Shed Notices

The August mailing of SMT and Bulletin is scheduled for collection by Royal Mail from Warners Midlands in Bourne later this week. The entire mailing to UK and overseas members will be collected at the same time. Mailing to UK members is First Class. There are no significant mail delays at the time of writing. Information for the UK can be found here.

Mailing to overseas members is by Air Mail. There may be small delays to non-UK mailings. Further information regarding mailing to addresses outside the UK can be found here.

SMT and Bulletin will be available on our Members Site from 09:00 on Saturday 12^th August. If you haven’t received an invitation to activate your account on the site, or can’t find it, please email members.site@16mm.org.uk providing your surname, membership number and post code and we’ll send an invitation as soon as we can.

Many thanks go to our new editors for both magazines; Mick Blowfield for SMT and Richard Huss (for Bulletin). Thanks to them for getting their magazines out on time, and to all the members who contributed to them. Your input is as welcome as it is critical to the editors being able to present varied and interesting magazines. I hope you enjoy what I’m sure will again be an enjoyable read.

Tom Rowland, Membership Secretary

If you’re interested in purchasing one of the WrightScale Wrens listed in this month’s bulletin, please contact the association secretary at company.secretary@16mm.org.uk.

The May mailing of SMT and Bulletin is scheduled for collection by Royal Mail from Warners Midlands in Bourne later this week.  The entire mailing to UK and overseas members will be collected at the same time. Mailing to UK members is First Class.  There are no mail delays at the time of writing.  Information for the UK can be found here.

Mailing to overseas members is by Air Mail. There may be small delays to non-UK mailings.  Further information regarding mailing to addresses outside the UK can be found here.

SMT and Bulletin will be available on our Members Site from 09:00 on Saturday 13th May.  If you haven’t received an invitation to activate your account on the site, or can’t find it, please email members.site@16mm.org.uk providing your surname, membership number and post code and we’ll send an invitation as soon as we can.

Thanks to editors Gareth Jones (SMT) and Mick Blowfield (Bulletin) for getting their magazines out on time, and to all the members who contributed to them.  Your input is as welcome as it is critical to the editors being able to present varied and interesting magazines.  I hope you enjoy what I’m sure will again be an enjoyable read.

Tom Rowland, Membership Secretary

Despite our best efforts, catering at the National Show in June 2022 fell well short of what we wanted and had arranged, so Carol and I have been working with the Arena to get it right this year.  We’ve been working with Michelle Sergeant from Abbots Catering, who is Head of Sales and responsible for the catering services supplied to the Arena.  We’ve met with her twice, last year and a few weeks ago as we finalised preparations.  She’s provided us with the menu below and assures us that lessons have been learned.  Clearly the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, but I’d like to share a few things with you as you prepare for your visit to the Arena.  Our catering offer on Saturday will include:

• A full English 8-piece breakfast available in the Peterborough Suite from 07:30 until 10:30.
• A hot lunch available in the Peterborough Suite from 11:30 until 14:00.  There will be four meal options including a vegetarian option.
• Bacon and sausage rolls available from both the inside and outside catering units.  Make it Meat, which was positively received in the past, is back again.
• Two payment positions in the Peterborough Suite – last year there was just one and this created a bottleneck.
• For coffee lovers, we’ll have two Baristas to rustle up the coffee of your choice.

The full menu is as follows:

• Bacon Roll (inside and Make it Meat outside) – £5.00
• Bacon and Sausage Roll (inside and Make it Meat outside) – £6.00
• Tea – £2.50
• Coffee – £3.00 filter (12oz), £3.70 for specialty (8oz)
• Sausage Roll – £3.00
• Pork Roll – £6.00
• Vegan Pasty – £4.00
• Sandwiches -£3.50
• Crisps – £1.30
• Muffins – £2.80
• Full English – 8 Pieces – 2 Bacon, 1 Sausage, Scrambled Egg, Toast, Beans, 1 Hash Browns and Mushrooms – £9.50 (does not include Tea and Coffee)
• Fish, chips and mushy peas – £12.50
• Beef steak and vegetable pie – £12.50
• Chicken with mushrooms in a tarragon cream sauce – £12.50
• Grilled vegetables and spinach pasta bake with Garlic bread (vegetarian option) – £12.50

In addition, the bar adjacent to the Peterborough Suite will serve alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

We think that this represents a sea change from last year and hope that you’ll find something to tickle your fancy.

