April’s attendance was 35 people, down from 53 at the open meet. As it gets nicer outside it becomes harder to compete with the weather. There were some nice boxed trains for sale regardless of the weather and I spent the entire time chatting with fellow train folks. Again I would like to thank the membership for hauling their goods in and out each month. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and I applaud them.
The May meet will be held on the 16th which is the third Sunday in May. Please put this on your calendar so you don’t show up a week early. Also note that it will be our last meet until September 12th as we take the summer off to catch a ball game or do some fishing.
The board has been busy planning the summer outing. I won’t give it away quite yet, but we have secured an ideal location that should please the membership. We are still working out some of the details and a mailing will go out in early June so you can sign up.
A survey is being created that will also go out to the membership to help the Board gauge what we are doing right and what we need to work on. When you get an email link or a paper copy (depending upon newsletter preference), please complete per the instructions. We will make any needed adjustments to the club over the summer and will return to our normal schedule in great shape.
The board is also going to take a look at updating our By-laws to get in compliance with the National By-laws that were adopted in 2009. It will take some work but we will get the job done and get them out when they are complete. I am not quite sure what this will entail but with the strong leadership on the board we will put it in writing and move on to the next project.
Don’t forget to stop by the Lakes and Pines booth at the National Train Day celebration in St. Paul on May 8th. Check out tcalakesandpines.com on the “Events” tab for specifics. Hope to see you there.
We picked up a new member at the April meet. Jon Sime has joined and we are glad to have him! When you see him at the next meet please introduce yourself and say hi.
Clem Clement, the National TCA President called me a couple of weeks ago to inform me that we didn’t have a Standards Committee Rep for the Lakes and Pines. I sent an email out to our members who have provided us with an email address and we were able to resolve this issue very quickly. Thanks to Marlowe W. Koch and Al Osterud for volunteering their expertise to the club. There will be more information on this at a later date.
If you are planning on heading to Baltimore in June be sure to get signed up as the tours are filling up. For up to date information visit: www.tcabalt2010.org/
See you in May,
Mike Speltz, President