Happy New Year Everyone! I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Now we can all step back and get back into our normal daily routines. Maybe the weather will be a bit nicer this month so we can run trains on our outdoor layouts. Between the cold, wind, and rain last month, I never had the chance to run my trains outdoors. I was finally able to run my trains when the track went up under the Christmas tree. Over the years I’ve been able to leave the track up in the living room until after Easter. It’s easy to convince my wife to allow it to stay up that long when we have an Easter Eggliner and a few Easter cars.
I want to give a big “Thank You” to all the members that volunteered their time to our displays at our Brookside Gardens and Fairfax Station. We were able to provide coverage for the days that Brookside Gardens was open. There were a few times when people had to step in at the last moment and I appreciate everyone who was able to do that. If you weren’t able to docent this time, please consider it for this coming year. I know that the day Mark and I were docents, the day went by very quickly.
I also want to say “Thank You” to all the members that assisted Arnie at the National Capital Trolley Museum. This was not an official WVMGRS event, but several members are also museum members. The museum asked the members to set up a display and run trains, and trolleys, over the course of three weekends last month. I know that many of those members also volunteered at Brookside Gardens.
From what has been reported to me, all three events were a success. Hopefully we will be able to gain some new members from them.
Now to get into this month’s events. We do have a lot going on for it being January. We have the teardown of the Brookside Gardens display. I will be there all weekend to assist. Maybe we can get the same number of members to help the first weekend of the teardown as we did the first weekend that we set up the display. If we do, then it won’t take us very long to get everything packed up. If you have some spare time, I’m sure that Jeff would appreciate your help.
We also have elections coming up soon and we are still looking for someone to fill the Secretary position. If you are interested or have questions about the position, please reach out to any of the Board Members. We would love to talk you into, I mean, discuss what the responsibilities of the position entail.
Then we have a very busy weekend coming up very soon. On January 14th we have our annual Holiday Party. I want to thank Elaine for organizing this dinner for us. Then the following day we will have a club meeting and Fairfax Station hosted by Jeff and Joyce. Unfortunately, we start our annual winter vacation that weekend so I will not be able to attend either event. I look forward to seeing the pictures and stories.
Now for some club related business. If anyone is interested in assisting with any of the committees, please reach out to that committee chairperson. Many of our members heading those committees have been in those positions for a very long time and though they don’t plan to leave that position, they could use some assistance. Remember we’re all volunteers and we all have other commitments, but we want to keep this club at the level that it is accustomed to operating at.
This year will be a busy one for the club. With monthly meetings, Fun Runs, and events we will be seeing a lot of one another. I know that there are some members that I have not met yet since I’ve been the acting President but look forward to seeing you this year.
Once again, Happy New Year!
George