Gerry's note, continued:
The NMRA isn’t a “franchise” operation like McDonald’s. We can’t issue demands from on-high and say, “All Divisions must do this and must do that.” It doesn’t work that way because, over the course of the last 80 years, Divisions have gotten used to being independent and doing things their own way. They don’t take orders from anyone. (There are a few exceptions, like staying within the legal limits of the NMRA’s insurance provider’s guidelines, but that’s a different story.) Plus, what works for Division 5 in Cincinnati wouldn’t work for the Red River Division.
Some Divisions are large enough to have a “membership chairperson” who sends out letters and postcards and makes phone calls to new members or existing members, reminding them about upcoming meets or reminding them to renew. On the other hand, some Divisions can’t even find someone willing to be President, so the person who has the title does so begrudgingly and pawns it off on the next guy when his term is up.
Remember: we’re all volunteers, including the Division people. Yes, the Division is where the rubber meets the road, but some Divisions just aren’t motivated enough, or don’t have the time or desire. Thus, the NMRA is at the mercy of those folks. And when they don’t put themselves out, “the NMRA” in general gets the bad rap – as evidenced by your initial post on the Forum.
Every Region gets a set of reports every month, showing new members, lapsed members, deceased members, etc. Some Regions don’t bother to pass that stuff on to the Divisions. Shame on them. Some Divisions do get the reports and don’t do anything with it. Shame on them. And we can’t send 158 individual reports out every month. So how can we at National NMRA force those guys to make phone calls or send letters? We can’t.
So that’s another long answer to a short question.
As for the population of model railroaders versus the NMRA, your guess was as good as any. Yes, the NMRA is international, but the non-North American members only account for probably 500 of the 18,000. And…who’s a “model railroader”? A guy who has a few trains in his basement and hasn’t run them or built anything for 2 years? I’d bet there are far more than 175,000 people who consider themselves “model railroaders” who haven’t touched their trains for a decade or more. So looking at the percentage of “model railroaders” who are NMRA members is pointless. I can guarantee you, though, that the majority of NMRA members are active model railroaders.
Yes, our website is lousy. I’m in the process of spearheading a program to re-organize the thing (more of my volunteer time!). There are over 1,000 pages to the website and, honestly, I can’t find some stuff on it myself. But, again: it was put together and is run by volunteers. We don’t have the money to spend having it professionally designed. So which is better: to have the crappy website we have now, or have no website at all? Right now that’s the choice we have to face.
Let’s talk about volunteers one second. People have the impression that there are hundreds of people at Headquarters who are in charge of projects or waiting to be in charge of projects. We have 4.5 people at Headquarters, none of whom have the time for extra projects beyond their clerical work. So when someone comes up to me and says, “You know what you guys should do is…” my answer is always, “Will you do it for us? We don’t have anyone else who will.” Example: someone suggested that we archive issues of the eBulletin and Turntable on our website. Great, but that would take yet another hour of my time every month. So we searched for someone. It took 2 months to find a guy willing to do that. And that’s a simple job…not something as huge as redesigning a website or creating a brochure or putting together a video. Summary: we had a hard time finding someone who’d volunteer 1 hour per month.
You’re a member, Mark. Have you volunteered to do anything for the NMRA? I’m not being snarky or facetious – my point is, there are 17,800 members like you, and maybe 200 others who’ve volunteered a bit of their time. The entire organization is volunteer-based. So when someone suggests, “You know what you guys should do…” I don’t have an army of people I can turn to and say, “Get on it!” I have to go find someone willing to spend some of their free time – modeling time – to help. And even then, the job that gets done may not be the greatest job in the world, quality-wise.
What does someone get for their NMRA dues who, like you, doesn’t participate in local events? Yes, your dues supports the NMRA’s standards…blah blah blah. That’s fine, but in 2018, people are extremely focused on “what’s in it for me?” So that’s why we came up with the Partnership Program. As you found out, you can lop a significant amount of money off your dues dollars with the discounts. (Bear in mind: putting that program together and going out and soliciting manufacturers to be part of it took about 10 volunteers many, many hours; we only have 2 volunteers doing it now because the others realized there was real work involved.)
