Club politics be damned I've been in several hobby organizations where club politics have ruined the experience, and I've learned how to deal with it. There are four ways to go; 1.)Palace Coup - move in, take over, and run the show; hopefully, as a benevolent dictator. 2.) Worshipful Follower - kowtow to the established regime's every whim. 3.) Techno-Geek's Escape - BE the geek who Everyone comes to for help, because YOU are the guy that can fix anything, regardless of scale, regardless of what's broken - and never even notice the politics; when someone comes to you speaking politics, be elsewhere, rewiring the GG-1's for speed. 4.) Punch Out Now - bail out of the group, run like Hell, and hope no one ever sees you again. All four solutions are workable, and there are probably combinations that I've not thought of that will also function. But these are the major selections. NMRA served a necessary, valuable function in the early and middle days of the Model Railroading hobby, and has - to a lesser extent - continued to do so. Largely due to it's influence, manufacturers have realized on their own that they need to make an effort to adhere to common standards or they will NOT be able to sell their products to us. However, the vast majority membership of NMRA is HO-scale oriented, so HO continues to receive the largest dedication of it's focus, both from the organization and from the industry. N and O are fighting it out for second place, with O being newly split between 2- and 3-rail scale and high-rail. Garden, or G scale, is not "Scale" at all; it bounces between 1:25 and 1:22 and a few other scale sizes at will. S-scale, or American Flyer is often lost in the ozone. NMRA needs to get it's act together and represent ALL model railroaders, or get out of the way and let another, new organization set up to do so. They have the infrastructure in place, they have the influence with the industry. It's time to tell them, get off the can, get on the stick, or get the Hell out of the driver's seat!
To me, Ray Croc said it best: "As long as you're green, you're growing. As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot." The NMRA has stopped growing, IMO.
After Reading This Thread, I Joined When I first looked at this thread, I was not a member and voted No.. Then I looked at the NMRA web site and found an offer of a 6 month trial membership for $9.95. I figured, what the heck and joined. As an N Scaler, my expectations are not real high. Our region, PSR San Diego Division is quite active. I'll kick the tires for 6 months, go to a few activities, and see if it's for me.
Pete , as an NMRA (non active ) member, I would like to say welcome and hope something they offer is of value to you and thanks for helping me and others support our hobby. Mike & Robin
I'm considering it. I'm really a lone wolf when it comes to my modeling. I opened up my road to the convention held here in Albuquerque last summer. The visitors were excellent. But I did have a wee bit of trouble with the organizers, as I didn't understand NMRA rules about conventions. It was my fault, in the end, I think. I do think the NMRA needs to be clearer when they invite a layout onto their tours. I guess they assume that non-members like me know their rules--not so!
Pete , I am sorry Robin and I did not get to your layout but for our area , I thought the show was great. You are correct on the expectations, you should have known all the facts from them. Mike
My NMRA Membership Card Arrived Today This is funny. I would never have considered joining the NMRA if it were not for this thread. I have been of the opinion, "What does the NMRA do for me? Why should I give them my money?" With the $9.95 trial membership, I decided to give it a try. The membership got me a $4.00 discount on my registration to Trains 2008 this weekend. I will report back.
