Shed Notices

I’m pleased to advise that good progress has been made with the display shelving to be used at the forthcoming National Garden Railway Show at the Peterborough Arena on Saturday 8^th April.  The images show the first unit complete, with and without shelves.  The units are collapsible and will be stored in the Association’s secure container between shows, to guarantee availability for future shows.

The uprights, back and front members slot together and the shelves clip in place for rapid assembly.  The resultant units are light enough to be moved in built-up form, but very rigid due to the interlock of the various components.  The material used is 18mm and 15mm birch ply, some of which was laser cut and some machined prior to delivery.  An unobtrusive means to attach models to the display is being implemented, primarily for security reasons.

A total of eight units have now been constructed.  All of the uprights and half of the shelves have been varnished.  The remainder will be completed next week and moved to Peterborough prior to the show.  Six units will provide the 16mm Landmarks Display (total 96 feet of display area) and two units will be provide to Member to Member sales (16 feet of display area) to make it easier for members to see what is on offer.

So, if you fancy seeing your 16mm Landmark model in this display, contact Alan Finch (alan.finch@16mm.org.uk) to discuss the matter.  There’s still some space, but when it’s gone it’s gone!

Finally, thanks to Ted Robinson and Chris Holmes who created the design and sourced the materials.  We’ve worked together in my garage to assemble the units and I can gradually discern the floor again.  Thanks also to my wife Carol who has varnished all the shelves to date (hopefully this Shout Out will encourage her to do the rest :-)).

Alan Regan, Chairman and Membership Secretary

A small number of members (less than 30) have reported problems with their DVD, either failure to read at all or failure to read all tracks.  A sample of faulty DVDs have been analysed by the replication factory and have been found to be physically damaged.  The damage may not be visible to the naked eye but will have occurred in transit, most probably as a result of an attempt to fold the package in which they were delivered.

The DVDs were tack glued at Warners by machine to the front cover of Bulletin and the DVD was not visible through the foil.  This was intentional but may have been inadvisable as anyone handling the package will have been unaware of the contents.  I collected a quantity of DVDs from Warners and personally tested over 20 DVDs at random.  None exhibited any problems, which reinforces my view that the DVDs received by Warners were in good condition.

Please can I therefore ask members to test their DVD within the next 10 days and report any issues to Warners.  Replacements are available, but the Association will incur a cost for every one supplied, so please don’t request one just in case yours is faulty, do test it first.  Warners will inform me of any replacements made.  If sufficient DVDs need replacement, a further supply will be arranged from the replication supplier, but I need to know now how many to order, hence the request to test your DVD as soon as possible.

Warners can be emailed at 16mmNGM@warnersgroup.co.uk or phoned on 01778 392016.  Telephone lines are open 8 am – 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am – 5pm on Saturdays.  Please quote your membership number or post code when you contact them.

Alan Regan, Chairman & Membership Secretary

In response to questions regarding the possibility of renewing membership at the Arena on 8^th April, I can confirm that it will be possible between 09:00 when the Atrium opens and 13:00 when I depart to prepare for the Annual General Meeting. Renewals will be accepted in cash or cheque in Pounds Sterling drawn on a UK bank. Members wanting to renew using a credit or debit card need to do so directly with Warners as the Association cannot process these payments at the show. I do however encourage members to renew in advance using one of the various methods the Association has put in place. Surely spending your time enjoying our fantastic 40^th anniversary show is better than queuing to make a payment which could so easily have been made in advance.

Alan Regan, Chairman & Membership Secretary

Updated 3 March 2017:

Pre-orders for clothing have now closed. If you placed an order Rod will be in touch shortly to update you on the price and pre-payment arrangements for those that want to “click and collect”.

A small selection of the clothing and other items will be available to buy over the counter at the Association sales stand on Market Street at the National Garden Railway Show.

Following the recent Board meeting it has been decided there will be a selection of Association branded clothing available to buy at the National Garden Railway Show from a dedicated Association stand on Market Street.

In order to firm up prices I could do with an indication of likely demand ….

• Short sleeved Polo shirts Navy, Burgundy or Bottle green – Estimated price £15 each
• Long sleeved fleece, same selection of colours – Estimated price £20 each
• Potentially long sleeved sweat shirts if there is any demand (price to be confirmed)

All branded with a 16mm NGM 40th Anniversary logo in the left breast position
Sizes: Medium, Large, XL, XXL (other sizes if pre-ordered & may be a different price)
Base garment by “Fruit of the Loom”
Sorry but no personalisation (i.e.: your name / railway name) will be possible

• Baseball caps with the standard logo, potentially in green, navy or burgundy depending on demand – estimated price £5

If you want to express interest / pre-order drop me an email to publicity@16mm.org.uk with your requirements which can then be bagged up and ready for payment (cash or cheque) and collection on the 8th April.

