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Sunday March 19, 2006

Roy Meissner’s

Merton, WI

R. Eveleth, D. Goeke, D Goeke,

D. Goeke, M Goeke, C. Hartlett,

J. Lebovitz, S. Lunde, J. Madden,

R. Meissner, B. Nelson, R. Puls,

R. Schlicht, D. Smukowski,

S. Smukowski, J. Starosta, R. Wade,

R. Westerhouse, J. Young.

Guest: J. Kindraka, S. Koch (21)

a) Swap Meet Hall Rental

$350.00

b) Swap Meet Journal Ad

$62.72

c) Newsletter Printing

$14.78

4. BSG Name Badges

$11.38

Dave Smukowski opened the general business meeting. Dave also presented some of his impressions of the Cedarburg show. The sponsoring group considered the show a huge success. The attendance was 1,118 adult admissions @ $2.00 each with around an additional 500 children attending free. There were approximately 50 swap tables. There were around a half dozen layouts. We had our small layout there with the addition of the operating accessories on an adjoining table. It was really busy all day and the some of the dealers reported very good sales. The time just seemed to fly by. This is a "once" a year event, 30 miles out of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. I’ll guess that over 99% of the people that attended this show never have come to any of our swap meets. The locale and the timing (once a year, not competing with Packer games) in an area that is at an economically higher scale may be the main reason for this great turnout. This meet is more like a community event. If you attend either our swap or the Lionel swap, you will personally recognize 85 to 95% of the faces that walk through the door at every meet. What do you have on your table that they have not seen before? At Cedarburg it’s new faces, new money and tons of children.

Jeff Young gave the treasurer’s report. He also gave a detailed report on our swap meet income pointing out the major differences in the Waukesha location and the Milwaukee location. Although the bottom line is about the same, the Waukesha attendance was higher, we sold more tables, we charged less at the door and the rent was almost double. Given those parameters, we are down, this translates to; we will have to promote the meets with a more concerted effort in order to meet expectations. One of the main issues is that we have to sell more dealer tables and increase attendance

The BSG swap meets allow us to promote S gauge in the high profile manner which we do and remain our major source of income.

Jeff once again mentioned that we need door prizes for our swap meets. He has had no response since the last time he asked.

A somewhat lengthy discussion followed on the BSG’s swap meets and BSG cash flow. Ron Schlicht gave a detailed statistical account of the swap meets. Ron has been put together a financial report on this years swap meet income. It is available on request from Ron.

After going over the expenditures for the last couple years it is evident that we spend most of our income. An annual budget will be put together to determine just how we will allocate our funds. This is of the utmost importance in order that we can start preparing for Fall S Fest 2008. We will require a certain amount of seed money just for start up costs and the Fall S Fest car order. For 2008 all items from cars to patches will be offered in very limited quantities. It appears that all of the participating clubs are cutting back on the amounts that they order.

Ron also mentioned a couple items regarding our dues. In the past we used to send out complementary newsletters to potential members. We would send out about three and if we received no response we discontinued the mailing. Our annual dues income is also a bit skewed regarding the amounts taken in for a particular year. It has been our custom, that if a new member joins up during the summer or early in a new season, we consider their dues paid for the subsequent year. Trying to break down how much would be owed for a partial year would not be worth the effort, not to mention how we handle the badge costs. We also do this as a courtesy and incentive to new members.

Dick Kloes usually gives a swap meet report but was unable to attend the meeting. Dick was at the WISE Division train show at the Best Western Hotel across from the airport. He took his four modules and two sets of corners to represent S gauge and the Badgerland S Gaugers at another train show. Dick also passed on some information on the O scale club located on the south side of Milwaukee on National Ave, east of 1^st street, under the railroad tracks. He thought that we might want to go as a group (carpooling) for a visit or even a general meeting. The club is in their 30^th year and is open every 3^rd Friday of the month from 7:00 pm until they kick you out. They are also open the last Sunday of the month from 1:30pm to 4:00pm. This could also be a summer event. Contact Dave if you are interested. A trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was also brought up as a club outing. (I was there this past summer. The new HO train layout is beyond belief. It’s fantastic.)

Ron Schlicht gave a brief report on the MSOE train show. The students do not keep records on attendance so we don’t know how many people came through the door. There was a steady flow of traffic over the two days. The downtown location gives us a more diverse cross section of the community. The youth layout went up and down in record time.

There was a brief discussion on BSG going to additional shows over the summer. At this time, there is not enough participation by the BSG membership in order for us to attend many more shows than we already attend.

