I was all ready. Membership form filled in, gas in the truck for the drive, loco's boxed up ready for first ever club meeting. Then I read the fine print. It's how much per month for the club dues? This is a mis-print right?
Now I will not go and bash the club. Someday I will be able to afford such an endeavour. But right now the "a coffee a day" cost is just too much. Gas prices seem to be rising again thanks to a hurricane 3,000 miles away, and the home heating oil season is upon us. I contacted the club secretary and he was, if anything, very gracious on the phone. But the dues are what the dues are.
Without creating a post that will turn into a bashing of clubs I'm just curious. What do you pay for your membership in your club? If you could do it all over again, would you?
Club Dues depend on the a couple of items:
o - Building rent/operating cost if the club owns the structure.
o - operational expenses(an if the club is build a new extension to an existing layout).
In my case, the 'club' is about 18 miles away. The 'rent' is $300+/month. And we are building a layout. All of these add up to a lot of 'up front' expenses. Dues are $30/month, and there have been 'assesments' as we need additional materials for the layout construction. I have 'donated' a lot of materials over the past 3 years, and really have no expectation of recovering that money.
What do we have to show for all of this? The layout is is in a 27' by 27' room, has bathrooms, a security system, and great heating/cooling. We now have 12 members, and all of the benchwork/track is laid. The DCC is complete, and about 50% of the scenery is in. I now 'car pool' with a friend once a week to save on fuel expenses.
Nothing is cheap. Some friends who fly R/C were talking about the high cost/shortages of model airplane fuel this summer. They have to drive just as far to the flying field.
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I am a member of 2 HO clubs and 1 N Scale club.
1.HO club is $50.00/year.
2.The second HO club is $120.00/year-payble by year or $10.00/mo..Retirees pay $60.00 or $5.00/mo..Students(15-17) pay $3.00/mo.
3.The N Scale club is $96.00/year or $8.00/mo.Junior members (16-17) $4.00/mo.
Thankfully my dues don't come due at the same time.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I guess the dues would be according to the clubs expenses and the number of it's members.
I'd be happy to pay $10 - $15 for some enjoyable time with other like minded folks in my area. Unfortunately there are no clubs within 100 miles of where I live.
Bob Berger, C.O.O. N-ovation & Northwestern R.R. My patio layout....SEE IT HERE
There's no place like ~/ ;)
At my club we pay $50 in rent (including all utilities) per month, have controlled access, good heat, bathrooms, and storage space. Dues are $10 per month for full members and $6 for associate members.
I look at the cost of this hobby and compare it to when I used to race RC cars. I spend (on average including new stuff) between $10 and $30 per month on this hobby. When I did RC I spent, on average, $50-%75 per week on race fees and parts alone! That doesn't count the 3/4 of a day to go there, gas to get there and back, food while there, and 'stuff' (chairs, tables, etc). It wouldn't be unheard of to break a part in every race or wear something out to the point that you had to rebuild a motor, shock, transmission/diff...sometimes to the tune of $10-$30 per vehicle! FWIW I raced 2 classes per day on average, sometimes 3. When my AC4400s or C44-9Ws make laps on the layout...they aren't ramming walls ( I hope!) or going flat out and wearing parts out. For me it's saved me money (serious amounts!) by getting back into trains. Plus I can get some 'automatic funding' for this hobby by selling off items from the last one.
The other factor for me is that I don't have a basement or space for a layout at my house...so if I didn't have the club I'd not have a place to enjoy this hobby. So...to answer the OPs question yes it's worth it over and over.
Dan
sparkyjay31 wrote: I was all ready. Membership form filled in, gas in the truck for the drive, loco's boxed up ready for first ever club meeting. Then I read the fine print. It's how much per month for the club dues? This is a mis-print right?Now I will not go and bash the club. Someday I will be able to afford such an endeavour. But right now the "a coffee a day" cost is just too much. Gas prices seem to be rising again thanks to a hurricane 3,000 miles away, and the home heating oil season is upon us. I contacted the club secretary and he was, if anything, very gracious on the phone. But the dues are what the dues are.Without creating a post that will turn into a bashing of clubs I'm just curious. What do you pay for your membership in your club? If you could do it all over again, would you?
