Shed Notices

This is directed at the minority of members who have no so far renewed their membership of the Association for the year to end February 2016: please can you do so ASAP.

If you’ve lost your renewal paperwork please contact me at membership@16mm.org.uk. If you still have an invitation to renew on-line then you can still use this, otherwise please send a cheque to me or the Renewal Secretary on your renewal paperwork.

I will be processing renewals in person at our coming show but I will be on my own as Carol has other duties, so there is likely to be a queue. I also have other duties from 13:00 onward so renewals in person will close and not reopen after this time. I’m not looking to other resource to do this because it seems to me that members will by the time of the show have had six weeks in which to make their renewal, which is surely sufficient time. The fact that 80% of the membership have already renewed would tend to support this.

If you’d prefer to enjoy the show rather than wait for me to process your renewal on the day then please, send it in now.

Thanks in advance.

Alan Regan, membership@16mm.org.uk

I’m pleased to advise that mailing of February’s publications, namely SMT, Bulletin, the Annual Report, the National Garden Railway Show Guide, Prize Draw raffle tickets and the 2015 DVD, starts today when Royal Mail collects 3,961 individual packages from our mailing house in Shrewsbury. UK addresses will start receiving the package from tomorrow onward; overseas deliveries will take somewhat longer and the delivery timeframe varies considerably by country. Congratulations to Gareth Jones on getting his first SMT out on time but thanks also to everyone else on the Board, who have one way or another contributed to this huge mailing. Thanks also to Kevin Steele, who has compiled the DVD, unfortunately for the last time as he has decided after many years service to step down from this role.

The reverse side of the address carrier sheet used to mail the package contains renewal information. If you’ve already renewed on-line (nearly 2,000 of you have), then it simply confirms that your membership is current to 28th February 2016 and that you don’t need to do anything else. If you need to renew then please follow the instructions on the reverse of the sheet. If you have already received an on-line renewal invitation then you can still use it but please don’t ask to be added at this stage as to do so is a manual process which I’d sooner avoid when I’m knee deep in envelopes and cheques. Tell me later in the year and I’ll alter your preference for 2016. Please also note that Diane Sutton and Edward Hodson are again helping with renewals so if your paperwork asks you to send your payment to them, please do as requested.

Page 55 of Bulletin provides details of advance entry ticket purchase. Thanks to Geoff and Christine Lumsdon for managing this. You can also buy advance entry tickets on-line if you wish – they’re the same price and over 50 people have already ordered over 100 tickets this way. It’s simple, secure and quick – why don’t you give it a try? Here’s the link: https://www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk/tickets/

Finally, I’m sure many of you will wonder when the Festiniog Guide will be published. I expect this to be in the next six weeks but when a firm date is available I’ll make another post to Shed Notices.

Alan Regan, membership@16mm.org.uk

A brief update on the Festiniog Guide: unfortunately Andrew Charman’s paid work (railway and motoring journalism) is having to take priority, alongside supporting the handover of SMT Editorship to Gareth Jones, and we regret that it will be late March at the earliest before the guide appears.

Meanwhile, the final elements of our February mailing (comprising SMT, Bulletin, Show Guide, Annual Report & Accounts, along with this year’s members’ DVD, and tickets for the Prize Draw at the show) should go to press today; a further update on progress with printing and mailing will follow soon.

Over 1,200 members have renewed their subscription in the last four days, which represents 51% of those invited to renew. This is 200 more renewals or 5% more of those invited than at the same time last year. I’ve not been made aware of any failed renewal links (there had been a number by this time last year) and I’m sure that this and members’ familiarity with the process is leading to more rapid renewals.

My apologies to the many members who written back to me confirming their renewal or making positive comments on the process. I’ve had over 90 of these and whilst I greatly appreciate positive feedback, unfortunately I don’t have the bandwidth to respond to you all. Fewer than 20 renewal invitations (that’s less than 1%) have been returned with email address unknown, so if you haven’t yet received yours yet, please email membership@16mm.org.uk and I’ll try to help. Keep those renewals flowing!

Alan Regan, membership@16mm.org.uk

I’ve initiated the annual electronic renewal process using a credit or debit card via PayPal today. Invitations are being sent out in batches so if you haven’t received yours yet, please wait until the end of today as there are more than 2,400 to send out.

A major improvement this year is provision of a shortened, personalised link to take you to PayPal. This is via a newly implemented secure area of the Association’s web site and will avoid the problems experienced by some members in previous years where the link became truncated or garbled. It’s been implemented without the need for any additional mouse clicks on your part. Thanks to Richard Huss for sorting this out.

If you have any problems please email me and I’ll do my best to help but equally please recognise that with so many renewals in process my response might take a short while.

Alan Regan, membership@16mm.org.uk

I am sure that those who attend the annual National Garden Railway Show are impressed by the organisation which goes into making the day a success. So if you would like to make your contribution to make this year’s show even better by volunteering to be one of the team of Stewards, then please contact me.

We need Stewards to help with the setting up on Friday 10th April, as well as with the running on Saturday 11th April. and, for the most dedicated, helping with the clearing of the Arena after the show.

So ..if you would like to be part of the show this year, please let me know, even if you have volunteered in previous years. I can let you have details of the particular Stewarding duties available.

Thanks,

Paul Kidger, stewarding@16mm.org.uk

As handover of SMT editorship from Andrew Charman to Suzanne Bradley progressed, it became clear that the role would need a greater familiarity with the software used to lay the magazine out than had initially been recognised.

Gareth Jones (Webmaster), as a regular user of the software concerned, already has these skills. The decision has therefore been taken, fully acceptable to all involved, that Gareth take over as SMT editor and that Suzanne retain her role as Bulletin Editor. Gareth is now preparing February SMT and Suzanne is likewise preparing February Bulletin.

Richard Huss will provide support to Gareth as required with web work and the need for further support in this area will be reviewed at the board meeting at the end of this month. Richard’s key projects associated with the show, on-line sales of advance entry ticket and design of the new Show web site are complete and content population is in progress, so this change does not compromise these activities.

A further announcement on mailing timelines for the February issues will be made in due course.