National Model Railroad Association Southeast Region

Division 9 News

http://nscale160.com/9div/

July 2010

 

Welcome, Division 9 members.  This month’s news will go out by email to those members for whom I have email addresses, for those that I do not have emails for, I will postal mail.  For those receiving this by postal mail, if you do have an email address and are willing to share it with the NMRA, please send an email to me at prevette@atlanticbb.net.

 

NOMINATIONS FOR DIVISION OFFICERS

 

We will close nominations for Division Nine officers on September 1.  In September, we will send a postal mailing to all Division members.  This mailing will include a ballot for officers.  Currently, I am willing to continue on as Superintendent, and Mike Sherbak is willing to continue on as Secretary/Treasurer.  The positions will be for two years, from October 1, 2010 to October 1, 2012 [corrected from original version].  If you would like to self-nominate yourself, or nominate another Division 9 NMRA member, the open positions are:  Superintendent, Vice Superintendent, Treasurer, and Secretary.  We need to fill at least two elected positions.  There are also many opportunities for volunteers to fulfill about any role you can think of.  A few potential non-officer roles include: education, newsletter, webmaster, certification, contests, balloting, and meetings. 

 

LOCAL MEMBERS

 

I have received some emails from local members since I started communications with the Division. 

 

NMRA Life Member Ronald Noble of North Augusta SC introduces himself as “I started many years ago, (1946), with American Flyer.  Switched over to HO in 1962, and have several locos, freight, and passenger cars, mostly lettered for Missouri Pacific which was my favorite railroad when I lived in St. Louis, Mo. several years ago.”  Ron is trying to get to one of our Tuesday night OFRRA meetings.

 

I’ve also met Andy Chandler – I was trying to telephone folks we didn’t have email addresses for.  He was very interested in participating in model railroad activities, and did make it to one of the Tuesday night meetings, which happened to be on my home layout.

 

REGION NEWSLETTER

 

The Summer 2010 eSouthErneR has been published on the SER website.  You may directly access it at http://www.ser-nmra.org/pdf/souv51n3.5.pdf.  It is 59 pages of model railroading goodness!  There are also news about other Divisions, and even our own Division.  Our May newsletter was republished by the SouthErneR.  I will make sure to pass on information to the upcoming SouthErneR publications.  This issue has lots of model photos from the SER annual convention. 

 

The table of contents for the eSouthErneR includes:

 

• Election Results
• Photo Contest
• Contest Scores
• The O Scale Layout of Joe Fiore
• RR Merit Badge & Worlds Greatest Hobby
• Annual Board of Directors Meeting
• Annual Business Meeting

 

OTHER DIVISION NEWS

 

As Superintendent, I have been added to the mailing lists of the other divisions.  Similarly, this newsletter is sent out to the other superintendents.

 

From the Headquarters Division (Chattanooga TN area).  Point of contact: Mikee B <x996tt2002@twlakes.net>

 

We have our first Headquarters Division
event. Everyone from Headquarters, Mid South, Piedmont, etc. is
invited to join us in checking out Chattanooga's rail scene.

Prototype Rail Fan Event
September 26, 2010 at 10 AM Eastern Time
Chattanooga, Tn. - to include rail fan hotspots. Meet at the
Chattanooga Choo Choo Lobby 9:30 AM-10 AM Eastern Time.
Bring appropriate clothing, sun block, bug spray, water, etc.
We will car pool from the Choo Choo.

 

ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM (from an email from Peter Youngblood)

 

Please allow me to introduce myself to you. My name is Peter Youngblood and I've been appointed by SER President Elect Joe Gelmini as the new SER Education Program Chair. I'm a member of the Piedmont Division where I serve on several committees. I've accepted the position sincerely looking forward to working with all of you for the benefit of all members in the SER. I pledge to all of you as Division Superintendents, AP Chairs or Contest Chairs, that I will give you my best and unbiased attention and

will always be available to assist you in any way that I can.

 

As SER Education Program Chair my duties are primarily to promote, facilitate and to educate the SER members as to the merits of Achievement Program and Contest participation with peripheral involvement in the Boy Scout Model Railroad Merit Badge program. In this advisory capacity I oversee both SER AP and SER Contest Chairs, and am in communication with George Gilbert and Tom Schultz who chair those positions respectively. I'm also in touch with John Lowrance, MMR NMRA National Education Program Manager, and Fred Bock, MMR, his assistant. Coming into my position with little hands-on experience, I expect a learning-curve as I move forward and will solicit their advice as well as SER President Gelmini's and SER VP Fred Coleman's when needed.

 

My goals aren't to reinvent-the-wheel, yet I believe we can work together to improve the following:

     1. Overall communication (my email and phone numbers are available anytime),

     2. Achievement Program and Contest participation,

     3. Shortening the length of time from AP application to certification and award presentation,

     4. Improving (via education) uniformity in both AP and Contest judging,

     5. Expanding educational exposure, thereby opportunities to smaller divisions (i.e. with occasional guest speakers from other divisions; developing a library of instructional CD/DVD clinics with copies available to all divisions, encouraging local outreach possibilities, etc., in short putting more tools in the educational tool box).

 

These goals are all obtainable and can best be realized with your comments, suggestions and a strong desire to impact positively your division and all divisions in the SER. I encourage you to do so. All input is a valuable resource and a commodity to help solve problems where problems are made known to exist.

 

I welcome the opportunity to serve you, the SER and the NMRA, and look forward to hearing from you and meeting as many of you as possible in the near future .

 

A special congratulations to Ben Bartlett, the SER's newest MMR !

 

Peter also notes that he hopes to visit the Divisions.  If any of you are working on your Master Model Railroader certificate (and if you don’t know what that is – there is a lot of info at www.nmra.org), we could work together to get Peter or a judge from a neighboring division to visit to judge models and layouts (scenery certificate in particular).

 

NINTH DIVISION BUSINESS MEETING

 

I am planning on scheduling a business meeting for November timeframe.  This will be following the September formal newsletter and election.  There is also a SER Board of Directors meeting in Macon GA on October 9, 2010.  I am planning on attending that meeting, and will bring back any news for our business meeting.  My current plan is to hold the meeting at my house in Graniteville SC, and arrange for layout tours of the other OFRRA railroads.

 

Steve Prevette  803-392-7684, prevette@atlanticbb.net

356 Ashley Ct, Graniteville SC