Anyone A Member of the NMRA?

[Deleted]

I received my latest edition of the NMRA's monthly magazine and thumbing through, I saw where yearly dues are $66, of which $22 covers the subscription to the magazine. I've been a life member since the mid-1980's when life membership was either $300 or $350(can't remember which). I went to the life membership just before the NMRA started using an actuarial table based on your age to determine your cost. The younger you are the more it will cost. At the time I was only in my 20's so, I knew my cost would be a lot more than $350.

The reason I looked at the cost of membership was the editorial by the NMRA president saying they have finally had a positive growth in numbers. The organization has been loosing members for some time. The recent economic meltdown hasn't helped the numbers either.

I was a little shocked to see membership was now $66. When I first joined as a teenager in the 1970's, dues were either $12 or $15 a year. Granted the current publication is light years ahead of the 1970's era "The Bulletin". The current magazine is professionally presented with slick paper, top shelf printing and editing. Articles by Bob Rivard, Mont Switzer and others is MR and RMC quality. The 70's "Bulletin" was filled endless privy jokes, "Thumbz" cartoons and some other supposed humor. The paper of the 70's was about equal to that of cheap copy paper and everything was printed in black and white.

So who is still a member?

[Spikre]

Still ??
how about Never ??
have lived just fine as a Lone Wolfer !!
Spikre

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

Yes I am. I'm ok with it.

[bnsftcdiv]

Joined back before the Madison convention. Still feel like the organization is valid and the magazine is worth it. I live a good distance away from my closest division so most of the contact I have is at convention gatherings. I volunteer to help with the National Train Show and that is a fun service I can help with. I have friends within
the organization so that is how I interact as well.

Dave Burman
Modeling the Modern Twin Cities

[valenciajim]

I have been a member for years. I like the magazine. I enjoy going to the national conventions. I have met a ton of great folks at NMRA events and I think the value of membership is worth the cost.

[GP40P-2]

My interest and focus in the hobby have nothing in common with what the NMRA offers.   I would like to get active with Freemo again once life settles down, but wait, they have no annual membership fee, but plenty of what I do look for in the hobby.

$66 will get me a Walther's passenger car, a loco off Ebay, or a Tangent hopper tricked out with Sagents and .088 wheels with change left over. If I want contests, well that's why I still race bicycles.

Jim

[bnsffan]

I am and have been a member for several years. I am also a lone wolf type personality. In my opinion my membership is worth the price and in this case my opinion is the only one that counts.

Respectfully,
BNSF Fan

[tdspeedracer]

I was a member the year of the Milwaukee National show. When it came up for renewal, I couldn't force myself to do it. I agree that they have a purpose and a place in the hobby, and I can see myself rejoining down the road. However, having little kids, it didn't take long to find a home for what would have been dues.

Trevor

[Brakie]

Since I live in a active-very active NMRA Division I been thinking about rejoining since the monthly meetings includes club and home layout visits which makes it worth sitting aside one day a month to attend.

[bnsffan]

Trevor, when my kids were young, I wasn't a member of the NMRA, APS, or USSS/BIA. As a natter of fact, I did a lot of arm chair model railroading as they were growing up.

Respectfully,
BNSF Fan

[fr8kar]

I have never joined in my 25 years of railroad modeling. The only time I seriously considered it was when I was planning a Free-mo setup and I looked at membership as a way to get access to cheap insurance for the event. Unless that issue comes up again, I don't see myself ever joining. I'm not interested in conventions, contests or magazines, so I don't see what I need that membership could provide.

[gasmith]

I was a member of the local division for one year about 30 years ago, I think it cost $3.00 back then. I saw the Bulletin at the club that I was in back then. Like Australian Terrier, I remember only too well the "Thumbs" cartoons and the endless jokes about "Biffies" (their term for outhouses).

Over the years I have had little use for organizational politics in the hobby, having had my fill at the club where I was a member at the time.

[mlehman]

I'm a longtime member, for awhile as a teenager, then since sometime in the late 80s IIRC. Our local division was dead. A fellow moved into the area and got it going again. I eventually ended up division superintendent and have been trying to give the job away for some time. We're small and scattered across a wide geographic area. Still manage to meet monthly with a dozen or so folks to operate and chat mostly, plus help each other on various projects.