At some of the future train shows, we will be extending passes to some of the newer members of our club, enlisting their help at events. We will also be limited in the amount of passes that we will be giving out. This means that a lot more will be expected of those attending. I have already received requests from a couple of our newer members who have expressed a desire to get involved at the shows. (You read about Doug Stoll last newsletter.) We have had a couple members from Brown country who have attended most of our BSG events, including our general meetings, since they joined. We know that some of our membership, for a multitude of reasons, cannot participate in club activities. But still we have others who, as Dave Smukowski put it; he just doesn’t understand why people want to be card-carrying members of a club and not participate in its activities. The reason that they stay with our club, has got to be because they love the newsletters.

Art Doty was at one of the other weekly events that he attends so there was no report from him. Jeff Madden gave a report on the upcoming Spring S Spree. There appears to be some facilities issues for this meet. Jeff also gave out some info on the upcoming NASG convention. It was pointed out that if you are traveling through Chicago, for any of these events, lots of luck. There are just three words to describe it, construction, construction, and construction. Any other words to describe the conditions are unusable for this publication.

Joel Lebovitz gave a brief report on the upcoming Fall S Fest being held in Chicago. They are planning on a large modular layout. This years Fall S Fest will be a week before Trainfest. If we as a club bring any modules to Chicago to plug into their layout, they promise to bring some modules for Trainfest. We have to have an idea or an answer in the next couple of months. I will have to submit a layout plan to the Trainfest director in June.

The theme for this years Fall S Fest is "100 years of American Flyer". Joel also gave a report on the planned S Fest car, which will be a boxcar carrying this years theme. There will be a very limited amount of cars produced. They will also have a Fall S Fest truck in very limited quantities.

Rick Wade gave a brief report on the progress with our website. BSG current events are being posted on a regular basis.

Rich Eveleth has continued taking pictures at nearly every event that BSG attends and posts them on the Badgerland Yahoo site. The postings also give our membership a real idea of what it takes to put on a show. He doesn’t just take pictures, he has been at the major shows from the time we set up to the time that we breakdown.

Ron Schlicht has been selling various club items at our swap meets for years. Keep those free items coming my way. The CTT hernia is OK and we sell some every swap meet. It’s just a few dollars every meet, but outside of old S Fest patches we are clearing out most of our old stock. There is only one 10^th Fall S Fest car body left. That itself is a miracle. (And you all think that I have been nuts dragging that stuff around.)

I mentioned in the last newsletter that at the shows where the large modular layout is displayed, we rarely use the scale rolling stock. Dick Kloes and Ron Schlicht went over the club’s scale equipment. There is not as much left as I thought. It only fills one box. We may be selling a very limited amount of items, primarily rolling stock. I will bring a list of what is left to the next meeting. Perhaps we might bring the equipment to a meeting so our members will see what we actually have. On the other hand, our hi-rail equipment is run on a very regular basis, not only at shows, but also at our swap meets. However even that inventory may be paired down.

Steve Lunde started up the Playtime/Traintime sessions last year. Unfortunately this idea has not taken off as well as expected. Steve expressed the opinion that we just aren’t having enough "fun" events. Most of what we do is either connected to train shows or to general meetings. The summer picnic is the only true social event that we have each year and the response is good, but not as good as it should be. All work and no play could make our club an organization that people might not be interested in joining.

Steve also mentioned that we should start thinking about a Fall S Fest car and a theme for the event. Pass on any of your ideas to Steve.

If you just want to have fun bring some items to run at the Green Bay show, feel free to join in. You can also bring engines or rolling stock to run at our swap meets. Just make sure that it is in excellent running condition. The public wants to see trains running, not old men trying to get trains running.

The club may have to invest in a new transformer for the modular layout. After around 20 years of service, one of the huggers burned up.

A decision was made on the new Mikado steam engine that was ordered for the club. With some of the problems that we have had at a couple shows, it will be delivered with scale couplers but hi-rail flanges. This will give us a more forgiving tolerance level when running the trains over imperfect trackwork. Traveling layouts are not like your layout in the basement. They get assembled and disassembled on multiple occasions. They get jostled around in trucks, vans and automobile or when being hauled up and down basement stairs. They are bumped, bruised, under appreciated, not loved enough and definitely not given enough care. This is beginning to sound more like a wives lament, than an S gauge module.

Ron Westerhouse gave a report on some of the activities in the Fond du Lac area. In 2007, an NMRA convention will be held there. The dates have not been established at this time.

Roy Meissner introduced Jim Kindraka who is part owner of River Raisin Models, which is a manufacturer of fine S scale brass models. Prior to Jim leaving the lovely state of Wisconsin, Jim was an active member of BSG and served as our secretary in 1978 and 1979. He brought along some excellent equipment to grace Roy’s layout for a trial run. I’m sure that it could easily have found a home on Roy’s layout.

