April 22, 2009 - Meeting Summary

Mike Forys hosted SDSG’s April meeting. Attendees were: Bob Graves, Peter Gagnon, Mike Forys, Roland Martinez, and Jim Patterson. The following subjects were covered.

Club Administration

Following up on a discussion/action item from last month, Bob and Mike separately researched and reported on costs and availability of banking services to the club. The common result seemed to be that the club would need to register with the county as an entity “doing business as” SDSG and be issued a Tax ID number. This step is necessary to open a bank account in the clubs name. Cost would be about $60.00 for 5 years. Bob will continue to research this to see if there are any additional requirements and/or fees, other than bank fees.

We would also need to develop and present a set of approved bylaws to the bank at the time the account is opened, together with a list of officers. Peter agreed to prepare a draft set of bylaws for review at the next meeting.

It was agreed to schedule the popular Show & Tell segment at the beginning of our meeting, and to allocate 15 minutes for this activity. It was recognized that schedule discipline would occasionally need to yield to rail fan loquaciousness.

Informational Materials

SDSG will now be listed in the Model Railroad Clubs of Southern California brochure published by Bill Costley. Thanks to Ron Fauset for suggesting this. We agreed to ask Bill for a full copy of the brochure so we can add links on our web site to other southern California clubs.

Peter circulated a draft update to our club informational handout. This was needed to help the San Diego Model Railroad Museum prepare promotional copy on our planned visit over Labor Day weekend. Corrections provided during will be incorporated in the final update.

Meeting and Work Session Scheduling

A schedule was developed for May and June club meetings and work sessions. Here are the dates:

Saturday, May 16^th Work session at Roland’s

Saturday, May 30^th Work session and Meeting at Roland’s

Saturday, June 13^th Work session at Roland’s

Monday, June 22^nd Meeting at 7:00 pm, Location TBA

Saturday, June 27^th Work session at Roland’s

Two-Club Layout Events

SCSG president Jeff Kruger asked by email if SDSG would like to explore a two-club modular layout event. There was general interest in doing this, and we developed a list of some preliminaries we all felt would need to be addressed. In addition to selecting a time and place to do this (Ontario, CA in June was suggested, if that becomes a possibility), here are some of the other suggestions for preliminary collaborations.

1. Each club appoint an event coordinator to work the details,

2. Exchange module details where S-MOD allows discretion, such as:

   • Power/control systems in use (AC, DC, DCC, TMCC, other?) Use/non-use of cab bus wiring on modules

   • Any restrictions on equipment and track work that might exist

   • Swapping photos and standard module diagrams

3. Define and pre-build bridge track for the club interface(s), SDSG runs SHS code 125 (nominal) track and SCSG is believed to run American S-Gauge code 172, so we'd have to solder up some "compromise" bridge tracks.

4. Conduct a dry-run prior to the event to find and fix glitches

5. Follow the KISS (keep it simple) principle.

Show and Tell

Mike showed us some framed railroad paper he has in his collection. This included a Civil War era bill of lading from the Pennsylvania Railroad. One of the unique features of this item was that the frame had glass on both sides, so the freight classifications listed on the back of the bill are also visible.

Next I'd like to read the minutes for:

March 2009 May 2009