Model railroad club without politics

Well Josh, I think you have the right idea. I've been in a number of clubs with layouts, once you have money, rent and property, politics naturally follow. I've found that round robin groups are usually the most fun. Unfortunately, I don't live in your neighborhood (about 600 miles away), or I would join right away.

BTW, I've always felt that one of the major shortcomings of this forum is the inability to find members by location. I would love a way to identify others living in my area to set up a group like yours.

Round Robin Clubs are good.  You can find out you may need some rules though such as, does everyone have to have a layout and take a turn as host on a regular schedule?  Does size matter, i.e. are you going to want a 15 member club and a guy hosting who only has an 8 foot single track loop?

Things like that . . . .

Dennis

Good luck.  Politics has driven me out of several organizations from trains to cars to the theater  and, finally military re-enacting.

jim pastorius posted:

Good luck.  Politics has driven me out of several organizations from trains to cars to the theater  and, finally military re-enacting.

Yep, I agree with Jim 100% here. There is a round-robin group that has very little politics that I can see, but that's the only such group I've ever seen (and maybe I'm not looking hard enough to see the politics in action).

Frankly, politics and some downright schoolgirl-levels of drama caused me to quit the hobby in utter disgust from a HO module group in Florida (that I helped found) in the 90s. I didn't come back for almost 20 years due directly to that.

Well our group has been in action for the better part of 50 years I have only been a part for the last cupple. We don't focus on the this that are listed above like layout size or number of people. All are welcome. So offer food or snacks some you bring what you want. Those of use that want to work on layouts help each other. The ones that want to run trains run trains and the ones that want round house talk talk. Any scale any size or level of completion. If you invite all and some don't come no big deal.  If you only invite a few then you cause problems. And if you don't have a layout oh well others do. So much of what could be learned and taken in gets lost in the political process of clubs. If you are just there with no agenda then anything is a plus. No disappointment with no agenda.

I would join a round robin group in my area but will not join another modular group or a club layout due to the issues named above. 

In our area it is almost impossible to get a modular a group going. I tried 3 times and each and every time it ended in bad feelings, people complaining  and finally everybody stops coming. 

many moons ago I suggested to the moderators to have a map posted where you could put your location & code it such as "visitors by appt only", good places to visit or off the beaten path hobby shops. Never went anywhere that I'm aware of. I would have found this invaluable when travelling on vacation.

We have a round robin group and each hosts dinner once a month and every member has a layout and live within a 50 mile radius and there are eight members.

Mikey

Round Robin groups are a great way to enjoy the hobby.  Keeping things simple are my only advice.

Our club group works well. No dues, no officers. We do have a member that sets up our annual host list. The club is popular enough that it has been difficult holding the membership down so that all can be accommodated at a host home.

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

BTW, I've always felt that one of the major shortcomings of this forum is the inability to find members by location. I would love a way to identify others living in my area to set up a group like yours.

 

if everyone put their locations like you and I we would know where everyone is.

An informal "brown bag" train hobby group that meets over a McD meal (or something of their own making) in rotation at the homes of group members/hosts sounds great. Talk trains during mealtime, and then adjourn to the train room for a work session on that member's layout or an operating session. Some hobbyists would probably be satisfied with that modest level of engagement with little or no money involved.  Others seeking participation in a grander enterprise may gravitate to an organized train club with more to offer (and more to take -- dues, time, energy, fund-raising, and investing creative thought in organizational development).

Trouble is ... humans are political animals by nature and issues may soon arise even in a small group. However, it's supposed to be about the fun of sharing the world's greatest hobby.  New group members should demonstrate a suitable hobby-related purpose, eagerly participate in group meetings, and host an occasional meeting as expected. Anyone could signal waning interest (or they "got what they initially came for") by simply not coming to a few meetings and quietly dropping out without going away mad or stirring up a revolution.

Mike

bigdodgetrain posted:

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

BTW, I've always felt that one of the major shortcomings of this forum is the inability to find members by location. I would love a way to identify others living in my area to set up a group like yours.

 

if everyone put their locations like you and I we would know where everyone is.

True, but that's not exactly what I was referring to. The forum has a feature where you can view the membership as a map. The problem is, that only tells you how many members live in a given state (or country). It doesn't tell you anything about which which ones. Without going through every profile you can't tell who's your neighbor. Total needle in a haystack!

Maybe I'm just used to the TCA directory. They made it easy, but they are a private club, and the forum is far from it. I'm sure that this has to do with privacy, which is why some members don't want their state known. What would be helpful is a list of member names by state.

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

bigdodgetrain posted:

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

BTW, I've always felt that one of the major shortcomings of this forum is the inability to find members by location. I would love a way to identify others living in my area to set up a group like yours.

 

if everyone put their locations like you and I we would know where everyone is.

True, but that's not exactly what I was referring to. The forum has a feature where you can view the membership as a map. The problem is, that only tells you how many members live in a given state (or country). It doesn't tell you anything about which which ones. Without going through every profile you can't tell who's your neighbor. Total needle in a haystack!

Maybe I'm just used to the TCA directory. They made it easy, but they are a private club, and the forum is far from it. I'm sure that this has to do with privacy, which is why some members don't want their state known. What would be helpful is a list of member names by state.

When on the member page, there is an advanced member search feature on the top right. There is now a search feature by postal code. There are two members in Josh's postal code.  It seems like the forum listened. One may need a few postal codes of the area in reasonable driving distance.

Then, as bigdodge mentioned, the results are dependent on each members willingness to make profile data viewable or provide a contact email.

Where is the map page?

rogerpete posted:

Where is the map page?

well, you don't really need it to do an advanced search- but, here is the answer

Select members from the blue menu bar> members page - on the right is a blue context menu that reads "sort by name">hover the cursor over that and the rest of the menu appears>select "view as map"

Any place without politics sounds good to me. Sadly - in my area, there are far too few people, let alone model railroaders, to have a club.

p51 posted:

jim pastorius posted:

Good luck.  Politics has driven me out of several organizations from trains to cars to the theater  and, finally military re-enacting.

Yep, I agree with Jim 100% here. There is a round-robin group that has very little politics that I can see, but that's the only such group I've ever seen (and maybe I'm not looking hard enough to see the politics in action).

Frankly, politics and some downright schoolgirl-levels of drama caused me to quit the hobby in utter disgust from a HO module group in Florida (that I helped found) in the 90s. I didn't come back for almost 20 years due directly to that.

I absolutely agree. I have found that there are folks out there who care little what the club is about. They merely view it as a vehicle to assert personal power over others.

I took a look at your website. AWESOME layout!!!

ALAN

Looks like PA is a good place to start a club, it's the only state in red on the map!