Just an update on a couple of issues coming up soon involving the Aus7 Modellers Group.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Venue: -- NSWRTM Thirlmere NSW, Saturday the 19th of July 1.30 pm 2008
Agenda Items
1. Election of officer holders: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer & Newsletter Editor
2. Presentation of financial accounts
3. General Business
Note: Any financial member of the Aus7 Modellers Group Inc. is entitled to vote at the meeting. Proxy voting will be allowed. Any member wishing to vote by proxy may get a form for this purpose from the Secretary or can download this from the Administration section of the Aus7 Modellers Group Website at http://www.aus7modellersgroup.org and have their vote used at the AGM by another financial member. Any one member attending is limited to using a total of no more than five proxy votes.
The venue is the "New South Wales Rail Transport Museum at Barbour Rd. Thirlmere NSW".
The meeting will be held in Dining Car AB90 in the RTM grounds. RTM member entry if free; non-members entry fee is $10.00, which will be covered by the Aus7 Modellers Group Inc. Or you could possibly become a member of the Museum on the day, if you wish.
We will be arranging a tour of the Museum before the meeting, so get there early and make a social day of it and possibly use the picnic facilities for lunch at the museum. Bring you camera, note pad and tape measure, as there is plenty to see and measure.
To be eligible to vote at the AGM, you must be a financial member of the group, so if you have not renewed your membership as at today, could you please do so as soon as possible. I have Membership Renewal Form (PDF) can be found on the Membership Page , so if you would like to fill out the form and mail it to Roger Porter on the address shown on the form, or if you are coming to the AGM, bring the form along with you and hand it to Roger prior to the meeting.
If any one has any nomination for the positions on the exec committee, could they please let either Trevor Hodges, or Keiran Ryan know before the day, please.
Don't forget if you have any other issues that you need to bring up , they can be aired in General Business
The next 7mm Modellers Forum is set for the first week in November, more details as we we get closer to the date.
19/03/08
The latest issue of "7th Heaven" will be available shortly, with an add for the next Big Day In (Please note that the previous acronynm (BDO did have copyright issues, as it was used to discribe an annual rock concert).
So, don't forget the 5th April, North Sydney Leagues Club for the bi-annual Big Day In. This forum, we have no key speakers, but we have many speakers covering a multitude of topics, and we hope that many of the membership, and non members alike will make an effort in bringing along some of their models/projects for all to have a look at and talk about. So click on the link for more information about the O Scale Modellers Forum, AKA The Big Day In
10/10/07
The latest issue of "7th Heaven" will be available shortly, and included in the magazine will be a copy of a notice indicating that any one not renewing their membership will not receive another copy of the magazine, untill they renew.
Don't forget the 27th October, North Sydney Leagues Club for the bi-annual Big Day Out. This time, there will be a Module Competition sponsered by Waratah Model Railway Co, with first prize being a NSWGR PHG model kit valued at over $400.00. So if you have a module that you would like to show and possibly win this fantastic kit, come along to the BDO
22/6/07
The 2007 Annual General Metting of the Aus7 Modellers Group Inc. will be held on the 7th July at 1.00pm at The Montefano Hall. next to St Benedict's Catholic Church, Corner of Justin Street & Neville Street, Smithfield (Across fhe road from Smithfield RSL), please ensure that your membership is paid up before the AGM as only financial members will be able to vote on committee positions, and any other motions submitted for voteing. For members wishing to pay their membership by net banking I have supplied the bank account details on the Admin page of this site. If you are transferring funds using this method could you please contact both the Secretary and Treasurer with your name, membership number and date of transfer
There is now a link to the October 2007 BDO, on the convention page which will provide you with all the information that you reqiure for the day.
12/4/07
The 2007 Annual General Meetting will be held on Saturday 7th July at a soon to be nominated location, please put the date in you dairy to ensure that you are available. This is an important day, and if you have any issues to be discussed, you can submit these in writting to the Secretary - Trevor Hodges C/O 24 Chester St Warren 2824 NSW, or Email: - Trevor Hodges. These submissions need to be set to Trevor as soon as possible for inclusion in the agenda of the AGM.