OK, so a good cup of coffee is about $4-$5. So what are we talking? $1500/year??
I'm not in a club nor do I want to join one, but I would think around $30/month is about what I would be willing to pay if I did join.
I currently play trains with the group that operates once a month and for that I pay $10, which I don't think is bad considering the club will have to move in the near future. This is a home layout built in an 'out building' over the past fifty years. The owner is now in his late eighties and no longer owns the land, but the deal is we, the club, will have six months to move out after he dies, be that tomorrow or three years from now.
If it were a 'regular' home layout once a month I would feel $10 is too much, but in this case we the club need to be saving money to move everything. I believe the plan is to move into some sort of commercial space.
For more than $50 a month I would expect to be able to play trains more than a couple times a month. I would also expect to be allowed to go in and work on stuff whenever I felt like it.
the closest club to me is within walking distance , or a short public transit ride if the weather is bad
i didn't join for 2 reasons
1) they're O scale and everything i have is HO
2) dues were $30 a month several years ago (haven;t checked since)
there are HO clubs around , but they're a long public transit ride away so i haven't even checked out their fees
ernie
Some clubs do charge alot and some don't. I think it depends on what their costs of operations are. It also depends on the size of the club.
I belong to an N-Trak club. We get free space in exchange for making our layout available to people who want to see it and we also do free shows at another facility near where the clubhouse is located. In addition we doing a 3 day show at our facility over the Columbus Day weekend and we charge no admission. We do accept donations but we don't require them.
So how do we raise money? Like many clubs we can take our modules to various shows during the year. We usually get an honorarium (not not tremendous money but it does usually pay for the cost of transporting, setting up and taking down the modules). Since the modules (except for the corners) belong to the various members, the club isn't responsible for repair and maintenance of those modules.
Dues are reasonable at $60 a year plus each of us must help with shows by commiting to be there to both run trains and talk to the various people who come to see our layout and trains. Since I am one of the new guys, I haven't been involved with this yet but come Columbus Day, I will be.
But don't think being part of a club is a one way deal. I've learned more about N-Scale model railroading in the last 3 months than I have in the last 10 years. I've also gotten help with changing new engines to Micro Trains couplers and installing DCC.
Irv
Seems like costs are all over the place. From free to $30 a month. Interesting.
Thanks for the input. I have to admit that I am surprised at the per month cost of some clubs. But now I understand why.
I appreciate the input.
TA462 wrote:My clubs dues are only 5 bucks a month.
$5 a month? Mine was 5 a Night with three meetings a month, $15 a month... Not a lot to most of you, but for someone whose average monthly income averages around $30 in the summer, and even less in the winter, because there aren't any lawns to mow in the winter...
Even without paying the dues, my hobby budget was small enough.
I will say though, the cub was a whole lot of fun, and if it was less ($5 a month maybe?) I'd be willing to join again. I wish there was another way to help the club other than money... Maybe help be a cashier for open houses or clean the layout or something...
Dues for our club are $36/year per member $18/spouse and for each kid between 15 and 18. No kids under 18 without a parent (this has been waived in a couple of instances where the kids were "adult" enough) and kids under 16 on a case by case basis.
Of course we have no permenant layout space. We mooch where we can for test setups, and setups for shows.
For our startup club, it's $10/month. However, we're finding it challenging because the space that we have doesn't necessarily facilitate easy construction and storage of modules.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
The dues at my club are $28 per month. We have 60 members in a 50' x 200' building, and are currently building a 6300 sq. ft. HO layout that's only about 1/3rd complete. Optional lockers cost $20 per year per "unit" (basically, a 12"x12"x24" is a unit...we have some lockers that are 4 times that), and optional internet access is $3 per month. We also have a Coke machine at $1.25 a bottle. We have two train shows a year, one in March and one in October. We also have a club car that sells at a profit to the club. These are our biggest fund raisers for the club.
The town owns the building as we're in a club park, but we're responsible for all maintenance other than the parking lot (which is also used by the park). Therefore, we pay for heat, electricity, phone, internet, building insurance, director & officer's insurance, fire/burglar alarm, incorporation fees, etc. We mow the grass, do the landscaping, replace the flag, shovel the walk, and so on. Fortunately, we're 501(c)3 Not For Profit organization so we don't get taxed, but it's a heavy load we're carrying for bills just to exist.
