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Meeting Minutes 

BTO CLUB ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
May 27, 2008

CALL TO ORDER/INTRODUCTION OF BOARD
President Marshall Adams called the annual business meeting of the BTO Club to order at 8:00 a.m. at the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn, Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Marshall welcomed the members in attendance and thanked them for attending at such an early hour. Marshall then introduced the Board members who were present for the meeting – Dave Snow, Eastern VP/Membership Chairman, John Groot, Treasurer, Ralph Wilcox, Director Emeritus, Scott Fowler, Central Director, Bob Somogyi, Editor and Bob Newsom, Western VP. Board members who were not present for the meeting were Rich Dulski, Secretary and Ron Natinsky, Central VP. Due to the absence of Rich Dulski, Dave Snow would fill in as Secretary.

SECRETARY’S REPORT
Prior to the meeting, copies of the meeting minutes from the Annual Business Meeting last year on May 31, 2007 at the Sheraton Four Points, York, Pennsylvania were passed out to the members present. They were asked to read the minutes of that meeting. Marshall asked the members if there were any questions regarding the meeting. With no questions being asked, Marshall asked for a motion to accept the Secretary’s report. The motion carried.

TREASURER’S REPORT
John Groot reported to the membership that the finances of the club were sound and that the club was in good shape. He stated that the main source of revenue was from membership dues. Additional revenue came from sales of club cars and convention cars. Income from the period of January 1, 2008 through May 25, 2008 was $14, 761.62 and expenses for the same period was $12, 960.73, showing a net income of $1,800.89. Total current assets were $29,876.83.

MEMBERSHIP REPORT
Dave Snow reported that the current membership stood at 706, compared to 921 recorded last year. The current total represented a 76% retention rate, which when compared with a retention rate of only 54% from 2006 to 2007, had shown that the membership appears to be leveling off. Dave reported that he is deleting, on average, between 10 and 15 members per month, as compared with 35 to 50 members, per month, between 2006 and 2007. The majority of deletions that occurring now are due to either the member passing away or are no longer interested in the hobby.
Dave then gave an analysis of the current demographics of the club to the members present. The membership is broken down into three regions. The Eastern Region has 355 members, the Central Region has 203 members and the Western Region has 127 members. We also have 21 international members, located in Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Luxembourg and Australia. Within the United States the Club has members in 48 States, with North Dakota and Wyoming having no members.
Dave stated that he received a total of 3 new members, so far, this year and that he was going to look into ways of attracting new members. Currently, our club is listed on the online club directory of Garden Railways Magazine, an online website called ‘Top 50 Model Railroad Sites’ and our annual information table at the East Coast Large Scale Train Show.

EDITOR’S REPORT
Before Bob Somogyi gave his report, Marshall congratulated him on an outstanding job that he has done with the BTO, since he took over from our past Editor, Lou Flammia. Marshall stated that Bob has continued to produce a top of the line magazine and that Bob is constantly looking for ways to improve the appearance and content of our magazine.
Bob announced that BTO #128 was currently at AgPress for printing and should be in the hands of our members by the end of the Convention. Bob said that BTO #129 would be deemed our Convention issue with most or all of the content being devoted to this Convention.
Bob reminded the membership that layouts and photos were being accepted for our 2009 calendar, which would be affixed to BTO #130 and would be scheduled to be go out by December 1st. 
Bob requested of the membership to send in articles and/or photos to him for submission into future BTO’s. He was also interested in receiving articles and pictures from local model train clubs. 

OLD BUSINESS
Marshall extolled praises on the Manufacturers and Donors who stepped forward and provided the many donations received for the door prizes that would be handed out at the Convention banquet. Those Manufacturers and Donors were LGBoA, Bachmann, Aristo-Craft, Hartland, USA Trains, St. Aubin’s, Dave Watts and Bob DiPietro. By last count, there were more prizes received then registered members to the Convention. The additional prizes would be used for our monthly prize drawings. 
Marshall stated that the 30th Anniversary Set was a success with the first run being sold out and the second run orders being accepted currently, with a deadline for orders being October 1st. Marshall expressed his gratitude to Becky Cable of Hartland Locomotive Works for her tremendous support to our club.

NEW BUSINESS
Marshall stated that the Board of Director would start looking for sites for another Convention next year. The biggest factor in the location of another Convention would be cost and that the Board would attempt to keep the registration costs at a minimum to continue to make it affordable for more members to attend.
Marshall then talked about the future of the Board and the need for more members to come forward to run for office. Currently, there is a limitation on the number of terms that a President, Vice-President and Director can run for. Without new candidates coming forward to run, the various office positions would have to be vacated due to term limits. Marshall stated that a suggestion was made at the Board of Directors meeting to review the Club By-Laws in regards to term limits and to look into rewording the limits to allow current Officers to run for a third term, in the event that no other members come forward to run for office. Marshall stated that the Board would begin to review the current By-Laws and discuss revising at the next teleconference meeting.
In regards to teleconferencing, Marshall informed the members that the Board has a teleconference meeting approximately every two months. This has been a tremendous cost saving to the club and there are no logistics problems in getting the Board together for a meeting.

