NMRA InfoNet

Welcome to the NMRA InfoNet News (Infoblast)

For January, 2016

Register for the Highball to Indy, 2016 (2016 NMRA Convention)

Registration fees for the 2016 NMRA Convention (July 3 – 10, 2016) in Indianapolis, IN will increase on February 2, 2016 – so to avoid the increase register now at www.nmra2016.org.

Upcoming 2016 NMRA Election

The 2016 NMRA election ballot will be in the February issue of NMRA Magazine.

Every member of the NMRA worldwide will be receiving a copy of the February NMRA Magazine since one of the offices on the ballot is for At-Large Worldwide Director

Removable mailing labels will not be used for this election.  There will be directions on the ballot telling you how to fill in your membership information.

There will be five ballot collection points for this election.  Some of these collection points will also be distributing the ballot electronically  If you receive the ballot electronically, please do not return the ballot through the post.

The Candidate Statements in the NMRA Magazine are restricted to 400 words.  The candidates are allowed to write longer statements on the website.  All Candidate Statements will be posted on the website.  You should find a note in the “IN THE NEWS” section which should have link to the correct section.  Otherwise, you can find them in NMRA Elections under Organization & Structure.

Candidates for the 2016 NMRA election

Atlantic District Director

   Peter Bowen

   Kathy Millatt

At Large Worldwide Director

   Mike Brestel

   Bob Ferguson

Western District Director

   Steve Barkley

   Don Fowler

   Stephen Priest

**Please be sure to vote in this upcoming election.**

BOD Winter Meeting, 2016

The Winter Board of Directors meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA on February 20 and 21, 2016 at the Drury Hotel.  The Budget and Operations meeting will begin at 2:00 pm on Friday, February 19 and the Board will caucus that evening.  These last two meetings are open only to invited guests.

The regular, open session of the BOD meeting begins at 9:00 AM on Saturday, February 20, 2016.  Because the agenda is not yet finalized, there is no way of telling if the meeting will continue on Sunday.  All members are invited to attend the open sessions on Saturday, February 20 and Sunday, February 21 (if there is a Sunday meeting).

Message from John Stevens, NMRA Secretary 

My name is John Stevens and I am the NMRA Secretary.  It appears I am the only NMRA member whose history with trains started with an HO train set.  A couple of years after receiving my first train set, I received an Aurora race car set.  I really enjoyed playing with the cars, especially when I found that they made a piece of race track that had a piece of train track crossing it.  This allowed me to run a train and also run the race cars.

I moved to the Atlanta area in 1996 and was recruited to become an NMRA member in 1999.  I later became the SER Secretary and then NMRA Assistant Secretary and in 2012 the NMRA Secretary.

The NMRA Secretary has a number of duties.  The first is to prepare the BOD Meeting Consent Agenda Package.  This process starts 75 days prior to the meeting and is completed when the package is forwarded to the Leadership Team no less than 20 days prior to the meeting. 

The second duty is to prepare the Minutes of the BOD Meetings.  This process involves taking notes during the meetings and then within 20 days of the completion of the meeting or the Annual Banquet forwarding the draft minutes to the BOD.  Over the next couple of weeks the minutes go through a number of revisions until the Final Minutes are completed.  The minutes then go through an approval process with the BOD and then they are posted to the website.

The third duty involves the EHB.  The BOD usually makes amendments to the EHB during the BOD Meeting.  Once the Final Minutes have been approved, I amend my version of the EHB and then forward it to the IT Team so that they can be posted on the website.

Although these duties are all important, I think my most important duty is overseeing the elections.  The nine BOD members, the President, and the two Vice Presidents all have three year terms. (The Secretary and the CFO are appointed positions).  Every year there are at least three positions that are up for election.  It takes approximately 15 months from the time I start soliciting for Nominating Committee Chairs until the process has been completed and the election results are announced.

If you have any questions about any of the Secretary duties, please contact me at snevets4@bellsouth.net.       

If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer.  You will find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in the NMRA Magazine

If the person holding a region or division office changes, or their email address changes, please contact me at tcdraider@aol.com with the corrected information.

Regards,

Tom Draper – HLM, DSA, FA, MSA, PA

Director – Support Services