Meeting Reports

West Country Group Meeting

A brief report compiled from notes and photos from Colin Dowling.

The second open meeting at the Mark Village Hall, Mark, Somerset, was well attended. It was reported that as many people came through the door in the first hour as attended for the whole day in 2010. Perhaps the addition of an operating test track made a difference.

Peter Drost brought along a loco from a new project he’s been working on. Older members may recognise a certain engine that operated with The Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company Limited! (For younger members, follow the link.) There are rumours of a dragon, too…

Colin Dowling took a short video capturing the moment when Jonathan Bushell’s award-winning K2 had to deputise on the GWR milk train.

2011 AGM report

Rob Thompson summarises events from the June meeting

It was a quiet affair compared with some years recently. Nothing of real contentiousness was raised either before the meeting or even during the meeting. There was discussion, yes, but disagreements, no. Therefore quite a smooth afternoon really.

There were 23 members present, just a quorum, which was rather surprising as the S7 layout Dewsbury was being run in the clubroom at Warley and we had been invited to bring along models to run during the morning providing that anything powered was set up for DC. No DCC here but this might explain why so few locos. were to be seen as so many S7 members run on DCC. However, what models there were all looked very good and we did have the pleasure of seeing a LionHeart GWR 64XX R-T-R in S7 briefly showing its paces. One for the future this and no doubt there will be more information in due course.

Having said how few members were present well over 30 had sent their apologies, and for that many thanks.

The usual preliminaries were stated with matters arising from last year’s AGM and the ritual signing off of the minutes, not that many, including the committee, could remember too well what was discussed.

The meeting proper started with the Chairman’s Report and with David Nicholson acting in the Chair explaining what had happened during the last year and what his intentions for the next 12 months, subject to being elected, would be.

There were disappointments during the year and the major one highlighted was how little contribution from the membership there had been for the newsletter. In fact he noted that one recent issue would not have appeared if it had not been for the Editor and one other committee member contributing over 90% of the material. He reminded those present that, as a voluntary organisation we don’t have an “authoring committee” and we rely on you, the individual members, to send in contributions. They don’t have to be large articles with many photographs all the time, short 100–150 word articles by way of suggestions, hints and tips being just as important.

Another major disappointment was that little progress had been made on developing the new website during the year and explained the reasons why. However the committee had made the decision during the year to ask Heather Kavanagh to resurrect the original website on a strictly time limited basis and which had been done to great effect. It is intended to get major parts of the new website implemented during the remaining part of 2011 and with some extra volunteer help from one member this should be achievable.

David thanked both Emma, for her efforts over 5 years as Newsletter Editor, and Heather, for the website, for ensuring that we still had key communications material still running.

Moving on David reviewed the Stores situation, noting that new items would be coming into stock shortly, namely the walnut sleeper timbers in correct 8ft 6in and 9ft lengths as well having crossing timbers available in 10in, 12in and 14in widths. Further jigs would be developed and it was the intention to introduce these as soon as possible, the first jig, in all probability, being a “Joggle” jig for stock rails. Others would be discussed and added to the range during the year.

Looking forward to the ScaleSeven Group development David then discussed the possibility of R-T-R items for S7, noting that in the cases of both Gauge 1 and Scalefour it was the introduction of these type of items that had directly led to large growth in membership. Discussions are ongoing with Lionheart to provide an S7 64xx, followed by further locos in development. These will only ever be available in small numbers but should be continued to encourage S7 growth. Other manufacturers were discussed namely FineScale Brass, available directly from Randolph Chang, one Midland 0-4-4 being on display and also Masterpiece Models where discussions had been held with Michael Brooks.

However, the committee are concerned to ensure that ScaleSeven Group should develop taking account of what you the membership would like to see. To enable the committee to more closely understand these needs a questionnaire is being developed which should be distributed with the November newsletter and David asked that everyone should respond giving their ideas and thoughts.

John Day then presented the Accounts and gave his Treasurer’s Report. The Group had made a profit in the last year of just over £400 but with an adjustment made for loans becoming donations nearly £900 was transferred to General Funds. It was pointed out that the committee had opened a new account during the year to be in a position to purchase the half of the wheel tooling, dies etc. that the S7G does not own should that become necessary. However, during the year there had been considerable restocking of the Stores so everyone should be encouraged to buy those missing items. John noted that some expenses, particularly printing of the Newsletter and cost of postage, had risen dramatically and in the case of postage would do so again this year. It was also noted that the cost of promoting the group had risen but if we were to continue to promote the group actively then we had to bear these extra costs, mainly of extra vehicle fuel.

At the end John emphasised that this would be his last year as Treasurer and having done 15 years in the role it was time for someone younger to step up and implored people to consider taking on the role which has been interesting and not overly time consuming. John then paid tribute to those members who had supported him with advice and account scrutiny over the years, namely Vic Burles and Jeff Keylock, both members of the Crediton group who would also be standing down at the next AGM.

The rest of the meeting slipped by with the Officers Reports — updates being given by one or two including Ron Pitts, the Membership Secretary who explained that we had started the year with 266 members and were finishing with 258 after removing the 26 members whose subscriptions were outstanding — and then the Elections of Officers.

David Nicholson was elected as Chairman, Alan Benson as Deputy Chairman and Richard Kelham as Newsletter Editor (after Alan Turner had withdrawn his nomination). The remainder of the committee were re-elected en-bloc as no other nominations had been received.

John Day then announced that there was no proposal to raise subscription rates for 2012; they will remain at £20 for all members.

Under Any Other Business a number of items were discussed including the possibility of using email and the website more for communications with members, the new website where it was indicated what would be the first areas to be implemented, ongoing discussions with the Gauge 0 Guild to understand what affiliation really means. A question was raised about the availability of back articles from the newsletter and the Secretary explained that he was picking up a folder that day to scan as many of the early newsletters as he could to make them available on the new website.

Ian Norman then discussed the new marketing material to be made available to anyone who is going to represent S7G at shows which consists of a memory stick with a rolling PowerPoint presentation on it but which has back up material that can be broken into at any stage of the presentation. It was available to view after the meeting and had also been seen at the Brightwell show in April where it was given approval by those who had seen it.

Finally Andrew Campbell spoke about the forthcoming ScaleSeven Group Open day at Mark in Somerset on 8th October where there would be a layout, working test track, talks, demonstrations, 6 traders and last but not least a light-hearted competition which could earn the winner a £25 voucher to spend with one of the traders. Those who bring models with them whether for the competition or not would be excused the entry fee to the day but everyone requiring lunch would be asked to pay £6. As the show is close to the M5 (Junction 22 (Burnham on Sea/Highbridge) and therefore easy to reach Andrew implored the meeting to spread the word about the show and to attend.