Alan & Carol Regan, part of the Show Organising Team

Further to my Shed Notice on 2^nd February, I’m pleased to announce that a venue for the 2024 National Garden Railway Show has been selected and a contract signed.  The show will return to Hall 2 at the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh, near Coventry, on Saturday 27^th April 2024.

Six venues were evaluated both in terms of the facilities that they offered and the number of members, as at January 2023, that lived within a two-and-a-half-hour drive of the venue.  Hall 2 at the NAEC is, at 4,500 square meters, within a few square metres of the Main Hall at the Peterborough Arena.  It has an attached, dedicated catering area, Stroller’s Restaurant, big enough to accommodate 200 visitors.  A light and airy atrium provides access to the restaurant, toilets and main hall and will be used for ticket sales/verification before visitors access the main hall.  The main hall has vehicular access, so helpful during setup and tear down.  There is a hotel and further restaurant onsite, in easy walking distance of Hall 2.  The site also has abundant free parking.  We plan to provide a shuttle bus from Coventry station, subject to demand for the equivalent facility at this year’s show demonstrating a continuing need.

The venues evaluated captured between 47% and 64% of members in a two-and-a-half-hour driving time envelope.  The two with the highest capture rate, both 64%, are sadly unsuitable for different reasons.  The NAEC at Stoneleigh captures 61% of members in the drive time envelope, the second highest in our evaluation.  This improves slightly on 58% for the Arena at Peterborough.  Alan Regan, who performed the evaluations, will in the May issue of SMT elaborate on the selection criteria and process and share the data which the Board used to make their decision.

The 2024 show will be quite different to the eleven shows we’ve held at the Peterborough Arena.  All exhibits and attractions will be in the same hall, including MoTY, Member to Member Sales and the Grand Draw.  The AGM will be held in a large ,dedicated space off the main hall, so that we can confirm eligibility to vote at the AGM and not be disturbed by noise from the main hall.  The layout of the NAEC is different to the Arena but Hall Planner Gary Smith has already confirmed that we can get all the established components of our show into the space available.

The move to the NAEC opens a new chapter in the long history of the Association’s annual large gatherings.  I look forward to welcoming you to our new look show in 2024.

Alan Finch, Chairman

The first part of this post applies to those who pay their subscription by Direct Debit:

The claim will be made on Wednesday 1st March and the claimant is Warners Group Publications, who provide this service on the Association’s behalf.  If you use internet banking you can verify that the claim has been successful by reviewing your account.  My thanks to the many members who have taken out new Direct Debits this year.  You may not see the claim for this year’s subscription until 1st April, depending on how early in February you completed your renewal.

The remainder of this post applies to those who have not yet renewed their subscription:

Reminders will be sent out on Wednesday to those for whom we store an email address.

Please take just a few moments to read the instructions provided before clicking the relevant link in the email.  The instructions are divided into three sections.  The first section is for members who have joined online or renewed online in the past, the second is for those who haven’t used the online renewal system in the past, and the last is for members who wish to renew over the phone or by cheque.

If you renew online, depending on the screen size you use, you may need to scroll down to find the renewal option that you want.  Please also pay particular attention to what you select.  If you see a NEW subscription in your shopping basket as opposed to a subscription RENEWAL, you will pay £3 extra to renew for the coming year.  Please go back, empty your basket, review the instructions and start again.  Remember also that you can change the type of membership subscription if what you’ve had in the past no longer meets your needs.  You can also take out a Direct Debit to renew your subscription if you wish.

Finally, and this primarily affects members renewing from outside the UK, if you try to renew with a debit card and it fails, please try using a credit card.  We are obliged to implement secure anti-fraud measures, called 3D Secure, and I have received feedback that a small number of overseas members are having issues with their payment being processed.  If you have issues renewing your membership online please contact me at membership@16mm.org.uk and I’ll arrange for Warners to phone you to take your payment.

If you have queries or difficulty, please contact Warners at 16mmNGM@warnersgroup.co.uk or at the phone number in the email.  If after two working days you haven’t received or aren’t satisfied with the response, please contact me at membership@16mm.org.uk.

Tom Rowland, Membership Secretary

The February mailing of SMT and Bulletin is scheduled for collection by Royal Mail from Warners Midlands in Bourne later this week.  The entire mailing to UK and overseas members will be collected at the same time. Mailing to UK members is First Class.  There are no mail delays at the time of writing.  Information for the UK can be found here.

Mailing to overseas members is by Air Mail.  Royal Mail services continue to recover from the recent cyber incident and there may be small delays to non-UK mailings.  Further information regarding mailing to addresses outside the UK can be found here.