This will be the last general meeting of the season; hopefully we will have a good turnout. There will be a newsletter published before the BSG picnic listed below. You will receive a picnic notice sometime in July. Don’t forget to remember that we cancelled the April swap meets.

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April 29^th & 30th Titletown Train Show in Green Bay WI.

August BSG Picnic- Jim Starosta Saturday August 5^th (Rain or Shine)

September Meeting- Art Doty & Trumann Garrett, Sat. Sept. 23 1:00 pm Bristol, WI. More details to come.

October Meeting- No Host Found

November 3-5 Fall S Fest, Tinley Park

November 11^th & 12^th Trainfest

December Meeting- Jim Starosta December 3rd

January Meeting - No Host Found -

February Meeting - No Host Found -

February-Mad-City Train Show

March Meeting – Brad Nelson

April Meeting - No Host Found

Call Ron Schlicht, if you wish to host a General Meeting. There is no specific criterion for hosting a meeting. Weekday evenings, Saturdays or Sundays are acceptable. If you want to schedule for next year it’s not too early.

*We try to keep away from a BSG swap meet Sunday, but that might be unavoidable.

2006 September 24

October 22

November 26

December 17

2007 January 28 February 25

March 25

September 23

October 28

November 25

December 16

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2006 April 30

September 17

October 15

November 19

December 17

The Lionel Club will also have an open house. The dates are as follows:

November 26^th & 27^th 2005

Hours: 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Admission: $2.00

Kids 12 and under: FREE with Adult

Parkland Plaza

2721 South Calhoun Road

New Berlin, WI

(Entrance is at the back of the building.)

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2006 October 14

December 9

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8:00 A.M. To 12:00 P.M.

2006 October 1

November 5

December 3

2007 January 7 February 4

March 4

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2006 TBA April 23

For more details visit website at:

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2006 May 7

June 4

August 13

September 10

October 8

November 12

December 10

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2006 April 17

May 12

Programs are held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering Student Center, 1025 North Broadway, Milwaukee, WI.

Doors open at 7:00 pm.

Programs start at 7:30 pm.

Programs are subject to change without notice.

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The March general meeting of the Badgerland S Gaugers was held at Roy Meissner’s home. Roy’s layout is progressing with more tracks being laid every month. There is still a ways to go but Roy’s trackwork doesn’t amount to just laying track on a flat board. As a matter of fact, at this time, I don’t know if there is any section without some type of grade. Roy will be starting on the yard segment, which is on the inside portion of the layout in the near future. I’m sure that the yard and roundhouse will be flat unless he is planning a hump yard for that area. As always, we had a great time at Roy’s and get to observe an interesting perspective on layout construction..

Is your eyesight failing?

The answer is no. You are not going blind. Some items that are repeated in our newsletters such as the BSG disclaimer and a few other bits and pieces, (that I’m sure no one reads), have been reduced in font size. This is done to effectively reduce page count and therefore reduce the printing costs. In essence we are adding some of the fine print that accompanies many publications and literature, it’s just like legal documents and The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper contain. This is not a high level conspiracy to hide things from our membership. (If I wanted to hide something I wouldn’t print it in the newsletters.)

The impact of our newsletters must be immense. We talked about the lack of children at our swap meets. Dave Smukowski has been taking the small BSG layout to our swap meets over the last few years. He noted that when we were in Waukesha there were always children around the layout, watching it run. I printed the statement "where have all the children gone in Milwaukee?" Well at the last swap meet of the year in March, we had children. Sandy Smukowski counted 13 present. When you couple that with the fact that Art Doty and myself were present, that brought the total to 15. I also want to add that in spite of the fact that we were bucking a show in Rockford, we had our most successful meet of the year. Hopefully our meet is on an upward spiral.

I have reported the very high number of request for the Badgerland layouts to attend various model railroading events. The requests are getting higher. We might be following up on shows that we feel will give us the most exposure. Additional shows will only mean that we need more members to be involved.

Have you hugged your modules lately? No it is not a joke. We have to continually improve our layouts. Grant it I’m retired, but I am already preparing for Trainfest. The youth layout is in the process of being cosmetically improved and best of all will go up and down even faster than MSOE. I have abandoned my work on my personal layout and I am concentrating on the traveling road show. If all goes well I will be attending more shows with the youth layout.

