My club dues are $15 month or $165 per year (one month free) if you pay ahead. Initiation dues are $100. The club’s layout is open to the public on weekends in exchange for no rent or utilities. Dues go toward layout maintenance, equipment purchases and field trips. The club’s layout is in a retired S.P. depot now owned by the city. The depot was relocated a few miles down the tracks from its original location but is still next to the U.P.'s mainline giving us great access to watch prototypical freight and passenger service. Our layout is in what used to be the freight room of the building while the passenger end of the building is now a railroad museum which is open to the public. The depot is maintained and operated by a foundation witch has several of the club’s members on the Board of Directors.
The club has weekly membership meetings. One meeting pre month is a business meeting while the others are either run nights, clinics or work sessions. Saturdays are work days and Sundays are operating sessions. The layout is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Members are required to work one 3 hour shift of weekend docent duty every other month. Members are also required to pass a background check due to the public contact.
I think the dues I pay are very reasonable for what I get out of it. The members get along very well and everyone pitches in. The members have a vast variety of knowledge and skill sets. I would join again.
Something like your “assesments” would be a worry for me. Easier for the wealthier members… but while me and the wife could budget $30/mo if we had to (and if I could find a club locally!) it would be very hard at times to suddenly come up with more money.
I have wondered how clubs balance the desires of wealthier members against the very real budgets of some other folks who may have time and enthusiasm but not so much money. Its kind of like the whole property tax thing where some folks want lots of expensive services while others are content to haul their trash to the dump to keep taxes down…
Our dues at our small (dozen member) club are $15 a month, and can be paid as a lump sum of $150 a year. We have a very good deal with the community center, paying around $120 a month for rent, with no utility bills. Basically, each member is paying a month’s rent
I don’t like the assessment idea either. That’s why we raised the dues to at least cover the normal yearly expenses. This spread the cost of “belonging” around evenly, just like if one were to join a bowling league or a golf league. Also, if we had a bad year open housewise we wouldn’t necessarily need to rob the piggy bank just to keep the doors open. The goal is to use donations from the visitors to make layout improvements and other projects.
Spending money is where the democracy problem occurs. Since everyone has a vote, expenditures have to be approved by the majority. And it is easy to get everyone to agree if the expenditure has the appearance of benefiting everyone (i.e.: the toilet is broken and needs to be replaced). Other expenditures, such as “we want to convert the railroad to DCC and it’ll cost two grand” get discussed a little longer.
First post but I had to make a comment on this subject. I have been a member of a club where the fees were $35.00 a month plus $100.00 to start. $50.00 at signup and the other $50.00 when your six months were up. During that time you were expected to do work in each of the departments to get aquianted with the duties of each. My wife and I also ran a dining car for the open house at which we donated all the goodies. It was a great experience and we enjoyed it very much, even the kids had a great time. However, when they started to count rivets it was time to leave, that and a move 75 miles east put a damper on my club activities.
I now belong to a club that has $50.00 a year dues, ( raised from $25.00 ). We are housed in a county building and everything is covered. We have a 20 x 100 foot layout that is constantly being upgraded and improved. We have a great group of guys and gals and enjoy myself everytime I get a chance to get out there. I still have about 100 mile round trip, but it is worth every gallon of gas. We have two open houses a year and run for ten days during the county fair 12 hour a day, along with a get together about every three months for a pot luck and running session. I still donate when I can and help when ever I can, I can’t beat the price.
I considered a club once, this was a very well known group here in my area which I shall not name. I went to an open house, and the only person who said hello, or asked anything to me was the hostess at the front door, I went downstairs, and even though there were several members there, not one of them asked me if I had any questions, they were all too “busy” even if they were just standing there. Now I’m not talking about guys busy trying to get a locomotive to run or something like that, I ment the general attitude was very cold if not downright hostile to all the visitors who bothered to show up to their open house, I wondered why they had one at all. After that I went Lone Wolf real deep for a number of years, I’ll never consider another group like that again.
Contrast a few years later, I go to a show, a group called the Del Oro Pacific has a huge layout set up, lots of people inside the layout hemming and hawing to get things on track or running, but around outside the layout they had several members actively engaging visitors with questions, answers, discussion about the layout, and the group. It was a very pleasant experience.
So I have to say those of you who are involved in groups that are open and friendly to visitors, good job, you do yourselves and your clubs a huge favor when you are open to newcomers, especially on open houses. Making a visitor feel welcome, answering questions, and letting the visitor know your glad they came by and letting them know the positive points of your club, does far more to sell participation and possible new mamberships than anything else, no giant layout, no matter how cool it is, will ever gather new members or participation if the experience is a negative one.
My local permanent layout club has a 20’ by 40’ building that the city lets us use for the price of at least one open house per year. We have to do building maintenance and pay utilities, but that’s our only cost other than materials for the layout. Our dues are $15/month to cover those, but we usually have money left after paying the utility bill, so we have built up a pretty good chunk of change to buy materials with.