Marshall asked if there were any questions or new business from the members present. Tom and Anita Brown, from Absecon, NJ, and prominent members of the South Jersey Garden Railway Society, stepped forward to state that they wanted to place a bid to put on a Convention in their area for 2010. Tom stated that Absecon is located near a number of railroad attractions, as well as, Atlantic City. The area, in their opinion, was very suitable for our needs and the costs could remain affordable. Marshall thanked them for their offer and that the Board would be interested in having a Convention in their area.
Member Dan Wierwoski, who is a member of the Finger Lakes Live Steamer’s from upstate New York announced that his club would be celebrating their 40th Anniversary in 2009 with an open house and invited the members of the BTOC to attend. He briefly talked about that area and the many sites and attractions to take in. He said to visit their website at www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org for more information.
Marshall added that there were several requests from the Conventioneer’s to have next year’s Convention again in Strasburg. Mainly, to help build the membership of the club and with the convenient location, it would be a draw to attract more members to attend.

Marshall congratulated the Convention Committee for their efforts in organizing our first Convention in four years. The location for the Convention was ideal and the representatives of the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn went out of their way in providing us first class service with the use of their facilities and the outstanding banquet that was planned.

Finally, Marshall made a formal presentation to three past Presidents of the club, who were in attendance. The honorees were Ralph Wilcox, President from August 1982 to July 1986, Joe Hylva President from August 1988 to December 1990 and Larry Cromwell from June 2002 to January 2006. Each received a Blue 30th Anniversary Convention Shirt.

ADJOURNMENT
With no further business to conduct, Marshall asked for a motion for adjournment. The motion passed at 8:39am.

Dave Snow, Acting Secretary

BTOC BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING
MAY 25, 2008

CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL
President Marshall Adams called the Board of Director’s meeting to order at 10:00am at the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn, Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. Marshall thanked everyone present for coming to the convention and a roll call was ordered. Present at the meeting was Dave Snow, Eastern VP/Membership Chairman, Scott Fowler, Central Director, Ralph Wilcox, Director Emeritus, John Groot, Treasurer, Bob Newsom, Western VP, and Bob Somogyi, Editor. Not present at the meeting was Rich Dulski, Secretary and Ron Natinsky, Central VP. Marshall announced that, due to the absence of Rich, Dave would fill in as the acting Secretary.

SECRETARY’S REPORT
The minutes of the last teleconference meeting, dated January 7, 2008, was reviewed. With no questions regarding the teleconference minutes, Marshall asked for a motion to accept the Secretary’s report. The motion carried.

TREASURER’S REPORT
John Groot presented the Treasurer’s report to the Board. John stated that the club was solvent. For the period from January 1, 2008 through May 25, 2008 the listed total assets of $29,876.83. Total income for that period was $14,761.62 which derived from a combination of membership dues, advertising, convention revenue and merchandise sales. Total expenses for the same period was derived at BTO publication expense, Convention expense, insurance fees and office expenses, for a total of $12, 960.73. This resulted in a net ordinary income of $1,800.89.

MEMBERSHIP REPORT
Dave Snow stated that the current membership stood at 706 members, compared to 921 members as of May, 2007. The retention rate for the past year was 76%, compared to the 54% recorded from the previous year. Dave said that he is pleased with the leveling off that the membership numbers have produced. He is deleting, on average, 10 to 15 members per month, compared with 35 to 40 the previous year.
Dave stated that the Board needs to come up with idea’s to promote the club to non-members. Currently we are listed Garden Railways online club directory and our information table that has been present at the East Coast Large Scale Train Show for the last four years.
Dave also stated that two charts will be published in BTO #128 showing the demographics of the club by State and Region, to give the membership an idea of how spread out our membership is.
EDITOR’S REPORT

Bob Somogyi stated that BTO #128 was currently at AgPress and would be mailed to the membership after the convention. BTO #129 would be the Convention issue with most of the articles being devoted to Convention activities and information. Deadline for article submissions for #129 will be July 1st. Bob said that BTO #130 would be the Christmas issue and the calendar will also be attached. A call for photos for the 2009 calendar contest would be done with advertising in the BTO and on our club’s website. Bob stated that he would like to test accepting digital photos for the contest this year via CD’s or Zip disk.

OLD BUSINESS
John Groot gave an update on the 30th Anniversary Set. He stated that he has been receiving orders for the second run of the anniversary set. Orders would be accepted up to October 1, 2008. The thought was to add small lettering to the engine to indicate that this was the second run. Marshall said that he would contact Hartland to see what they could do.
Marshall Adams proudly told that Board that all the door prizes have arrived and it looked like everyone would be going home with a prize. The two blue elephant table rooms were set and ready for set up by the dealers.
Ralph Wilcox and John Groot said that their presence at the East Coast Show with our club information table didn’t generate new members. With the table located in the layout hall, Ralph and John felt that we were not in good location and suggested that we try the table one more year and have the table located back in the lobby. Ralph said with this location, people waiting to get in would see us first. The Board voted to attend the East Coast Show next year in the new location. Dave Snow said that he would contact the organizers of the show and secure our location in the lobby.

NEW BUSINESS
Marshall said that there would be a number of beverages for sales between the two dealer halls during the time that the halls were open. Money generated from those sales would be donated to a local charity. The charity that was selected was the Christ Home for Children.
The last item of new business was brought up by Ralph Wilcox. He suggested that the Board look into revising the By-Laws regarding term limits. It was noted in the past few elections there was little or now interest from the membership to run for office, which resulted in the same individuals running. With the elimination of terms limited, if no new candidates came forward to run for office, the current Officer of any particular position could remain in that office for another terms. It was agreed that the Board would review that current By-Laws and come up with idea’s concerning the rewriting of term limits.

ADJOURNMENT
With no further new business, Marshall asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. A motion was made and the meeting ended at 11:15am.

Dave Snow, Acting Secretary 

No matter which train you are waiting for, the wrong one arrives first. - Meditz Subway Postulate