Ok, specific benefits of membership:
Have you looked at the clinic videos on our website? If you can’t afford to go to a National convention or don’t want to, we now have over 100 “national convention clinics” on streaming video on our website. These are clinics given by top-notch modelers at NMRA national conventions from 2002 to 2017. That, to me, is a huge member benefit. Want to see Dave Frary talking about scenery techniques? We’ve got a clinic video on that. The list goes on and on. (More volunteer work: I spent my entire convention week last year, along with two other guys, hauling around cameras and equipment to shoot videos of over 30 clinics,. I then spent a month editing them at home. Compensation for the NMRA Vice President / Special Projects: $0.)
What we haven’t promoted yet (it takes someone to write the article!) is the fact that every member of the NMRA is now a member of the California State Railroad Museum’s library – one of the largest railroad libraries in the world. So if you’re interested in prototype research or are looking for an instruction sheet for a 1972 AHM structure, or anything in between, the library is the place to turn to. That’s a great member benefit.
The NMRA calendar arrives in the mail every year to all North American members. It’s free (although it helps if you donate). Member benefit. Kalmbach charges upwards of $20 for theirs. If ours cost the same, that’s half of your membership dollars right there. Add that to the $13 you saved in the Partnership program, and you’re paying roughly $15/year for NMRA membership (not including the magazine).
The Achievement Program is another, and I won’t even go into detail about that. I spent 3 years getting my MMR and they were three of the best years I’ve had in modeling. Have you ever scratchbuilt a freight car? I hadn’t, and had no intention of doing so, but I needed to do just that – four times – to complete one of the requirements. I can’t tell you how much I learned from that one experience. The Achievement Program pushed me out of my little box (“Aw, hell, I don’t care how to do that…”) and forced me to go places I would have never gone. And it felt great. Now I’m anxious to scratchbuild more cars – something I never wanted to do. When you go to college, you’re forced to take courses you never would choose otherwise. And even tho you may hate those classes, you learn something from them and become a more well-rounded person because of that learning. That’s the Achievement Program. I would never be the modeler I am today had I not invested that time. It made the hobby much more enjoyable for me overall. I don’t feel “superior” to anyone just because I have an MMR. I did it for me, and me alone. And just because I did “this” and “that” and “this” doesn’t make me “better” than anyone else.
There are other benefits like the online photo archives, the model railroad directory, data sheets, etc.
People say, “What benefits do I get out of the NMRA?” but nobody bothers to go looking for them because, as I said, it’s easier just to make assumptions. Do we have money to advertise this stuff in commercial magazines? I don’t have the rate sheet here in front of me, but a 1/4-page ad in Model Railroader, run one time, costs upwards of several hundred dollars. Do we have the money for that? (Do I need to answer that?)
Last point: you mention the email you got from Charlie Getz about retention and growing the NMRA. Here’s what he said, but he took too long to say it: We lose about 200 members per month (death, illness, disinterest, disenchantment). We gain about 200 members per month (new members, returning members). So our membership number is stable from month to month. If we could stop 50% of the people who leave from leaving, we’d “gain” a net of 100 members per month, and the NMRA would then be “growing.” So retention is the key. And that’s why we’re doing things like the video clinics and the Partnership Program – to keep the members we have. But as I’ve said a million times in this email, it takes people to do this stuff, and takes time to do this stuff.
I’ve only gotten through Page 4 of the 9 pages of comments and it’s taken me most of a Sunday morning to address some of the assumptions and accusations. This is why jumping online to answer every accusation individually is a huge investment of time that I just don’t have. I’ve got half of a Sunday left, and I’m going to go enjoy it!
Thanks for your membership, and thanks for taking the time to alert me to the discussion.
-Gerry Leone
NMRA Vice President / Special Projects