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Amherst Railroad Hobby Show |
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The question is, does the Chapter need to have space, or can we go on meeting at the Amtrak Station. According to Bill Brigham, we are welcome to hold our meetings at the
station so long as he is there, and our meeting does not conflict with the train schedule. Having the station available has been a big help to us, and we should all be thankful to Bill for making this
happen. It would certainly be nice to have space, but until we have the funds to do this, and a real necessity, it is not a possibility. During the restoration of the Engine, it may be necessary to find
suitable storage space, or work space for components of the engine. The cost would then be covered by the Town of Hartford through the grant. If cold storage is used, it may not be suitable for our meetings.
I believe that the Chapter has to set a goal for 1999 and budget our funds to meet the goal. At present, the Chapter has annual income of roughly $500 comprised of $320 for memberships (after the NRHS portion)
for the Newsletter, $150 per year from the meeting raffles, and the rest from sale of the new hats. We spend about $20 per month on the Newsletter and postage leaving us with about $300 per year to spend unless we
develop other sources of income.
Sales of NRHS merchandise at Glory Days and at the Amherst show should be limited because we are competing against the 494 Restoration Committee, which also needs money. Town of
Hartford paid the fee for the Amherst table and will be organizing fund raising and merchandise sales at the table.
John and I came up with several ideas for sources of income for the Chapter. 1) Video
Library. Members would allow their videos to be rented for $2 per month to be spilt with the chapter. 2) Engine 494 post cards, would sell for $.50 and have an $.18 profit. It would cost about $600 to have 2,000
printed. 3) Model Auction, have members donate railroad items and have an auction. 4) Hats, we have 18 of the Manchester number plate hats left and can order more when sold.
You may have other ideas for
fund raising for the chapter and we'd be glad to hear about them, but please get all the facts and numbers. Several people have come to me with concepts of ways to make money for |
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Engine 494 restoration committee will have a table at the Amherst Railway Society show at the Eastern States Exposition Grounds, West Springfield, Mass. Sat. & Sun Jan. 30th &
31st. open 9am to 5 pm. Nearly 4 1/2 acres of Railroading. Volunteers are needed for the tables, car pooling will be arranged closer to the dates of the show. Admission will be free for those who sign-up to
work the table. Let Barry Page know what date you plan on attending, otherwise admission is $6, or $1 for children.
New Chapter Members:
Robert W. Emerson of Boston, Mass. joined the Chapter this
month. Robert is also a member of the Boston Chapter. Jay Barrett of Ely, VT has also signed up for NRHS membership. We welcome you both to the chapter!
Remember that new NRHS memberships received between
Sept. 1st and Dec. 31st are effective for the remainder of '98, and all of '99.
Richard Borkowski of Bethlehem, NH sent a letter to say that he is interested in the possibility of a Railroad Museum in
Vermont, and offered to help with construction of an HO scale layout . He suggested purchase of the WRJ CV roundhouse as a permanent site. His address is P.O. Box 12, Bethlehem NH 03574 if you would like to
contact him about these ideas. A copy of the Newsletter will be sent to Richard.
Permanent Site:
The topic of a permanent site was briefly discussed at the October meeting with John's mention of the
space available at ProCam. Working out the numbers, we would need to come up with roughly $250 per month for the space, which has no facilities. A monthly rent payment is out of the scope of our organization at
this point seeing as how we have about $500 in the NRHS account after 3 1/2 years.
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