L&WMRS Open Day 2009

Cakes
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

Leamington & Warwick Model Railway Society tradition has it that our exhibition is followed by an open evening. This is simply an attempt to entice more people to swell the ranks of members. No society can ever have too many members - aside from the obvious financial benefit of all those extra subscriptions you never know what extra skills and contacts the new people will bring with them. When we built our clubroom's for example, it was a good job that we had some builders as members !

Anyway we this year we deiced to hold an open day rather than an evening. Our clubrooms are out in the sticks and finding the right turn can be tricky the first time you do it. In the dark it's even harder so a daytime session seemed better. The morning was bright and dry - ideal conditions to temp people out of the house.

My first job was to erect signs from the turn from the road, along the track and to the building. A heavy hammer made knocking the posts in possible if not easy. To be honest once you turn off you can't get lost without driving off tarmac onto a field but you have to cater for everyone if you can so lots of straight ahead signs pointed towards the area designated for car parking in case anyone didn't get the hint from the number of cars parked there.

By the time I got back indoors the urn was steaming well, tea brewed and cakes arrived. Lots of cakes. More cakes than kitchen at one point. We always ask members to bring them and this year they did us proud. I'd like to point out I didn't have change to sample any of those in the photo. Nor the chocolate cake that arrived minutes later. Being told that it was delicious was enough for me really...

A few people arrived before we officially opened but we let them in anyway. Through the day there was a steady stream through the doors. Some were from other clubs and just fancies a look around. More expected a free show and weren't disappointed with 4 layouts working well. A very small number, as far as I could tell, actually were interested in joining. Out of the 70 or so who visited a couple signed up on the spot. Others will come back on a normal Thursday night club session to see how we are normally before deciding.



The good thing about the L&WMRS is that you can just come along, drink tea and chat if you want to. Apparently some other clubs dragoon you into a project pretty much as soon as you arrive. That's not our way - after all it's your club and you can make of it what you want.

Even if you missed out, visit the L&WMRS website for more information.