How Many TCA members?

I notice in your profile you are in Maryland and there is a William Hudson also living in Maryland who is a TCA member.    If this is one and the same person, you can find your answer on the TCA site but you have to do a minimal amount of work.

Pull up the pdfs of the member lists, count members per page, and multiply, then add in the number of members on the first and last pages (not full pages of members).

--Greg

I would like to see that, too....as well as the peak and valleys on a chart of attendees

at York, since maybe 1980, and that chart for club membership.  (although neither will

affect my participation!)

The membership numbers are contained in the Treasurers report. TCA members can go to the web site and look at the report themselves. The information is for 6/14.

This is a far cry from the days when there was a directory printed annually. I think I saved my last one, but I am uncertain. As I recall, it contained a lot of information, including number of members in each state, and a list of the number of members per year. I'll have to go see if I can find my copy.

Update: I have a printed copy of the Spring 2008 directory. I think it was the last one printed. I don't see a report showing the number of members in each state (I am positive that at least some older editions did have that). It does have a table listing the total membership and number of people registered for the annual convention by year, for 1955 to 2007.

FYI, I just received the Nov. National Headquarters News and took a look at the list of members who have recently passed away.  Interestingly, those listed were overwhelmingly from Eastern states.  There was one from Co., one from Mi., one from Tn & one from Ky.  The majority were concentrated in Ny, Pa, & Nj.

quote:

Quarterly the subject of declining membership was addressed, but the only numbers provided was that the TCA's membership was larger than that of the NMRA by about 3,500.

NMRA site says they have "over 18,000 members", so the TCA must have over 21,500 members.

quote:

FYI, I just received the Nov. National Headquarters News and took a look at the list of members who have recently passed away.  Interestingly, those listed were overwhelmingly from Eastern states.  There was one from Co., one from Mi., one from Tn & one from Ky.  The majority were concentrated in Ny, Pa, & Nj.

As I recall from the days when such information was included in the directory, Pennsylvania had the most members, with New York and New Jersey in the next two spots.

Well, are they also whining about HO, N, and model railroading in general on life support,  since we outnumber the NMRA in membership? (this surprises me since LHS's mostly carry HO and N)...is everything dying in the hobby? (from one of the magazines...not this one...it sometimes looks like it).

IMHO, neither the NMRA or the TCA membership numbers are particularly meaningful as an indicator of the popularity of model railroading or train collecting.  I am a TCA member, and intend to remain one for the foreseable future. Still, many folks don't see the benefit of belonging to any organization.
There are any number of web sites where people can network and share information. There are also plenty of places to buy, sell and trade.

Correct.  All it indicates is the particular organization provides value to the individual.

Belonging to the TCA, NMRA or any other organization is not a prerequisite to being a model railroader or train collector.

Rusty

If I'm recalling correctly, the last time the TCA HQ Newsletter carried the membership "thermometer" sometime in the last few years, before TCA ceased showing it, the membership was in the high 20,000s, down about 15% from a peak north of 30,000.  Assuming likely continued loss in membership due to demographics and perhaps the major dues increase, it's probably around the mid to high 20,000s now, which would be significantly greater than the NMRA if the latter is in the high teens of thousands.  I'd guess that the decreasing numbers are why the bimonthly membership numbers were dropped from the HQ News. 

The treasurers report has been updated on the TCA web site. It contains a membership count. TCA members can view the report.

Here you go...

Jerry

Still a fairly healthy membership in light of the ongoing demographic changes affecting this and many other creative, hands-on hobbies.

No surprise there.  Most folks, myself included, are TCA members so we can attend the York shows.  So I'd expect there to be a heavily weighted distribution of members in states within convenient driving distance to York, Pa.

Nonetheless, the 24,000 or so number would indicate that roughly 50-60% of the membership attends any given York.

David

The nucleus of our segment of the hobby has always been concentrated in the Eastern and near-Midwestern states, dating way back to the postwar era and probably well before. That is where the major concentration of railroads, population, and hobby manufacturing and distribution (via dealers) has long been based.

So an estimate is that membership is down about a quarter from its high water mark some years ago.  As said, not all that bad considering the difficulties of demographics, the recent changes in selling and buying on the net, both new and used, and the way the net provides "free" information formerly provided in magazines and newsletters.  No surprise that a dues increase was needed either.

quote:

Here you go...

If the TCA wanted their document released to the general public, I think they would have put it on a public part of their web page.

Since the TCA info says it is from the national treasurer, that would mean ALL TCA divisions and not just the Eastern division that puts on the York meet? For some reason I was thinking the TCA had different divisions that were like separate entities and each were joined separately? Guess I need to look at that again.

From what little I know about all this I was surprised the TCA has more members than the NMRA? I expected the NMRA to be much larger than the TCA due to the supposedly much larger number of folks in the smaller scales?

Maybe I should have just said:

According to the June 6, 2015 Treasurers report...

Regular members                22,943

Life                                         250

Honor Roll                               970

Honorary                                    0

-------------------------------------------

Total                                  24,163

Which in no way proves its accuracy or validity.

But the other way provides documentation and isn't just someones BS hearsay.

If the TCA has an issue with this, they know how to get in touch with me.

Anything to get your drawers in a knot ...

Someone call Homeland Security.

Edward Snowden

As a non-profit, they probably have to supply that kind of info when requested anyway.

Sorry to take so long to thank all of you for your posts.  I definitely have enough to add to my presentation.

One aspect of association membership that no one addressed is that both TCA and NMRA's average age of members is 66yrs.  If that continues to increase I would expect membership #s to drop as we die off!