In addition to all of the above, we also have to save for a new roof, which was installed in 1994 and it's leaking. We don't think we can get a loan as we have no real collateral (because the town owns the building, not us), so we have to pay cash for any major improvements. Besides the roof, that also includes the HVAC systems, one of which is quite large.
So, for $28 per month, what do you get at our club? You get keys, the alarm code and full access to the club, 24-7. You'll also be able to run on one of the largest club layouts around, and get to know 60 other guys that can all become your friends. We have a rather interesting mix of members, everything from: loco engineers, conductors, electricians, carpenters, electrical engineers, insurance men, CPA's, postal workers, motorcycle mechanics, IT guys, hobby shop owners, booksellers, subway electricians, painters, paperhangers, and folks that own their own companies (one of whom is a Tuskeegee airman), et al. But we all share a common interest in model trains.
We also have club trips. We go to Maine every year, have ridden the Acela a couple times, and have been on a dinner train or two. We have club functions like a cookout/pool party every summer and an X-Mas party in December, plus our club gathers for dinner after each train show we hold. And that's not counting our bi-monthly Operation Sessions, or our day before Thanksgiving "Trains 'n' Turkey" gathering to run trains all day.Because I've been a club member, I've gotten to go places and do things I couldn't have dreamed of when I was a kid. I've operated several different kinds of diesel locos, I've gotten cab rides in F40PH's and FL9's. It's been a blast.
So while one does pay a lot, one can also gets a lot, at least from our club.
Paul A. Cutler III************Weather Or No Go New Haven************
I play ice hockey every week.
We go to "winter hours" next week, as Youth Hockey grabs our early prime-time slot. So, we will play from 9:10 until 10:40 every Tuesday night. The cost will be $25 per player, per night.
For this, you get ice time. That's all the money covers. Beer after the game? Sure, bring as much as you want. I provide potato chips (potatoe chips for Dan Quayle) or maybe a stick of pepperoni and some cheese, or tortilla chips and salsa. (I'm a goalie, and by tradition, goalies don't have to pay, because the equipment is very expensive, and you've got to have two goalies to make the game work.)
We ski in the winter, too. Lift tickets are over $70 a day.
Golf? No, I don't think I could deal with the greens fees.
My wife gets "theraputic massages" every couple of weeks. When I come home with an engine and she says, "What did that cost?" I answer, "Two massages." End of topic. (And besides, I've got an engine at the end of the day. All she's got is another appointment.)
So, I don't think these club fees are all that bad in comparison.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Club I belong to just had the dues issue come up last year. Club has been in existance over 30 years. It is located in the basement of a building where the club founders former wife used to work. We pay very, very, very nominal rent (just barely enough to say we are actually paying rent). We are subject to the whim of the building owner, in that should he sell, we can be asked to vacate with little notice. As a matter of fact, the ownership actually did change a few years ago, but we got lucky and were allowed to remain.
The reality is that the club would cease to exist if we had to move to a location where we payed real rent. The rent aside there are other costs including electric, insurance, and maintenance of wear and tear railroad items that amount to a couple thousand dollars a year. This does not include any funding for wish list project items that members might have.
Besides dues, our only other source of income is from our annual open house dates. Admission is by donation, but we don't have any strong-arm type standing at the door to collect. Donations are voluntary...if you don't want to you don't have to. And the number of visitors we get is dependent on the weather, the economy, and the amount of free publicity we manage to get from the local newspapers.
To get back to the dues issue, the officers got together and decided that the members should be paying dues in the amount that would at least balance the club's fixed expenses. This resulted in the dues being doubled. So after 29 years, the dues for a regular member went from $5 to $10 per month. Some of the members had some gas over this, including myself. After all, the cost of "camaraderie and fellowship" will only stretch so far, especially since there is always a certain amount of stress associated with belonging to any democratic organization.
But then, what did the $10 get me? The club meets officially every Tuesday, so the weekly cost is about $2.50. If I go there for an average of 3 hours per Tuesday, the cost is less than 90 cents per hour. Plus I get a key to the premises, which means I can get in any time I like. This reduces the cost per hour further.
