Member postings for Steve Kesterton

- have had 2 very contrasting situations this weekend regarding choosing a club to join.

We live in the west Midlands and on Saturday went to help out with a OO gauge railway at a local Model Engineering Society. We had spoken to them beforehand and - with their agreement - took along our 5" gauge 'Railpup' for my son to run. When we arrived, we introduced ourselves and they immediately allocated us a length of new line (which had yet to be connected to the main running line) for us to run on. During the day, lots of children wanted to try the 'Railpup' so (instead of helping with the layout), we ended up spending the entire afternoon supervising them with the clubs full permission (and indeed encouragement). At the end of the day, we were thanked for helping them out and invited to take the 'Railpup' back to another one of their events.

This morning was a complete contrast - we went back to rejoin the nearest Model Engineering Society to our home. I already had a completed membership form and took the cash along. Twice I approached the person in charge tendering my money, etc. "Just wait until I have done these jobs" I was told. After waiting 50 minutes and seeing the chap concerned laughing and chatting to some other members, I decided that I'd waited long enough and so we came home.

I'm in my mid 40's and my son is 13 - on the short drive home we were discussing the contrasts between these 2 encounters. Saturday - very welcoming to us both and encouraging. Sunday - a few folk said "Hello", but no interest whatsoever in gaining 2 keen new members.

Makes me wonder where our hobby will end up in the future - I'm confident I know now which Society out of the 2 we visited this weekend will last the longest !!