NMRA, NCR Div. 2 – Board Meeting
2025 and Beyond Planning Meeting Notes
May 17, 2025
Meeting Started at 1:15pm
In Attendance
Jens Hensel – Superintendent
Paul Anderson – Asst. Superintendent and Webmaster
T.J. Stratton -TC Yardmaster
Michael McDougall – North Yardmaster
Keith Aleo – Chief Clerk
David Zolnierek – Paymaster
Al Johnson – Trainmaster
Mike Cipko – Retired Superintendent
Dr. John Campbell – Retired TC Yardmaster
- Michael McDougall has been appointed to the Northern Yardmaster position. Thank you, Michael, for agreeing to take this position again.
- Paul Anderson (Assistant Superintendent) will help support the AV requirements for our Division Meetings. The first order of business will be to secure a small camera and microphone to aid in the “Show and Tell” and other close-up presentations. Items are required by mid-August. Payment would be from our division.
- T.J. Stratton (TC Yardmaster) and Michael McDougal (Northern Yardmaster) will oversee securing clinics for their respective Yards. We currently have the Sep. Clinic (Making Ponderosa Pines by David Zolnierek) and the Oct. (Building Resin Freight Cars by T.J. Stratton) clinics scheduled this fall for the Traverse City Yard. A lighting of a Caboose Clinic was discussed. A list of available clinics from Rich Mahaney was also given to T.J.
- Al Johnson (Trainmaster) will continue to send out letters to any of our members who are late paying their annual dues. Information on who has not renewed will be sent to Al Johnson by Keith Aleo, our Chief Clerk.
- Membership retention was also discussed. Keith Aleo will send out a recognition certificate for 5, 10, 15 years and beyond for NMRA Membership. The National does send them out, but a Certificate from our Division would be nice touch as well. All Board Members would personally sign the certificate. Sending a Gift Certificate or another form of acknowledgement was also discussed. This is an open item which will be discussed again at the next meeting. We also have about 20 of our members who we never hear from. We discussed using “Survey Monkey” to reach out to all our Division Members to see how we can engage them more in our division. National has a “Survey Monkey” account that we can use. Keith Aleo to email marketing@nmra.org to find out additional information. A Zoom practice lesson a day before a Division Meeting for any of our members was also discussed. There may be a reluctancy to sign on to Zoom for some of our members who are not too computer literate.
- Using Zoom in the future for our Division Meetings was also discussed. Dr. John Campbell mentioned that it was better in the past with in-person presenters and that we also had a larger audience (and no Computer problems). John also mentioned that only a handful of participants are currently on Zoom. The new board agrees that we have had issues that could be solved with a practice set-up trial run prior to the actual meeting. Once we secure our new equipment, a connectivity trial will be run. Most of our clinicians in the past few years have presented via Zoom, so we believe that Zoom needs to stay (unless something else comes along that is better). And winter gives an option to use Zoom versus traveling to a meeting in hazardous conditions.
- With that said, a new Zoom License is required. David Zolnierek (Paymaster) will review what is required for an annual license. (Association Board Member separate e-mail?). The Zoom Workplace Pro looks like what is required for our division. (100 people max with unlimited time per meeting) David to verify. Discounts are available for 501c non-profits. It looks like the cost is $150 per year. The license needs to be secured by mid-August. Payment would be from our division.
- Paul Anderson led the discussion concerning our website. (Paul has agreed to be our Webmaster, replacing Kevin Predmore). Having a search feature for our newsletter? This may require a different Newsletter format. Further discussion is required.
- We are looking for a way to better communicate with our members. Using groups.IO was discussed. Paul Anderson to review what is required.
- Video recording and editing of our division meetings was also reviewed. Paul Anderson to review what is required. Separate YouTube Account? Further discussion is required.
- A Fall 2025 All Division Operating Session was discussed. The opinion from Al Johnson was that the last session in 2024 did not draw any out-of-town guests and it was a lot of work to facilitate. A combination Open House and Op. Session was discussed. It was agreed to postpone any events until Spring 2026. Further discussion is required.
- It was decided that we should have quarterly board meetings. Next meeting to be in the middle of August. TBD.
Meeting Adjourned at 3:15pm
Jens Hensel – Superintendent