If anyone can come up with a group participation hobby that has a lower hourly cost, I'd like to hear what that might be. And I don't want to hear about the price of gasoline either. That's just a collateral cost that exists no matter where you drive to get your kicks. And anyone who actually thinks that paying 4 bucks for a cup of "good" Starbuck's swill should be required to pay tripple dues just for the right to be stupid! (Not you, Lothar. I know you were just being facetious!)
My club dues are $15 month or $165 per year (one month free) if you pay ahead. Initiation dues are $100. The club's layout is open to the public on weekends in exchange for no rent or utilities. Dues go toward layout maintenance, equipment purchases and field trips. The club's layout is in a retired S.P. depot now owned by the city. The depot was relocated a few miles down the tracks from its original location but is still next to the U.P.'s mainline giving us great access to watch prototypical freight and passenger service. Our layout is in what used to be the freight room of the building while the passenger end of the building is now a railroad museum which is open to the public. The depot is maintained and operated by a foundation witch has several of the club's members on the Board of Directors.
The club has weekly membership meetings. One meeting pre month is a business meeting while the others are either run nights, clinics or work sessions. Saturdays are work days and Sundays are operating sessions. The layout is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Members are required to work one 3 hour shift of weekend docent duty every other month. Members are also required to pass a background check due to the public contact.
I think the dues I pay are very reasonable for what I get out of it. The members get along very well and everyone pitches in. The members have a vast variety of knowledge and skill sets. I would join again.
jrbernier wrote: Dues are $30/month, and there have been 'assesments' as we need additional materials for the layout construction.
Dues are $30/month, and there have been 'assesments' as we need additional materials for the layout construction.
Something like your "assesments" would be a worry for me. Easier for the wealthier members.. but while me and the wife could budget $30/mo if we had to (and if I could find a club locally!) it would be very hard at times to suddenly come up with more money.
I have wondered how clubs balance the desires of wealthier members against the very real budgets of some other folks who may have time and enthusiasm but not so much money. Its kind of like the whole property tax thing where some folks want lots of expensive services while others are content to haul their trash to the dump to keep taxes down..
Chris
Our dues at our small (dozen member) club are $15 a month, and can be paid as a lump sum of $150 a year. We have a very good deal with the community center, paying around $120 a month for rent, with no utility bills. Basically, each member is paying a month's rent
ChrisNH wrote: jrbernier wrote: Dues are $30/month, and there have been 'assesments' as we need additional materials for the layout construction. Something like your "assesments" would be a worry for me. Easier for the wealthier members.. but while me and the wife could budget $30/mo if we had to (and if I could find a club locally!) it would be very hard at times to suddenly come up with more money. I have wondered how clubs balance the desires of wealthier members against the very real budgets of some other folks who may have time and enthusiasm but not so much money. Its kind of like the whole property tax thing where some folks want lots of expensive services while others are content to haul their trash to the dump to keep taxes down.. Chris
I don't like the assessment idea either. That's why we raised the dues to at least cover the normal yearly expenses. This spread the cost of "belonging" around evenly, just like if one were to join a bowling league or a golf league. Also, if we had a bad year open housewise we wouldn't necessarily need to rob the piggy bank just to keep the doors open. The goal is to use donations from the visitors to make layout improvements and other projects.
Spending money is where the democracy problem occurs. Since everyone has a vote, expenditures have to be approved by the majority. And it is easy to get everyone to agree if the expenditure has the appearance of benefiting everyone (i.e.: the toilet is broken and needs to be replaced). Other expenditures, such as "we want to convert the railroad to DCC and it'll cost two grand" get discussed a little longer.
First post but I had to make a comment on this subject. I have been a member of a club where the fees were $35.00 a month plus $100.00 to start. $50.00 at signup and the other $50.00 when your six months were up. During that time you were expected to do work in each of the departments to get aquianted with the duties of each. My wife and I also ran a dining car for the open house at which we donated all the goodies. It was a great experience and we enjoyed it very much, even the kids had a great time. However, when they started to count rivets it was time to leave, that and a move 75 miles east put a damper on my club activities.
I now belong to a club that has $50.00 a year dues, ( raised from $25.00 ). We are housed in a county building and everything is covered. We have a 20 x 100 foot layout that is constantly being upgraded and improved. We have a great group of guys and gals and enjoy myself everytime I get a chance to get out there. I still have about 100 mile round trip, but it is worth every gallon of gas. We have two open houses a year and run for ten days during the county fair 12 hour a day, along with a get together about every three months for a pot luck and running session. I still donate when I can and help when ever I can, I can't beat the price.
