Mornin' everyone! (Yaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn)
Ah, Zoe, I'll have a couple left over donuts from the NMRA Meet yesterday and a very large pot of Seneca Lake Blend Dark Roast coffee this morning, please!
Well, I survived the Meet yesterday. My clinic went well and was well received. I came home with first place awards on both of the photo contests (prototype and model), and the President of the Niagara Frontier Region of the NMRA who came all the way from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to be with us went home with the first place ribbon for the model contest! Huh? Why was he there, all the way from Toronto? Glad you asked.
For the last several years, my division has been working on moving from the NFR Region (Incorporated in Canada) to the North East Region of the NMRA Based and Incorporated in the US. One of the biggest reasons for the move is that My members for the most part will no longer brave the border crossing into Canada to attend anything there. (No Politics in your answers please, it is what it is....) For the last decade or longer only about 7 or 8 of us travel to Canada to attend the Convention there. I have assured the officers of the NFR that the same folks will likely still be heading to Canada to attend the fine Conventions they put on. I have been spending a lot of time getting the move accomplished as has the President of the NFR. My officers here spent a full year getting signatures on a petition that is required (2/3rds of the members have to vote to move) and I was able to hand that to the President last May at the Convention in Quebec. He then had to have a re-vote of the Region BOD to allow him to petition National NMRA BOD to move us to the NER. The NER also had to vote to accept us into the region. In February the NMRA National Board voted to allow the transfer of the Lakeshores Division to the NER. So The president of the NFR came down to make the announcement of the move in person and to spend a day with us as well. I spent some time with him thanking him for all his work with this. I also enjoy seeing him. Fine gent! BTW, his reason in getting this done came from a question he asked us. How will the membership here be best served?
So, now you know one of the big reasons I have been busier than a cat covering poop on a marble floor for the past year. This is only the beginning, Now My Division will have to get "integrated" into the NER which will mean all kinds of stuff needing to get done like: Rewriting the by-laws to both update them and get them accepted by the Region, coming up with a new logo (in progress), finding out what committees we need representation on and who it will be, updating our materials for shows, etc.
I am supposed to be a guest at the Region BOD meeting (Online) tonight, so the process begins!!!
I'm going to be spending today getting things put away, and maybe even starting to build a new bridge for the SLO&W.... Lots of new bridges to be building!