I realize people look at it a lot from the "What's in it for me?" and the "How much does it cost?" points of view. That's just life. Either you have an interest at some level in doing various aspects of the hobby in some organized fashion or you don't. There are other organized model RR activities, too, like Freemo and RPM. The insurance aspect of things was mentioned, but it's often the case that there are often individual NMRA members helping make many of these things happen just by organizing and participating.

For instance, our local train show evaporated a couple of years back due to a change in management philosophy at the local mall it was held at. Will it be our division that brings it back? I don't know yet, but that's at least as likely as anyone just getting it going on their own again. This is just one small slice of the NMRA. I find it charming that some folks still have a major bone to pick with the NMRA as an organization, when they had a dissatisfying experience they somehow connected to it with an individual or a group in it many moons or miles ago and for that reason condemn the organization as wholly evil. I guess that presumes everyone and everything in the organization are exactly the same and can never change. In fact, the NMRA is like any other volunteer organization, it's mostly what YOU make of it. Expecting the NMRA "to do something for you" is a lot like joining the Scouts, then wondering why you never quite manage to make First Class Scout because you never wanted to bother with that merit badge thing.

There may be "politics" somewhere in all that, but I don't see much of that, if any, in our local division, mostly people trying to connect with other modelers in area where they are spread thin and have little in the way of other organized activities of any kind. I'm sure there are folks who will never have an interest in the NMRA. I'm also sure that one could compare the price of gas, postage or anything else from the 60s, 70, even 80s and see that they have also gone up in price, but that doesn't keep us from driving or sending mail, etc. Whether or not the NMRA is for you probably has cost as the least of the factors, as cost typically comes up in discussions like this and is then qualified by some other factor that is a more likely explanation for what people may or may not see in the NMRA. Yep, sad as it maybe that a RTR model can cost $60-some, but that's about what the NMRA coast when I joined (it was the cost of a good kit then, not RTR ) and it still is. Whether you spend the money on another model or the NMRA is up to you and what you think you'll get in exchange for membership. And sure you can use email, instead of a stamp, which we often do in our division, because we have a virtually zero budget and would likely spend any funds we do have on something other than mail. Everyone makes that decision for themselves. If the NMRA isn't for you, it's probably not because it's a "bad" organization, whatever that means, just like there really aren't any "bad" prototypes. It's just your own "givens and druthers" in the hobby.

[atsfan]

Nope. Don't even know anybody in the NMRA.
Nothing against them, but the last thing I need in a hobby is a punch of politics, rules, tests, qualifcations, and other such organizational nonsense.

[nscaler711]

Sept 16, 2013 14:09:05 GMT -8 atsfan said:

Nope. Don't even know anybody in the NMRA.
Nothing against them, but the last thing I need in a hobby is a punch of politics, rules, tests, qualifcations, (sic) and other such organizational nonsense.

Right!

But does buying a NMRA clearance gauge count?  

[mlrr]

I'm not opposed to joining but I haven't seen enough benefits where I'd get the most bang for my buck yet. This is not a critique. I just haven't seen where being a member would benefit my model railroading interests.

I appreciate how they do work to standardize things and that manufacturers tend to develop there products to "NMRA Standards".

I have nothing against it and hopefully I can join when I retire (easily 30+ years from know :-$), assuming I'll still have the disposable income to afford it.

[mlehman]

Sept 17, 2013 0:49:27 GMT -8 nscaler711 said:

Sept 16, 2013 14:09:05 GMT -8 atsfan said:

Nope. Don't even know anybody in the NMRA.
Nothing against them, but the last thing I need in a hobby is a punch of politics, rules, tests, qualifcations, (sic) and other such organizational nonsense.

Right!

But does buying a NMRA clearance gauge count?  

Buying an NMRA clearance gauge counts as benefiting from the NMRA's efforts. I'm rather glad they have them priced accordingly to non-members in order to recover some of the costs.

Of course, we'd all be just fine running without any attention to gauge in order to avoid "politics, rules, tests, qualifcations, (sic) and other such organizational nonsense..." right?

I don't read atsfan's caustic comments except when someone quotes him. I'm actually rather happy there's no official connection between his take on the hobby and mine. Last I recall, we spend 2% of our meeting time on such things, which is about the minimum you can and still call yourself a functioning division. But if he can do without all that, we don't mind him missing the 98% that is just plain fun

[bnsffan]

Did any of you DCC users look into Command Control prior to the NMRA standard? (I know that the NMRA standard was based on the Lenz design or was an exact photocopy of the Lenz design depending on who is telling the Tale.)

