Admittedly I have been a critic of the TCA , a big supporter of the Eastern Division but sooner or later one must face reality- facts if you will!!
To attend York the requirement is a $50 membership in the TCA. This gets you a small quarterly magazine, mostly about antique trains a newspaper type, "for sale" paper and membership card. The dues were recently raised to $50 and the association lost over 2,000 members in 2014. The membership continues to decline. These are facts not my opinion.
Now for my opinion. The steady decline of TCA membership (including my own) undoubtedly will have a negative effect on York attendance. Something needs to be done to reverse this. If the bylaws of the ED do not permit the meet being opened to the public (which I feel is hurting the meet) then the Eastern Division:
1. Must change the bylaws to make York a commercial meet like Greenbergs.
2. Start selling a weekend membership pass to the E.D for $10 that allows entry into York
3. Convince the National TCA that they must offer the $35 membership again but one that provides no printed mailed material but online publications only. The biggest cost of the membership fee is currently printing and postage. Eliminate this and at $35 you take in more revenue than at the current $50 membership fee with all the paper and high postage costs. For the members that insist on paper then a $50 membership can be charged.
4. Do nothing and accept the eventual and inevitable demise of the TCA.
but consider....doing things the same way and expecting a different result is the sure path to failure. Am I wrong about this????
The people in the ED are very good folks, have done a great job and deserve much credit for their hard work putting together the largest O gauge train meet in the world. While I do not need to buy many more trains at this point in my life, it is still my desire to continue to support the ED and attend York. However, I must decline if I am forced to buy a $50 membership card to do so.