Well it is that time again with the renewals due for 2007/2008. The membership fee remains at $30.00 which is still great value for money. The renewals need to be completed as at 30th June 2007 for you to be financial. Any member who has not renewed by that date will be ineligable to vote at the AGM on July 7th 2007. Renewal forms are available for download from the membership page in PDF format, and could you please ensure that any information supplied on the renewal forms (this should only be necessary if there are changes to last years information) be printed, as some hand writting can be difficult to read.
The 2007 Aus7 Modellers Award Nomination Forms are now available for download from the the Awards Page of this web site in a PDF format. Download the form, fill it in and mail or email to the address shown on the form. Please think about who you would like to nominate for this years award, and the more nominations the better. The award will be presented at this years AGM to be held on the 7th July 2007 at a soon to be nominated location.
Keep your eye on this page for further updates
24/2/07
The next Aus7 Modellers Group O-Scale Modellers Forum is to be held on Saturday the 24th of March at the North Sydney Leagues Club, Kamaraigal Room, 12 Abbot St, Cammeray. Access can be gained to the room at 8.30 am sign in for a 9.30 am start. There should be plenty to see and do with plenty of good talks on a range of modelling topics. Ring Nick 0421 058 945 or (02) 9956 6552 for details. The agenda is posted on the web site in the Convention section.
The web site has been updated with a scan of issue 4 of the group's newsletter, 7th Heaven. We will be posting issue 5 shortly. If you want to get the latest copies the best and cheapest way to obtain them is through joining the group. Back issues for all issues not posted on the web site can be purchased from the Secretary. Contact details can be found in the contacts section of the web site.
The Gallery section has recently had some new photos posted. These are of the 7mm scale, NSWGR outline layout Stringybark Creek. You can find a full coverage of this layout in issue 12 of 7th Heaven. The posted photos are simply to whet your appetite.
John Birch would like visitors to the site to use the online product database. It can be found at the top of the links section. He also asks that anyone who has a product to sell and would like it listed in the database they can contact him direct at John Birch .
6/11/06
Issue #11 of 7th Heaven - Cover image and content has been uploaded onto the web site, and can be found on the 7th Heaven page. This upload is not the full version of Issue 11 but just the cover and contents.
There are two items or recent news that we're sure will be of interest to members. At AMRA exhibition Hurstville (Oct 2006) Stringybark Creek took out two awards for Best Layout and the Norm Read trophy for the second year in a row. In addition to this Trevor Hodges took out first place in the open modelling competition for Scrathbuilt Rollingstock with his 7mm scale ICV van. Well done to all those members! It might also be appropriate to congratulate and thank the organizers of the AMRA exhibition: they have been very supportive of the Aus7 Modellers Group over the last couple of years and have helped us showcase O-scale modelling to the public and to a sometimes skeptical modelling community. So to Glenn Percival and his team and to Mick Wade for his efforts in past years, thanks for all the hard work.
The next NSW 7mm Modellers Forum will be held on Saturday the 11th of November 2006 at the North Sydney Leagues club starting at 8.30am. Contact Nick on (02) 9956 6552 or 0421 058 945 for further details.
12/10/06
Issue #10 of 7th Heaven - Cover image and content has been uploaded onto the web site, and can be found on the 7th Heaven page. This upload is not the full version of Issue 10 but just the cover and contents.
25/09/06
Issue #3 of 7th Heaven has been uploaded onto the web site, and can be found on the 7th Heaven page. This is in keeping with our policy of allowing the earlier newsletters to be made available after a 2 year period.
