How do clubs/societies work?

[J9PUR]

Hi

Another question from a newbie!

I was just wondering how clubs/societies work? I realise the general aim of bringing like-minded individuals together, the social aspect and the pooling of knowledge and experience, but I was wondering specificlally about club layouts?

Who decides what scale to build/what area/what type of layout?
How is it financed? Do all members pay a 'share' into a club fund?
How do you get all members 'on board' with a layout?

I'm sure that all clubs work slightly differently, but any insight would be appreciated!

[Ian Bowden]

Not the answer you want but my first thought is by a lot of hard work in the background by a few members organising everything.

[J9PUR]

Yes, I'm sure that's the case as with many things!

[jrb]

There are 3 main types of clubs I've come across:

1. Those that have clubrooms, and club-owned layouts. The layouts are essentially designed and made 'by committee'.

2. Those that have clubrooms, but not club-owned layouts. They basically rent space to members who set-up and work on their own layouts in their allocated space (for those that don't have space for, or don't want, their layouts at home).

3. Clubs that don't have clubrooms, and meet in community spaces, church halls, etc, or in each other's homes.

You might also come across clubs that are a combination of 1 & 2, i.e. they mainly have member's layouts, but may also have one or two club-owned layouts.

As for finance, members pay an annual subscription for most clubs. If they're renting out layout space, you'd pay for that on top. Funds are also topped up (at least in my club) by members paying a small fee for tea & coffee, biscuits, etc. during meetings.

Hope that helps,


Jonathan

Edit: Annual exhibitions are held by a lot of clubs, in the hope that they make a profit for the club. Those funds are then used for the running of the club during the rest of the year.

[J9PUR]

That is really helpful Jonathan - I did not realise about these 'set-ups', especially #2 

[Buzzard]

1. Those that have clubrooms, and club-owned layouts. The layouts are essentially designed and made 'by committee'.

2. Those that have clubrooms, but not club-owned layouts. They basically rent space to members who set-up and work on their own layouts in their allocated space (for those that don't have space for, or don't want, their layouts at home).

As I've found out a mix of these two can lead to "unhappiness" within the membership.  Where I'm a member there's a new club funded layout under construction but to accommodate it within the clubroom the whole place will need reorganising.  That'll mean moving a privately owned layout of a member that doesn't come regularly and I'll leave you to imagine the rest.

As for the funding of a club there's another model in that an annual fee is charged and then so much per visit to the clubroom.  One near me uses this model and charge £10 and £2 respectively.  I guess it works for them but they do share a village hall so outgoings must be less than for a club with sole ownership / lease of their premises.

[Chris Morris]

Layouts at clubs can be either exhibition layouts or fixed layouts.
At the club I attend a group of people put a layout proposal to the committee. This proposal normally includes size, scale, approx cost, where it will fit in the club room and an idea of how many club members are proposing to build it. Space is usually an issue because people are reluctant to throw away old layouts. The committee will either say yes and agree the budget or say no. A no response will include a reason so the proposers can re-think things if they want.
Most club layouts require those building it to accept other people's ideas.  More importantly most members will gain knowledge by listening to a discussing other's ideas. For instance I've been buildings model railways for 50 years and last week a fellow club member came up with an idea I had never seen before.
I have incorporated design ideas and modelling techniques from club layouts when building my own layouts.
As a general rule the club pays all the costs of building a layout but members provide the stock. Club owned stock is often neglected and normally not a good idea.

[PLD]

As you will gather from the answers so far, no two are exactly the same: some are no more than social groups, others are much more focussed on either construction of layouts or at least providing facilities for construction.

The 'Annual Subscription' + smaller Weekly or Attendance fee is the most common financial model.

In terms of layout building, Hull MRS is very similar to what Chris Morris describes. A group of members with similar interests (minimum 3, usually 6-8) get together and put a proposal to the committee with a request for funding. That way all the key members of that group have an interest in that layout while others with different interests can develop their own schemes in parallel. Having said that, there is still a lot of interaction and cooperation between groups, drawing on skills and advice from each other.

In our case the Club funds and owns the layout and any fixed items; members fund and own the rolling stock.

[Ben A]

Hi there,

I am not a member of a club as such, but an N Gauge Society Area Group (Northants and Cambs.)

We meet once a month, and have about 15-20 members.  The NGS pays out a small annual dividend per AG member to help us, and we all contribute a little bit to hiring a hall for our meetings.

We hosted the NGS AGM show a few years ago, and that generated a bit of extra cash too.

If you are an NGS member then you can find out if there is an AG near you.

In terms of layouts, we split into those more interested in BR Steam and those preferring present day.  Generally the two groups tend to work on their own layouts (the modern gang built Horseley Fields, and are about to start another modern layout) while the steam guys are working on Crowland Green.

Some of the layouts are owned by the club (Horseley Fields, Crowland Green) while others are owned by individuals (Paul Churchill's Tormouth, Nick Dibben's Molinnis.)

But at exhibitions operators are drawn from both groups depending on who can attend.

Stock is contributed from our own personal collections as appropriate; there are no "club" models.

For more info about our group, which may give you a feel for how we work, see here:  www.ngaugesociety.co.uk

Cheers

Ben A.

[free debt man]

To add to what Ben has just said I hope you can make it to the Calne Show this coming weekend. The N Gauge Society Display stand will be there and I will be manning it with Tim Hitch. Please introduce yourself and we can tell you more, particularly about the hosting club Bentley Model Railway Group whose brand new club room is in Calne (and which has an N Gauge section).

[J9PUR]

Thanks again for all the very informative posts

To add to what Ben has just said I hope you can make it to the Calne Show this coming weekend. The N Gauge Society Display stand will be there and I will be manning it with Tim Hitch. Please introduce yourself and we can tell you more, particularly about the hosting club Bentley Model Railway Group whose brand new club room is in Calne (and which has an N Gauge section).

We are certainly intending to come along sometime on Saturday, so will hopefully say 'Hello' then.