Ted Bertiger posted:I think it is also a good idea to encourage other train hobby organizations to participate in the York Meet as well. LCCA's presence at York is a good example of this presence.
......................................... There was enough space where Lionel and Atlas would have been that we could have an inside football game there. But instead, it was empty looking.
WAKE UP EDTCA. YOU MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY TO FILL THAT VOID IN THAT AREA OF THAT HALL. LCCA has a mission to bring younger folks into the hobby.
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IIRC, the map of Orange Hall had a dealer listed for taking a large portion of the space that Lionel vacated. I have heard that the dealer ended up being ill, and did not make it to this meet. I don't recall if anyone had been slated to take the Atlas space, or if Atlas maybe retained it and just set up their small table with catalogs there so they would not lose the area for the future.
Dan Padova posted:The way I understand it, is that not all of the halls are open to the public. Why ? Why would you not open a store to prospective customers ? What are we, some sort of secret organization ? Everyone complains that there is not enough new blood in the hobby. It seems to me that if you want to attract new people to our hobby, you must make our hobby known to those people. Every other train meet I know of doesn't require a secret handshake to attend, so why should the York meet be any different ?
There has been lengthy debate over that in many York threads in the past. It boils down to a tax agreement between EDTCA and the state of PA.
"Member to Member" sales within the organization for individuals had been allowed to transpire without the need for collecting/reporting of sales tax for individuals (not true for businesses, which do of course report sales and pay the tax to PA as part of their business).
Allowing the public general admission to the member halls would risk that agreement. It's not like there is no way for the public to see the member halls"just once to see what it is like". The guest registration is a one time thing (per person) that is allowed, and it is without restriction, you get to roam all the halls at will.
Some smaller sellers (I am likely one of the smallest to have a table) do not sell enough product to make it worth having to deal with the paperwork to obtain a PA tax number and file a few sales each York meet for barely enough sales to cover the cost of buying the table. (I am not talking all expenses, nor should I as I would attend with or without the table, and my hobby is not a business - I simply get a table to try to find new homes for a few items I no longer prioritize in my collection)
As for the "secret handshake" thing, that's a fallacy at this point. That went away when the 2 signature rule went away to join TCA (admittedly possibly later than it should have, but it's been gone for a while now).
Needing to join if you repeatedly want to attend York should not be considered a barrier. Any more than it's a barrier to have to pay yearly dues to any other organization of you want to purchase all of their special run products (LCCA, LOTS, etc.).
-Dave