12/09/06
Roger Porter offically took over the position of Aus7 Modellers Group Inc. Treasurer as from today, and we wish him well in that roll. For all financial correspondance (cheques or payments) please contact Roger as he has the cheque book. And on another administration matter, could anyone who is using direct transfer from net banking to pay their fees, could they please send a followup email to both the Treasurer and the Secretary, informing them what the transaction was for and when the transaction had taken place. Their addresses are available on the contact page of this web site
Issue #10 of 7th Heaven should be arriving in your letter box at this very moment, so keep an eye out for this great publication, and do yourself a favour and read it from cover to cover. If you have any items that you wish to place in the next issue of 7th Heaven , such as advertising. Or you think that you have an article that would be able to be used in the mag, then contact the Editor or Secretary and have a word to them about you idea, you may become a published author and get a craving for writting articles that benefit others.
The Aus7 Modellers Group Inc. will be running the next Big Day Out at North Sydney Leagues Club on 11th November 2006. You will notice very little change in the proceedings. So make sure that you have this date secured in your diary and have a great day watching the growth of this fantastic scale, and listening to some great speakers. It is a very worthwile day for the "O" Scale Modleller, and for that matter, modellers of any scale.
3/6/06
Thanks to John Birch (GOG Webmaster) we now have a Product Data Base that can be accessed from either the Administration or links pages of this site. If you have any products that you wish to add to the data base you can contact John on the link in the paragraph below.
27/5/2006
Issue #9 of 7th Heaven was posted to all members on the 21st of May 2006. If your copy hasn't arrived please contact the Secretary to arrange a replacement copy. These will be posted to members at no cost. Members are being encouraged to submit material for publication. It bears repeating that articles do not have to be about NSWR standard gauge topics. If for some reason there is a mistake with the delivery of your copy such as a spelling mistake in your name or address could you please contact the Secretary Trevor Hodges to get the mistake corrected. He is the person who keeps the membership list up to date.
This latest issue is our first using a commercial printer and we'd appreciate some feedback about what members think. If you've got something to say about 7th Heaven could you contact the editor Kim Mihaly at adsl3549@tpg.com.au and pass on your thoughts.
This issue includes details of the Aus7 Modellers Group Annual General Meeting, to be held on Saturday the 8th of July at Lapstone Public School. Members should all try to make it to this event as it gives them a voice on the way the group is administered. See page 2 of issue #9 of 7th Heaven for details and times. If you can't get along why not send in a proxy vote to be used by another member. They can be found in the administration section of this web site.
It might be worth also noting that membership renewals are due at the end of June 2006. If you joined the group before March 31 2006 you must re-new your membership if you wish to continue receiving 7th Heaven. Issue #9 will be the last you receive if you fail to renew. The secretary will send a reminder note to those who haven't renewed by the AGM in early July but it helps the group keep its running costs down if it doesn't have to post out reminders to every member. Please get your renewal to the Secretary as soon as is convenient.
Members also need to keep in mind that nominations for the Aus7 Award will be closing soon. You can get a nomination form from the Awards section of this webs site. While the nomination form says that the presentation will be made at the next Big Day Out these has been a change of plans. The award will now be presented in early July at the AGM. If you wish to make a nomination please get in touch with Lindsay ASAP.
John Birch, who administers the Gague O Guild's web site, has been working in co-operation with the Aus7 Modellers Group to build a searchable data base of O-scale (1:43.5 & 1:48) products available from Australian manufacturers. If you're a manufacturer or retailer selling a product of interest to O-scale modellers, you can contact John at john.birch@virgin.net to get your product added. Eventually there will be a link on our web site to this data base so that anyone can search the products available. Thanks to John for his efforts. By the way he also happens to be a member of the Aus7 Modellers Group which shows you don't have to be an Aussie to become a member.
