Seacoast Division Winter 2024 President’s Message
Greetings Seacoast Members,
We’ve past the two milestones that, in my opinion, mark the end of winter – the Springfield Train Show and the Super Bowl. Today’s paper declared that the mud season in NH has officially begun. It’s time for the snow to disappear and the weather to warm up. My layout is slowly progressing and I recently completed the helix. It took a lot of time to build, but it came out well. Look for a photo of it in a future Switch Tower.
Seacoast Winter Event
The Seacoast Winter Event was held on Jan. 6, 2024 at the Westbrook Community Center in Westbrook ME. Thanks go out to Jay Ehlen for coordinating the event and Will Everitt for taking on the A/V operator role which resulted in much improved sound for those viewing on Zoom. Bob Kotsonis gave a slide presentation on the status of the Flying Yankee Project. There are now plans to build a new home for it on the grounds of the Conway Scenic Railroad. Tage Erickson, Chair of our upcoming Concord Flyer 2025 NER Convention, gave us a status update on convention planning. Jack Lutz narrated a slide presentation covering his trip last summer to the White Pass and Yukon Railroad in Skagway, Alaska. Jim Gore, MMR and Tom Oxnard, MMR each discussed recently completed projects. Jeff Goldberg, President of the Southern Maine Model RR Club discussed the recent move of the Club to the Westbrook Community Center, where work has starting on the transition from modules to a permanent layout.
Seacoast Division Annual Meeting
The Seacoast Division 2024 Annual Meeting was also part of the Winter Event. Will Everitt, John McHugh and Glenn Mitchell were elected to three year terms as Director. I would like to thank Ralph Brown and Jack Lutz for their service as Seacoast Directors for the last 7 years and 4 years respectively. Following the event a brief BOD meeting was held to elect Glenn Mitchell as President and Jay Ehlen as Vice President. The BOD also approved the appointments of officers, chairmen and associate chairmen. The Seacoast 2024 leadership team is as follows:
Glenn Mitchell - President and Director
Jay Ehlen – Vice President, Director and Activities Coordinator
Jim Seroskie - Treasurer and Director
Will Everitt - Secretary and Director
Jim Gore, MMR – Director
John McHugh – Director
Geoff Anthony - Switch Tower Editor and Director
Guy Mason – Publicity Chairman and Director
Tom Oxnard, MMR - AP Chairman and Director
Peter McKenney – Associate AP Chairman
Bruce Campbell - Membership Chairman
Paul Lessard - Deputy Membership Chairman
Dave Delorey - Webmaster
Steve Russo – Switch Tower Assistant Editor
Tage Erickson – Faulter Fund Chairman & Registered Agent
Jack Lutz - Historian
Seacoast Division Achievements
Financially, the Seacoast Division had a good year. The 2023 beginning balance was $6529.34 and the ending balance was $6,277.25.
The Faulter Fund made a major donation ($3,500.00) to the Southern Maine Model Railroad Club. The money will be used to support their renting a permanent layout room at the Westbrook Community Center. The beginning balance was $9764.11 and the ending balance was $6314.95. If you know any young modelers who could use some financial help, have them take a look at our website where an application form is available to down load.
2023 was not a great year for increasing the Division’s membership. Membership dropped from 157 to 145.
The Achievement Program awarded three AP Certificates for the year. Will Everitt earned his Golden Spike. Victor Hand and John McHugh earned their Author Certificates. Congratulations to Will, Victor, and John.
Dave Delorey continues to do a great job with our website at www.seacoastnmra.org. The website has an incredible number of resource documents and clinics linked to it. Please take a look when you can.
Geoff Anthony, the Switch Tower Editor, is always in need of articles for the Switch Tower. Even a few photos of your latest project will be a welcome addition to the Switch Tower. The January 2024 edition of the Switch Tower was recently added to the website.
Four quarterly Events were held in 2023. All were live with Zoom. Looking ahead to future quarterly events, we plan to put more emphasis on member participation through presentations on member layouts and projects. We are all interested in what our fellow modelers are doing and a Quarterly Event is a great place to share our work. If you would like to participate, please get in touch with Jay Ehlen at jayehlen@gmail.com
NER Conventions
Four Seacoast members attended the 2023 NER Cannonball Express Convention in Uniondale, NY. As one of the attendees, the highlight of the show was the many great layouts that I operated on or toured. Seacoast member John McHugh gave a clinic at the convention.
The 2025 NER Convention Committee, led by co-chairmen Tage Erickson, Peter McKenney and Will Everitt, continues to make progress planning the 2025 NER Convention to be hosted by the Seacoast Division in Concord, NH on September 18 - 21, 2025. The Convention committee recently completed the name selection process which chose Concord Flyer as the convention name. Also, in late January the NER officially signed the contract with the Grappone Conference Center/Courtyard by Marriott for the venue. Congratulations and thanks to all the Convention Committee members who are working to make the Concord Flyer a great convention.
The Lakeshores ’24 NER Convention will be held on Sept. 19 thru 22, 2024 in Rochester Ney York. Clinic Coordinator Jim Fairbanks, MMR is looking for members to present clinics at the convention. If you are interested in giving a clinic at the 2024 NER convention contact Jim at jfair7021@gmail.com.
Seacoast Division - Upcoming Meetings
The Seacoast Spring 2024 Event is scheduled for April 6, 2024 at the James Foley Memorial Community Center in Rochester. Watch for upcoming details on the event.
NMRA News
The NMRA Board of Directors adopted a Code of Conduct at the mid-year board meeting in Springfield, MA, January 2024, available at www.nmra.org/code-conduct. Like many organizations, the Board recognized the need to set expectations for the behaviors, conduct, communication, and interactions between members, officers and directors. The Code addresses behaviors and conduct for engaging with other NMRA members, participating in an event or meeting, engaging on a social media platform or other sponsored extension of the NMRA (whether National, Regional, or Division). Importantly, the Code also includes general guidelines on the appropriate use of social media for NMRA matters at any level. I encourage all Seacoast members to review the code of conduct.
Looking to the Future
Again, we are always looking for members to give presentations and clinics at the Quarterly Events. If you are interested contact Jay Ehlen or myself.
I look forward to seeing many of you at the Seacoast Spring 2024 Event either in person or on Zoom.
Respectfully Submitted,
Glenn Mitchell
Seacoast Division NMRA President & Director
Published: 29 February 2024