This was the third year that BSG had a layout at this small show and swap meet. This time we added a couple more operating accessories. The American Flyer operating accessories are always a big hit with the children. Although some feel that they are quite simple, they are a lot more tangible than a TV show or video game. This show usually draws around 2,000 people through the door including children. Since the show is a bit further north, most of the attendees are new faces. We once again handed out a lot of BSG literature.

With everything that we have handed out over the past few weeks I will be surprised if we don’t get any new members. We have been growing and keeping ahead of the pace of the usual attrition rate in memberships. The club has almost doubled in the last fifteen years and nearly tripled since 1986. It’s got to be the newsletters.

Aren’t you glad that the 2006 Dues Notice will not appear in this newsletter! Weren’t you getting sick and tired of that redundant column? Well now we have some Ex-BSG members. No tickee no washee. You will now receive a new membership roster with this newsletter. The new deadline without a late fee seemed to have worked (as it has for most other clubs).

We still had a small attrition rate, which seems to be normal. Having an attrition rate at all is not really good news. Outside of relocation or health issues; no one should wish to leave the club. That only means that we have failed to keep them interested. (Sometimes our meetings do drag on………..just a bit.) As a matter of fact, we have had some members fall asleep during a few topics of discussion.

Perhaps some of our members don’t feel that they are involved enough. If any of you sense that you are not involved enough, feel free to contact the Editor of this newsletter (ME) and I will give you a list of things that you can help out with. (I’m sure that I will be inundated with requests and just won’t be able to find enough work for people to do.)

No operating night and playtime sessions planned at this time.

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There is nothing to report for this newsletter as I said before I am running out of ideas. Thank you all for your input into this column.

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I have nothing to report at this time. As in the tips column, I’m running out of ideas. With the over exuberant assistance of my spouse I am running out of money for new train products. I may have to resort to fixing all of those pieces of junk that you buy with the intention of repairing them, but never really get around to actually doing it.

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None to report.

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If any of our members would like to receive the newsletter via email please contact Ron Schlicht via email.

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Badgerland@yahoogroups.com,

Check this over occasionally

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If you are interested in using the For Sale column give me a call. I would like to limit the amount of different items to a maximum four per member.

I will list items under "Wanted" for two or three newsletters. Please contact me if you want a listing continued or it will be dropped. The same applies

to the "For Sale" column. If you sell an item contact me so that I can remove it from subsequent newsletters.

Mac is still looking for additional Lionel American Flyer B & O and NYC passenger cars (either from the basic sets or the separate 2- car pack. Premium price will be paid.

Contact Mac McGrath on his cell phone: (815) 355-2645.

(I’ll bet that He’ll even offer to pay a nice premium for the cars)

Milwaukee Road "Blue Ice" Reefer. Manufactured by S Helper Service

$45.00 each. *The BSG Club member discount price is $35.00 each

Hi-Rail trucks and couplers are furnished. Scale wheels are also provided.

The car numbers 29293, & 29294 are being sold separately.

The car numbers 29291, & 29292 may only be purchased in a four-car set, 29291 thru 29294. The price for the set is $160.00 to non-members and $130.00 to BSG members.

For details and car availability contact:

Ron Schlicht

5274 S. 49^th St.

Greenfield, WI 53220

Phone: (414) 421-8512

Email: rschlicht2@wi.rr.com

Fall S Fest Car Set

#1 thru #15- $250.00

Other individual years also available, for those prices and car availability contact:

Harold Immekus

108 High Forrest Drive

Cedarburg, WI 53012

(262) 375-3775

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For any new members who are interested in club hats or shirts

Contact Jeff Young.

If you "have not" received a club patch or a membership card

Contact Ron Schlicht.

If you "have not" received a club badge Contact Dave Smukowski.

Until the next time. See Ya. Ron Schlicht

rschlicht2@wi.rr.com

The views and opinions expressed in the Badgerland S Gaugers newsletters are those of the editor, unless otherwise credited, and do not necessarily represent that of the club, it’s officers, directors, or the membership.

The Badgerland S Gaugers do not offer any warranties, guarantees, nor assume any liability from information contained in this publication.

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Dave Smukowski Jeff Madden Jeffrey Young Ron Schlicht

Phone: (262) 675-2664 Phone: (262) 968-3729 Phone: (262) 250-0618 Phone: (414) 421-8512

dsmukowski@hotmail.com NASGDispatch@hotmail.com youngsjk@aol.com rschlicht2@wi.rr.com

www.trainweb.org/bsg

Directors: Steve Lunde (06) – Dick Kloes (07) – Art Doty (08) – Trumann Garrett

Modular Layout Committee: Dick Kloes, Ray Puls, and Dave Smukowski.

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