2/4/2006
The Aus7 Modellers Group web site has been updated with new photos in Gallery of the modelling of Geoff Brown and Trevor Hodges. Copies of issues #1 and #2 of 7th Heaven are now available for download from the site as .pdf files. On a slightly different topic it may come to the notice of some members that there is now an official Aus7 Modellers Yahoo! chat group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aus7ModellersGroup/ . Membership of this Yahoo! group is currently restricted to executive members to allow them to more easily discuss Aus7 business topics with a degree of privacy as we go through a fairly significant period of change in the group. If there is a demand for access members will be invited to join this group however we have no desire to set up a rival chat group to 7mmAusmodelling. The executive feel that 7mmAusmodelling serves as a more than adequate forum for discussion of a broad range of topics of interest to the O-scale modeller.
4/4/2006
The Aus7 Modellers Group is just over 18 months old. In its first 6 months of operation, during late 2004 to early 2005, there was no charge for being a member, with the first full year of financial membership about to come to close at the end of June 2006. In early 2005 the executive made the decision to charge Australian residents $15 and foreign residents $25 annually to cover the cost of running the group. This charge is primarily used to cover the cost of the production of 7th Heaven, the group's newsletter. During the same period the group has seen steady growth in its membership, rising from approximately 70 members at the end of 2004 to over 120 at the time of writing. During this time 7th Heaven has been produced by Kim Mihaly, the editor of 7th Heaven, on his PC and home printer. While membership numbers were relatively small this arrangement kept costs to members down however, as the membership has grown above one hundred, it has become increasingly obvious that a move to commercial printing would be necessary.
The executive has spent a good deal of time gathering quotes for commercial printing and discussing various options raised within the executive group and by other members. Most discussion has centered on whether we should try to keep costs down by producing 7th Heaven either wholly or partially in black and white. There has been a very strong feeling from within the executive that we want to continue producing 7th Heaven to the same standard of quality as at present: a quarterly production of 16 pages per issue in full colour. The only way of achieving this using a commercial printer is via an increase in the annual membership fee. As of April 2006 the annual membership fee of the Aus7 Modellers Group will be $30 for Australian residents and $40 for foreign residents. While a 100% increase may seem high at first glance it should be pointed out that the executive has never made any secret of the fact that the original $15 membership was only ever going to be a temporary arrangement. The issue has been canvassed a number of times both at the 2005 AGM and between the pages of 7th Heaven. Our best estimate will be that something like $27.50 of each $30 membership will go directly to producing 7th Heaven. The executive can make no guarantees that the fee will not need to rise again in the future if member numbers drop substantially due to this fee increase or if printing costs rise. The executive of the Aus7 Modellers Group hope all members will support the executive in this decision and re-new their memberships before June 30 2006.
16/4/2006
It's time to make nominations for this year's Aus7 Modellers Group Australian O-Scale Award.
Because it is not possible for any one person to know all of Australia's O scalers, nominations are being called from all members of the Aus7 Modeller's Group. The nominee does not need to be a member of the Aus7 Modellers Group. We want you to nominate recipients for the 2006 Aus7 Modellers Group Australian O-Scale Award. There are only a few simple criteria:
1. The nominee must have made a significant contribution to the promotion of any of the 'O' scales in Australian railway modelling. Some areas of contribution are listed in (4) below.
2. The nominees can be modellers working in standard or narrow gauges, in 7mm or 1/4" scales.
3. Modellers in prototypes other than Australian railways are eligible, but their contribution must have been in the promotion of O Scale in Australia. Promotion of Australian prototype modelling may be a factor in the decision-making.
4. Your nomination can cover the entire range of possible contributions across all possible fields: manufacturing, modelling, organising, retailing, writing, photography, administration (clubs, committees, exhibitions etc), research, publishing, painting, plans etc.
5. You must be prepared to support your nomination with a brief (no more than 50 words) statement of support for your nominee.
The award recipients will be chosen from the nominations by Lindsay O'Reilly and Phil Badger, who have been delegated this task by the Executive. Announcements and presentations (where possible) will be made by Lindsay and Phil at the Big Day Out at North Sydney Leagues Club in September 2006.
The form is available on this site at The Awards Page