I considered a club once, this was a very well known group here in my area which I shall not name. I went to an open house, and the only person who said hello, or asked anything to me was the hostess at the front door, I went downstairs, and even though there were several members there, not one of them asked me if I had any questions, they were all too "busy" even if they were just standing there. Now I'm not talking about guys busy trying to get a locomotive to run or something like that, I ment the general attitude was very cold if not downright hostile to all the visitors who bothered to show up to their open house, I wondered why they had one at all. After that I went Lone Wolf real deep for a number of years, I'll never consider another group like that again.
Contrast a few years later, I go to a show, a group called the Del Oro Pacific has a huge layout set up, lots of people inside the layout hemming and hawing to get things on track or running, but around outside the layout they had several members actively engaging visitors with questions, answers, discussion about the layout, and the group. It was a very pleasant experience.
So I have to say those of you who are involved in groups that are open and friendly to visitors, good job, you do yourselves and your clubs a huge favor when you are open to newcomers, especially on open houses. Making a visitor feel welcome, answering questions, and letting the visitor know your glad they came by and letting them know the positive points of your club, does far more to sell participation and possible new mamberships than anything else, no giant layout, no matter how cool it is, will ever gather new members or participation if the experience is a negative one.
Have fun with your trains
My local permanent layout club has a 20' by 40' building that the city lets us use for the price of at least one open house per year. We have to do building maintenance and pay utilities, but that's our only cost other than materials for the layout. Our dues are $15/month to cover those, but we usually have money left after paying the utility bill, so we have built up a pretty good chunk of change to buy materials with.
My modular club has no expenses other than what we spend to build modules, therefore we have no dues.
Robert Beaty
The Laughing Hippie
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The CF-7...a waste of a perfectly good F-unit!
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the
end of your tunnel, Was just a freight train coming
your way. -Metallica, No Leaf Clover
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Any one with a club nearby should consider themselves lucky. There are none that I'm aware of withing 150 miles of where I live,, so the relative high or low cost is a moot point.
A club is invaluable for new/less experienced hobbyists to learn from the 'old timers' and get hands on experience, or at least see up close how everything is done, what works, and what to avoid.
In return the newer members can often show the established members some tips and tricks of their own.
Consider club dues as money well spent enjoying camraderie and learning about the varied aspects of our hobby.
And if the wife complains about the cost, remind her you could always be spending the money at a bar, etc...where would she rather you be?
My dues at the is 20 dollars a month, due by the first. No dues, no membership.
I usually throw in another 20 per month to help get the thing going a bit better. The building has much needful things that cost money. We have very good treasurer who will make it happen. First we need to crawl, then walk before getting up to run.
If you think about the Club as a house to maintain, 20 people paying 20 dollars each works out to about 400 per month or 4800 per year gross income. Then you have the electric bill, insurance etc.....
I dont mind the dues at all. Having a place to get the heavyweight passenger train to lumber up to track speed for a distance is worth the dues for me anyhow. Finally but not last, it is a oppertunity to meet others in the area and break some of the ice with those who might not be sociable otherwise.
As of last January, our club dues were $250.00 per year. We are in the process of buying our own building, two floors, former fire house, brick construction. The club was formed in 1980, and we lost a couple locations that we were renting, so buying would eliminate that problem.
Our club has layouts for 4 scales, O 3 rail, HO, N and S. I'm in the HO section and we have the garage part of the building that used to house the fire trucks.
Would I do it again? definately.
http://nasme.tripod.com/
The club I belong to is $50 a year and housed in a 1905 Bradly and sons baggage car from the NH. We also have an old D&H caboose we have our meetings in. The club is on its 40th year and in danger of closing up due to land issues. Taxes and the town wanting the land for afordable housing are killing it. We make most of our money from our show at the end of April. We also have a great modular group that does about 8 shows a season.
There is a club thats colser to me but they play too much politics. Most members are great and many of you know some from articles in the magazines but others are cold and unfreindly. Thats why I travel over a half hour to my club.
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!