Starting with GE's Astrac(?) system and many other systems that followed, the only compatibility was they all plugged into a wall socket. Without the NMRA (and Lenz) we would still be in that position. If you don't believe that, just rewind your memory to when MTH entered the HO scale model market. MTH had their own control system that was 100% incompatible with DCC. Some folks believed that MTH did that deliberately to try and capture the control market thereby putting the DCC developers out of business.

I belong to the NMRA so that I can help support standardization.

Respectfully,
BNSF Fan

[atsfan]

Sept 17, 2013 6:25:52 GMT -8 mlehman said:

Sept 17, 2013 0:49:27 GMT -8 nscaler711 said:

Right!

But does buying a NMRA clearance gauge count?  

Buying an NMRA clearance gauge counts as benefiting from the NMRA's efforts. I'm rather glad they have them priced accordingly to non-members in order to recover some of the costs.

Of course, we'd all be just fine running without any attention to gauge in order to avoid "politics, rules, tests, qualifcations, (sic) and other such organizational nonsense..." right?

I don't read atsfan's caustic comments except when someone quotes him. I'm actually rather happy there's no official connection between his take on the hobby and mine. Last I recall, we spend 2% of our meeting time on such things, which is about the minimum you can and still call yourself a functioning division. But if he can do without all that, we don't mind him missing the 98% that is just plain fun

Oh please. You pontificate and preach Your version of the hobby as gospel.
Anyone who differs from you is "caustic"?

It is people like you and your attitude in the NMRA that are the very reason the vast majority of hobbyists steer well clear of it.

And in the year 2013 if the only thing the NMRA has to offer is a 50 year old scale guage, well that pretty much sums it up.

[bigzmn]

Sept 13, 2013 18:24:47 GMT -8 fr8kar said:

I have never joined in my 25 years of railroad modeling. The only time I seriously considered it was when I was planning a Free-mo setup and I looked at membership as a way to get access to cheap insurance for the event. Unless that issue comes up again, I don't see myself ever joining. I'm not interested in conventions, contests or magazines, so I don't see what I need that membership could provide.

I've been an NMRA member for a few years now because of our Free-mo group. For a couple of years we had a nice free location in an "on the way out" mall and we needed insurance.

We move out of there last year but I did renew my NMRA membership earlier this year...but I really don't know why.

I have the membership without the magazine. Other than DCC (which I fully embrace) there is really nothing that the NMRA has offered recently. Track and wheel standards are now 50 years old and way out of date. I really have no use for those silly contests and the MMR thing.

Chris Z.

[Brakie]

Track and wheel standards are now 50 years old and way out of date. I really have no use for those silly contests and the MMR thing.

Chris Z.
-------------------
Agreed..I will add RP20.1 is dated as well and should be reviewed.

Around 90/91 I won a switching contest at a local meet by using my railroad experience so,some of those "silly contest" can be fun.

I won a Bev-Bel/Athearn 50' boxcar.

[fr8kar]

Sept 18, 2013 22:56:51 GMT -8 bigzmn said:

Other than DCC (which I fully embrace) there is really nothing that the NMRA has offered recently. Track and wheel standards are now 50 years old and way out of date. I really have no use for those silly contests and the MMR thing.

Chris Z.

I couldn't agree more. DCC is a big deal and I'm glad some official standard was decided on. Would DCC eventually have gone the way of the Betamax and VHS battle for superiority if there had been no governing body? Maybe, who knows? It seems to me with all the money consumers spend on DCC something would have shaken out as a de facto standard.

As far as the MMR thing is concerned, I can't figure out why I should need someone else's arbitrary standards to determine if I've "made the cut" as a railroad modeler. The achievement program may be a very good thing for people who need goalposts to guide them along someone else's preset path to success, but it's not for me. When I was 15 a local "master modeler" critiqued a model of mine (picked it apart unmercilessly is another way to put it) and knowing who he was I took it to heart. A year later I saw his "contest winning" models and I had to laugh. I beat myself up over the comments of someone who had no business treating me as his inferior. Anyway, I know how I feel about my abilities and "achievements" in this hobby and no stamp of approval will change that.