Events

The Events Listed here are not only those of the Railway Print Society but those from other interested parties as well. Railwayana Auctions are a frequent source of material to RPS members as well as those RPS events which we organise.

As well as RPS events the following link may be useful site to visit for further information on auctions and Railway Societies: Diary of Railwayana events

If you have an event that you think may interest our members, please send details to our Newsletter Editor at newsletter@railwayprintsociety.org.uk

Meetings

Two or three meetings are held each year, with the AGM being held in the spring, usually in Birmingham. The other meetings are less formal, usually with a speaker and time for a swap meet or mini-auction. These are held in locations such as London, York or Bristol and are often timed to coincide with collectors events in those locations.

Annual General Meeting

The AGM next year will be held at 11-00am on Saturday 21st March 2009 at the Model Railway Club Headquarters, Keen House, 4, Calshot Street, LONDON N1 9DA. [Full details in the next issue]

Annual General Meeting - 8 March 2008

This year the AGM was held for the first time in London on a date much earlier in the year than has been the case in the past. This was by popular demand from the previous two AGMs where it was found that an AGM in May inevitably clashed with various events (Not least something called the Cup Final!). There has been a steady decline in attendance at the AGM in recent years and it was hoped that the shift to London and the change in date would make the AGM more accessible and more convenient to members. In the event the attendance was up on last year but was still a disappointing proportion of those members who live within easy travelling distance of London. It is hoped that if we can make this a regular event that we can attract increasing attendance as the years go by.

Certainly Keen House has a convivial atmosphere added to which there are railway artifacts all around including a large ‘O’ Gauge layout in the same room as the meeting. The Management Committee met in the morning and then repaired to a nearby establishment where most members enjoyed an all day breakfast to compensate for the early start! Members arrived in good time and the coffee bar was opened for refreshments throughout the day which was most convenient. The Chairman opened the AGM promptly and gave a résumé of Society activities over the past year.

The Treasurer then presented his accounts and assured the meeting that although there had been a slight drop in the balance of our accounts that the Society was in a sound financial state. The increase in membership subscriptions from this year together with an anticipated drop in room hire costs would keep us comfortably in the black. No further increase in Subscriptions is foreseen for next year and possibly for a few years after that.

The membership Secretary then presented his report. He expressed some concern at the fall in membership over the past year. There had been the usual loss of members through resignations and non-renewals and sadly several had died, but whereas in previous years these reductions had been offset by new members this had not happened this year. This underlined the need to attract new members. However it was pleasing to note that Membership renewals were running at a higher rate this year.

The Editor reported that the flow of material for the Newsletter had been encouraging and 6 issues had been produced again this year with continued use of colour. There had been no new Publications in the past year although several were still being worked on. The Trefor David Trophy competition this year had been a close run competition with the result that for the first time ever we have a three-way tie between Rod Knight, Mike Marr and Mike Turner. It was resolved that each should receive a certificate and hold the Trefor David Trophy for four months of the year.

The election of Committee members was a simple process as the current Committee were all prepared to offer themselves for re-election and there were no additional nominations. As a result the Committee were re-elected en bloc. It is to be hoped that in future years other members will feel free to offer themselves for election to provide new blood for the committee.

Ian Dinmore then gave the meeting an update on the Website which was now live. There was still considerable work to do to populate the pages, and to provide links to other sites. These are essential as a website is not picked up in a Google search until there are a certain number of links which is why a search at the moment will not necessarily show up the RPS website.

Following the meeting Mike Dean gave a most interesting talk on a fascinating array of LMS publicity material for the wide variety of facilities offered by that railway. Mike produce the actual items themselves which members were able to examine after the talk. The afternoon then concluded with the customary swap meet with all manner of goodies being on offer. Some members had to leave to catch trains but the remainder were still there until 4.30 when proceedings were formally closed. A most enjoyable and worthwhile day which, it is hoped, will attract an even bigger attendance next year.

John Young - Secretary

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