10-29-2010, 06:28 PM
Tetters,
It does look like a nice club, and it would appear there's some talent in the membership (especially a talented photographer!). But 60 zorts a month is a big chunk of change... especially since you've got your own layout.
I would ask myself "What am I going to get from this club membership that I can't get at home (or for $720/year)?"
Now me, as I get older, I find I play less and less well with others. I'm turning into an opinionated sod. That is, over the many years I've been model railroading, I've developed a set of standards and expectations. My experience with most clubs is that they are defined by the lowest common denominator. The work tends to be set to a moderate or low level so that everyone's comfortable and not overwhelmed by standards. Being the rivet-counting snob that I am, this makes me itch.
For me, the only reasons I'd likely join a club now are to a) run larger trains than my layout could handle; b) operate trains in a prototypical fashion with car-forwarding and rail traffic control, or c) if the group had set standards and practices that met my modelling comfort level.
Clubs are great places, and populated by great people. The social aspect of joining a club can be well worth the dues alone. On the other hand, I've found (as I demonstrate my crotchety old man-ed-ness) that in _any_ club, it's a rare case indeed when 10% of the membership isn't doing 90% of the work. Having spent far too much time in that 10%, I now subscribe to Groucho Marx's maxim that I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member.
It does look like a nice club, and it would appear there's some talent in the membership (especially a talented photographer!). But 60 zorts a month is a big chunk of change... especially since you've got your own layout.
I would ask myself "What am I going to get from this club membership that I can't get at home (or for $720/year)?"
Now me, as I get older, I find I play less and less well with others. I'm turning into an opinionated sod. That is, over the many years I've been model railroading, I've developed a set of standards and expectations. My experience with most clubs is that they are defined by the lowest common denominator. The work tends to be set to a moderate or low level so that everyone's comfortable and not overwhelmed by standards. Being the rivet-counting snob that I am, this makes me itch.
For me, the only reasons I'd likely join a club now are to a) run larger trains than my layout could handle; b) operate trains in a prototypical fashion with car-forwarding and rail traffic control, or c) if the group had set standards and practices that met my modelling comfort level.
Clubs are great places, and populated by great people. The social aspect of joining a club can be well worth the dues alone. On the other hand, I've found (as I demonstrate my crotchety old man-ed-ness) that in _any_ club, it's a rare case indeed when 10% of the membership isn't doing 90% of the work. Having spent far too much time in that 10%, I now subscribe to Groucho Marx's maxim that I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member.