I am a member, have been since 2005. NMRA is an interesting animal. For the me, the value has come because I got involved enough with the local Coast Division (that's San Francisco Bay Area of California) to get to know many, many really great modelers. As a result, I have found many new friends and gotten involved and invited to far more fun local model railroading activities than I ever would have if I'd not joined. The recent NMRA National Convention was a superb blast of fun as well - mainly because I already knew m any good NMRA members from my past 3 years of involvement and the people were at the Convention to pal around with. I say NMRA is an interesting animal for many reasons: * The local Division and the people that make it up do vary all over the place. To me, it is the local Division and Region that provides the real value of membership. And to me, the real value of NMRA membership is that I get to meet many many good *local* modelers and people that I would never meet otherwise.... and the good times can start from there. I can certainly understand that if there is no local active Division for you to participate in, then this key value is hard to obtain. * It does takes some time to get to know the people, and this is to be expected. Understandably, people come and people go, and especially given the expensive nature of layouts and model railroad equipment collections, many members understandably need to know you and trust you a bit before they reach out. But in my case, after my consistent friendly participation over time, the NMRA members in my area recognized that I was serious about modeling, decently fun to be around, and going to be sticking around, and over time, the friendships have grown. And I must say, the vast majority of them in my Division are great people. * Finally, assuming that you have a local Division with good people and good activity, and that you have given enough time and participation of your own to get to know them and they to know you..... I have found that NMRA serves the value of provid ing a venue to meet many many local modelers that you'd otherwise not meet. I think this is the primary value of NMRA. No one organization of any sort could provide the "train-related" services of the very wide variety of model railroading interests (garden, large scale, O, S, HO, N, Z, American, European, traction, narrow gauge, etc). However, what we all have in common is interest to meet good people who enjoy sharing model railroading. In this, IMHO NMRA provides an umbrella and venue for this meeting of people to happen. That's why I'm a member. Feel free to comment, yes or no. In the meantime, do feel free to take advantage of the following free web sites from the Pacific Coast Region of NMRA, I trust you will find value in there for you, and of course, you don't have to be a member to see these web sites that we in Pacific Coast Region of NMRA provide as a free service to all model railroaders in the Northern California area. --------------------- Web calendar of Model Railroading Activities in Pacific Coast Region: PCR Master Calendar of Railroading Events Web pages showing photos of modeling and meets in Coast Division: Model Contest Information Web pages of each of the Pacific Coast Region Divisions: Division Links ---------------------- Hope this helps, just my 2 cents worth!
I agree. I model Japanese trains, so NMRA is not relevant. Many societies or associations in this hobby were essentially publishing societies and the internet, blogs and digital cameras have surpassed the printed page for distributing hobby knowledge. Publishing also is expensive with printing and postage costs constantly rising. It is much easier to get information online, there is no need to pay fees for articles you are not interested in.
I have been a member for several years but have just failed to renew. I just don't get sufficient information for the relatively high membership rate to support my N Scale interests. The majority of the NMRA HO scale information is usless to me.
I once held an NMRA membership, but this was before the rise of the internet. John Bruce wrote an interesting article in which the NMRA is discussed prominently, along with a certain 'Pay-Per-View' railfan site: http://www.trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Sociology.htm
On another forum,, I noted that even the HO scale modelers are complaining about the NMRA. Out of date standards and practices, no updates, manufacturers not observing NMRA standards, etc. --Mike K
I don't see how I would benefit from it. I have seen their web site. Frankly, Train board is a much more informative place for MR info.
It has been stated already in here about the standards that NMRA has "helped" with. I support that part of NMRA. I agree about groups and politics(been a volunteer firefighter). But my biggest reason for not joining up is that I don't believe that I need to prove my skill to anyone other than myself. I have hobby friends that compliment my skills and that is good enough for me. Like a post said before to get a Master Modeler status you have to show skill in areas that you don't have any interest in. I support those that do belong to NMRA and get more out of it than I do!
In general, with any organisation, you only get out what you are willing to put in, for some people, any more than one is a crowd and NO club/organisation/group will ever suit. I am in a club, I am Secretary, Editor, PRO, etc, I am also in the NMRA as a not all that active member (so I thought) yet recently I recieved an award from the NMRA for outstanding service to the hobby, I just like trains, but choose to model N personally. Teditor.
Never have, never will. I much prefer the company of folks who enjoy the hobby for what it is, a hobby. Nothing "needs" to be perfect. If your trackwork isn't to "spec" and your rolling stock doesn't have the precisely correct version of trucks, I'm OK with that... If it looks "nice" and runs "well", I'm good. My future layout is going to be a "fantasy" road based on multiple railroad equipment and industries I "like" from magazines and photos. I will try to stick to "prototyp-ish" scenery and cities, but I don't have the time and space to "scale-it-down" and make a miniature "map" on 1x4 benchwork. With good folks like those here on TrainBoard, I'm not worried about getting comments like, "what did you do that for?" or "You do know the NYC didn't run a 10 wheel C-Liner past 1960...(with appropriate model number designations and build dates)" You guys can appreciate BOTH sides of the tracks without passing "judgement". I look forward to sharing someday soon!
Gave up on model trains long ago, now I collect wooden toy trains made by Whittle Shortline... Made in the USA baby!