SMT and Bulletin will be available on our Members Site from 09:00 on Saturday 11^th February.  If you haven’t received an invitation to activate your account on the site, or can’t find it, please email members.site@16mm.org.uk providing your surname, membership number and post code and we’ll send an invitation as soon as we can.

This mailing is unusually heavy, as it includes the Show Guide, Annual Report and Draw Tickets along with SMT and Bulletin.  We’ve been unable to send the first three to members overseas, to keep the weight under 500 grams.  Customs arrangements arising from the UK’s exit from the EU require additional processes for overseas mailings exceeding 500 grams and due to the infrequency of such mailings, Warners don’t have these in place with Royal Mail.  The Annual Report and Show Guide will be published to our Members Site concurrent with SMT and Bulletin.  If any overseas member requires paper copies, please contact me at membership@16mm.org.uk and I’ll make arrangements to get them to you.  We’re only able to accept payment for Draw Tickets by cheque or money order in Pounds Sterling drawn on a UK financial institution, but if you’re an overseas member with access to this facility and want to participate in the draw, please contact me for tickets.

Thanks to George Sheppard for arranging the draw tickets, editors Gareth Jones (SMT), Dave Gordon (Bulletin and the Show Guide) and Mike Riley (Annual Report) for getting their publications out on time, and to all the members who contributed to them.  Your input as ever is very welcome and critical to the editors being able to present varied and interesting content.  I hope you enjoy what I’m sure will as always be an enjoyable read.

Tom Rowland, Membership Secretary

You may be aware that redevelopment of the area surrounding the Peterborough Arena is planned, to create significant leisure development, alongside new homes, open space sports pitches, a school and other facilities.  Today we have been advised by Arena management that this plan is being accelerated and brought forward, meaning that events scheduled after 1^st July 2023 will not go ahead, and that the Arena exhibition space, which the plans retain, is likely to be unavailable for some time.  This change does NOT in any way affect the running of the 2023 National Show, scheduled for April 15^th.  The Association has started looking for an alternative venue for the 2024 show and will share its findings as soon as possible.  If a suitable venue can be found, which is our aim, the 2024 National Show will go ahead in its normal April timeframe.

Our show on April 15^th will therefore be the last for the foreseeable future at the current venue.  We go out on a high, with more layouts and more space dedicated to layouts than ever before.  70 traders and societies are attending the show and all available exhibition space is now occupied, though not I should stress at the expense of visitor circulation space or the show’s usual attractions, line the Landmarks Display, MoTY and Member to Member Sales.  If you’ve been putting off attending, wait no longer because next year we’ll be somewhere different.

Alan Finch, Chairman

Invitations to renew your subscription for the membership year commencing 1st March 2023 are scheduled to be sent by email on Monday 30th January.  You will be sent an invitation unless:

• You have joined the Association since 1st December 2022, have already renewed your subscription or pay your subscription by Direct Debit (i.e. you do not need to manually renew at this time)
• You have indicated that you do not wish to renew your subscription
• We do not have a valid email address stored against your membership record

If you wish to act on the invitation, please take time to read the instructions provided, which are divided into three sections.  The first is for members who have joined online or renewed online in the past, the second is for those who haven’t used the online renewal system in the past and now wish to do so, and the last is for members who wish to renew by phone.  If you want to renew by cheque please wait for February Bulletin, due for publication on Saturday 11th February, which will contain full renewal instructions.  These will be on page three.

Please pay particular attention to the renewal option you select.  If you see a NEW subscription in your shopping basket as opposed to a subscription RENEWAL, you will pay £3 extra to renew for the coming year.  Please go back, empty your basket and start again.  Every year a small number of new subscriptions are taken out which were intended as renewals, creating extra work the Association and the renewals team at Warners, as well as extra cost to the purchaser.  Remember also that you can change the type of membership subscription if what you’ve had in the past no longer meets your needs.  You can also take out a Direct Debit to renew your subscription if you wish.

If you have queries or difficulty, please contact Warners at 16mmNGM@warnersgroup.co.uk or by phone number on 01778 392016 (outside the UK call 00 44 1778 392016).  Likewise, if you expect to but don’t receive an invitation, please contact Warners.  We’re unable to send out invitations ourselves.  If after two working days you haven’t received or aren’t satisfied with the response, please contact me at membership@16mm.org.uk.

Tom Rowland, Membership Secretary