of operation hobbyists as well as comradery in the club.
Casey- thanks for the thoughtful reply.
In our club (as is likely in many others) OPs are more structured sessions with specific jobs involving specific operators around the layout making pick ups and drop offs through the evening. We recently invested in a set of walkie-talkies so a dispatcher, located in another room can work remotely with operators, much like how an actual dispatcher would do.
Run nights are more relaxed with members simply running their trains around the layout.
New members, regardless of age, are initially mentored by senior members for a minimum of three sessions (two regular run nights and one OPs) before being allowed to run on their own.
IF we added extra nights ( or Saturday sessions) it would be done simply to allow senior members to run and do OPs without the youth members also doing so. There would be no reduction on how often the youth members are running now, just two extra nights for the older crowd to come in and have fun.
Of course any senior member with a key can now come in and operate on the layout whenever they wish. It’s just usually more fun to do it with at least one or two others.
Having carefully read through this entire thread, I will be interested in the results of your poll. If it turns out that lower attendance by senior members is in response to the enthusiasm of younger members, that would be a shame. Have senior club members previously expressed unhappiness over the presence of younger club members?
Rich
Rich - not necessarily, but since the number of senior members attending has steadily declined since the younger members joined, we just want to make sure there isn’t an issue in that area.
So far, the most common response had been from some of the older members who are not attending the night sessions because they can’t see very well after dark.
If senior members are taking umbrage at young members, then in my opinion, they need a good figurative kick up the backside!
They need to ask themselves, how are young members or those new to the hobby supposed to learn, and also realise that learning can be a two-way street.
I’m at retirement age and would have loved to see an influx of enthusiast newcomers at the local club. I’ve also seen the damage old curmudgeons can do to a Club, to my disgust!
My two cents worth, Cheers, the still annoyed Bear.
Well said, Bear. We all are still learning no matter the age.
David
Now that makes more sense than resenting younger members of the club. When my night vision started to turn south and when I could no longer read street signs in daylight, I knew that I had a problem . But, when I began to lose sight of my golf ball at 50 yards, I knew that I had to do something. I wound up having cataract surgery in both eyes. Now, I no longer have any problems seeing clearly, day or night.
Rich
What an interesting problem… We have very few members less than 40 in our club. Most just come and go, mostly because of school (and girls, I suspect). It’s unfortunate - I appreciate their enthusiasm and I have my share of crazy trains as well. Our most problematic members tend to be prehistoric executive committee members.
Anyway, if we faced your challenge, I would probably recommend adding a day session, or an early Saturday session. That should satisfy those who have a tough time dealing with the energetic members, who have better things to do at these times. We did a Wednesday morning session for a while for some of the older retired folks. Eventually, that died down. It was probably too boring for them.
Simon
This reminds me of an amusing story about my mother. In her late 80’s, she moved into an apartment that adjoined my brother’s house, which my brother built specifically for her. Not long after moving in, she had cataract surgery. Upon returning to her apartment, she remarked how much brighter everything was. She said that before the surgery, she assumed that the reason things looked dim was because my brother built the house with “cheap light bulbs.”