My modular club has no expenses other than what we spend to build modules, therefore we have no dues. [:)]
For me it’s 12 bucks a month. I’m waiting for them to get a meeting together so I can get my key. (of course I have to buy a UT400R throttle to turn on the layout; but many of the club members believe we should take the club’s zepher or module system and use it)
Any one with a club nearby should consider themselves lucky. There are none that I’m aware of withing 150 miles of where I live, so the relative high or low cost is a moot point.
A club is invaluable for new/less experienced hobbyists to learn from the ‘old timers’ and get hands on experience, or at least see up close how everything is done, what works, and what to avoid.
In return the newer members can often show the established members some tips and tricks of their own.
Consider club dues as money well spent enjoying camraderie and learning about the varied aspects of our hobby.
And if the wife complains about the cost, remind her you could always be spending the money at a bar, etc…where would she rather you be?[:-,]
My dues at the is 20 dollars a month, due by the first. No dues, no membership.
I usually throw in another 20 per month to help get the thing going a bit better. The building has much needful things that cost money. We have very good treasurer who will make it happen. First we need to crawl, then walk before getting up to run.
If you think about the Club as a house to maintain, 20 people paying 20 dollars each works out to about 400 per month or 4800 per year gross income. Then you have the electric bill, insurance etc…
I dont mind the dues at all. Having a place to get the heavyweight passenger train to lumber up to track speed for a distance is worth the dues for me anyhow. Finally but not last, it is a oppertunity to meet others in the area and break some of the ice with those who might not be sociable otherwise.
As of last January, our club dues were $250.00 per year. We are in the process of buying our own building, two floors, former fire house, brick construction. The club was formed in 1980, and we lost a couple locations that we were renting, so buying would eliminate that problem.
Our club has layouts for 4 scales, O 3 rail, HO, N and S. I’m in the HO section and we have the garage part of the building that used to house the fire trucks.
The club I belong to is $50 a year and housed in a 1905 Bradly and sons baggage car from the NH. We also have an old D&H caboose we have our meetings in. The club is on its 40th year and in danger of closing up due to land issues. Taxes and the town wanting the land for afordable housing are killing it. We make most of our money from our show at the end of April. We also have a great modular group that does about 8 shows a season.
There is a club thats colser to me but they play too much politics. Most members are great and many of you know some from articles in the magazines but others are cold and unfreindly. Thats why I travel over a half hour to my club.
The club I belong to charges $6 a month or $60 a year. We own our own land and depot. How can we get away with such dues? Easy. We have one hell of a train show we put on every year that covers our expenses for the year plus $$$ for savings. We are also a 501c3 non-profit organization. All members are expected to work the train show and open houses (2x a year) since that is our source of income. The show is A LOT of work, but in the end it works out very well.
On a side note, I know of at least three clubs with high dues just to make sure they are getting “serious” modelers. One of the clubs also does it to make sure they only get adults. Sad, that they would purposely exclude a group, but it is their club and what they do with it is their business, which is why i would not join that club. Shop around and see where you fit. There may be a “round robin” group in your area you could join.
Clubs do have a lot to offer, esp. if one does have their own layout…
my club is in a vfw post building on the third floor. rent is $75 per month utilities included. dues are $7 per month. since we take a modular layout to shows we have to have insurance for liability coverage at $230 per year and registration fees and maintenance for the trailer that houses our show layout. we meet each wednesday night. members have access when vfw post is open. the shows we will be attending this fall will bring in about $500 for the club. i drive about 45 miles one way to get there. we have about 17 members, not including the two that quit just before our business meeting last week because they weren’t getting their way.
Chris,I am going to hit on a very sour note…Some clubs have high dues in order to keep “less than desirable” modelers on the outside looking in.These are the clubs that look down their long noses on any brand other then Atlas,Kato or OMI.Guys like us don’t ask to join…They ask us only after we pass their assessment of us starting with the type of vehicle we drive…
All to sadly I know of one such club that I visit twice a year because I know 3 of the members for years…No they have never ask and I wouldn’t if I could and my 3 friends know that.
The club i belong to is $12 a year. we are a modular club and do not have permanant layout building. We have 3 shows a year where we make money for the club. The club with the permanent layout is $25 a month. They "play train " every saturday So I guess they get their money’s worth Too steep for me right now but considering in the future.
You bring up a good point, and here is what we did:
Assesments are to be used to build the initial layout. The BOD will calculate the cost of materials needed and present the cost to the full membership at a quarterly meeting for vote by the membership.
We have told folks looking at membership in our club that there would be assesments presented each quarter as the initial construction went forward. A couple of folks had concerns about the assesments and at one meeting we ditched installation of Tortoise switch machines for the 17 staging tracks. We installed ‘used’ Caboose Industries ground throws that were donated by a member. Now the same two people want Tortoise motors installed, and are pushing for it to be brought up at the next meeting. Good thing I made sure the 3/4" holes were drilled under each turnout before they were laid!
I have been in several club over the years. One club had $1/month dues(since 1939) and we were going to raise the dues to $2/month in 1975. Even with the ‘cheap’ dues, we had folks whine about any assesment or raise in dues. They are also the first ones to want to retire to the coffee shop, and spend more money on a food in one month than the whole year of dues increase would cost them - Priorities!