January 3, 2009 - Meeting Summary
SDSG's first meeting of the new year was hosted by Bob Graves. Six members attended. The principal discussion topics involved the club's participation in the GTE show at Del Mar in December and ideas for capitalizing on that experience.
Lessons Learned
A discussion of "lessons learned" from the December show yielded the following.
Plexiglas screens worked well and are the right thickness, having withstood contact with the crowd without problems.
We should add sighs saying "Thank you for not touching the layout," as previously discussed.
The green fabric skirting looked good. Still, we need to improve ease of handling and installation by cutting the skirt into convenient sized panels and improving the mounting method.
Layout signage would benefit from improvements to mounting, visibility, and content to better identify SDSG and the scale of the layout.
We need to improve the storage and transport solutions for the layout. A key idea was too improve the packing density when in the storage configuration to make both transport and storage easier.
Layout Improvements
There was a discussion of improvement we could make to the layout in 2009.
Explore setting up an interoperating session with our SCSG neighbors to ensure we meet S-MOD standards and get ideas for refinements.
Tie up the loose ends on the eight modules that form the current layout. This mostly involves scenery issues and a few electrical system refinements.
Explore developing club standards for things like power distribution for lighting and accessories.
Modules we might add going forward include: a passenger depot, a small to modest sized intermodal facility, a small freight yard with service facilities, additional industry sidings and spurs, a bridge or other visually striking module (think Keddie Wye), a quarry near the mountains, extensions to the Gilbert siding's display of action accessories. Basically the list is limited only by our imaginations.
Peter presented a scale drawing of a proposal to incorporate a yard and track leads to off-layout staging. It is based on the two existing industry sidings and would include a new six foot module inserted betweem them. One of the questions that arose was whether there is a single power/control system that could be used in staging that is compatible with standard AC, DC, TMCC, and DCC power/control systems. Compatible, as used here, means a system that powers the motors without electical hazard to them or other electrical components on the rolling stock. Peter took an action to find an answer.
Layout Cost Tallys and Finance
Mike and Peter presented tallies of costs incurred in constucting the layout during the periods when each was hosting the construction. Total costs appear to be about $1,500.00 for the eight completed modules and two partially completed modules and remaining materials on hand. This is the cash cost, and does not include donated track, roadbed, and plexiglass that we used in construction. Mike took an action to consolidate the two tallies into a common format and to scrub them for any duplications. This should give us the visibility needed to decide how to allocate the current costs among ourselves, and for pricing any additonal modules.
Bob reported that the SDSG treasury has about $250.00 on hand. He'll present a more precise number after reviewing his records.
There was also some discussion of how the club has been operating financially and whether we need to consider changes in organizational and financial structures going forward. This discussion is expected to continue as the financial and cost numbers get refined.
Meeting Times and Dates
Because several members have indicated a schedule conflict with our "standard" meeting time of 1:30 pm on the Saturdays, we looked at alternatives. One immediate result was the decison to move our next meeting start time back to 2:30 pm, as this was the most requested change so far. We also discussed having some of our meetings on weekday evenings instead of on Saturdays, perhaps on an alternating basis.
Attendees: Mike Forys, Bob Graves, Alex SIbbald, Peter Gagnon, Harlan Hatz, Roland Martinez
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