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Good discussion all around. I realize that people have varying budgets and perceptions. But those of you who have never been behind the scenes in planning a meeting or convention often do not realize how much it costs to put one on. The real money for a not-for-profit meeting such as this one, is being made by the venue, not the NMRA. Having been involved (although not my main job) over the years in planning and budgeting a number of business conventions large and small, you folks should know that the NMRA (with which, to be clear, I have no affiliation) will write a very substantial check to the venue. $150 for a convention of this length is a real bargain in my view. Although the $50 day rate is a bit steep for a hobby-oriented show, it is good business practice to price the day rates high enough so that people don't have an incentive to do a lot of cherry-picking, and I have no problem with that. Let's face it, unless you live in the Philadelphia area, your transportation, lodging and meals costs will be several multiples of the convention fee. And it is those expenses that have so far prevented me from justifying attendance. Once the kids are out of college ... On a separate topic, great comments about layout tours. I've had the good fortune to visit a number of layouts. My very first take-away was, wow, in terms of progress and appearance, my own layout ain't that bad after all! Second, I've never yet seen a "flawless" priavte layout in terms of operation. Excellent ops, yes; flawless, no - another real encouragement in terms of the operating qualities of my own layout. I often read claims of "flawless" operation, so maybe they do exist - or maybe they have a different definition of "flawless". I've seen two flawless public layouts but they have no elevation changes and no working turnouts, and also no doubt involve a lot of behind-the-scenes and after-hours maintenance to keep them "flawless". But thirdly and perhaps most important, I've always come away with at least one good idea.
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