Please note that it is not the intention to return to offering a mail order service; this will be a one off chance to buy at the show.

Rod Nipper, Marketing and Publicity

The emails inviting members to renew their subscriptions online are scheduled to be sent out by Warners on Monday 30^th January.  As usual, these invitations will be sent only to members who have elected to renew online, or who joined online and didn’t take out a Direct Debit at the time.

I’m pleased to advise that the renewal process has been simplified considerably this year.  Each member will receive a bespoke link which will take them to a Web form with their name, membership number, subscription amount and membership type prefilled – note that membership number, subscription amount and membership type cannot be altered.  They will need to enter their billing address, which will be carried forward to the payment screen, use a button on the form to copy billing to mailing address and finally enter the email address to which they want payment verification sent.  Then they’ll click a Buy Now button take them to a secure SagePay payment page accepting Visa and Mastercard, credit, debit, Visa Electron and Maestro.

As usual, a means for each member to verify the authenticity of the mail will be provided – clearly I won’t elaborate here on what this is.

I will continue to work with Warners to develop the renewal process – we will for example look for opportunities to prefill more data where possible.

The process has been tested in a range of environments but clearly we cannot replicate the myriad web browsers and devices in use across the world, so if you have problems, please contact Warners in the first instance and they’ll do their best to help.

Alan Regan, Chairman & Membership Secretary

We are very pleased to announce that the following are the winners of the Association 2016 Christmas Quiz, set by Laurence Smith.

Well done to all of you.

The answers to the quiz have also been published.

Richard Huss, IT Officer

We’ve been able to hold subscription rates at their same level for all categories of member for four years and for UK members for nine years.  Costs rose during this period, but we were able to introduce efficiencies or obtain more competitive prices for key deliverables, so were able to avoid passing them on.  However, we are now facing increases which we cannot absorb.  The paper used to print 16mm Today and Bulletin is sourced in Continental Europe and paid for in Euros.  A weaker Pound means that this costs more now than a year ago.  Mail costs have also increased, driven to some extent by increased fuel costs, which UK residents have seen rise as the Pound has weakened.  The membership rates which we’ve held for so long no longer cover the cost of fulfilling each subscription, so with regret the Board has decided to increase them.

The cost of each membership category rises by £1 from the previous rate as follows:

These rates have been implemented in our web site and in Warners systems and apply from now for new subscriptions and renewals for the 2017/18 membership year.  This change will be communicated to members who renew via Direct Debit in advance, per the Direct Debit terms.  Members who renew online will be requested to renew at these rates via a streamlined renewal process in early February 2017.  Any member who wishes to renew in advance of the normal invitation, which accompanies February SMT, may do so by contacting Warners on 01778 392016 (outside the UK: +44 1778 392016). Lines are open 8 am – 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am – 5pm on Saturdays and Bank Holidays (UK time), excluding Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

The Board feels that membership of the Association continues to be very competitively priced compared with other societies supporting garden railway scales.  16mm Today, at 76 pages per issue, compares very favourably on a per issue basis with commercial offerings covering the garden scales.  The Board hopes that this small increase will not put members off renewing and that they will continue to view membership of the Association as good value for money.

Alan Regan, Chairman & Membership Secretary

It’s nearly Christmas, so it must be time for the 16mm Association Christmas Quiz! This year, Show Director Laurence Smith has become our quizmaster.

The quiz can be found at https://www.16mm.org.uk/christmas-quiz/ and is open to both members and non-members of the Association. Even if you only know one or two answers you stand a chance of winning 16mm Association membership for 2017.

The following prizes will be awarded:

• Entry with the most correct answers: A Summerlands Chuffer for your locomotive and a year’s Association membership
• 2nd place: A Summerlands Chuffer
• Randomly selected entry: A year’s Association membership

Many thanks to Chris Bird of Summerlands Chuffers for kindly donating two of his ‘Chuffers’ as prizes again this year.

Entries must be submitted by midnight on December 31st 2016.

Richard Huss, IT Officer

Well, here it is! Having started work in earnest after last year’s National Garden Railway Show, the new Association web site has gone live today. The new site designed to work much better on the increasing variety of mobile and tablet devices in use today: just over 30% of visitors to the show web site use a tablet or a mobile phone. Whilst the content has been significantly reorganised, everything that was on the old site is still there, and any old links and bookmarks should redirect you to the right place. We hope you enjoy looking around, and perhaps discovering content you had not spotted before or had forgotten about.

One area of the web site where we are reliant on the membership is in submissions for Model of the Month feature. We love to showcase our members’ work and models, so if you have a model that you would like to write about for a future month then please contact me at webmaster@16mm.org.uk.

Richard Huss, IT Officer