Convention Wrap-up

It’s been a week since the Convention.  I’m pretty much caught up on all the work I put on hold in the week or two previous to it.  I guess it’s time for a wrap-up post.

After struggling with the floor plan we finally got everything to fit, on paper.  We went to the Silver Fox on Thursday before the show to mark the floor for the layouts and position a few tables.  The first thing I wanted to check was the number of tables the staff of the Silver Fox placed around the perimeter of the rink for vendors.  I was really surprised that they were able to fit two extra tables along the length of the room.  We soon discovered that my drawing was 20 feet too short.  We probably would not have had so much trouble getting things to fit on the paper plan if we had known.  Thankfully it wasn’t the other way and we discovered the room was 20 feet short!  Whew!

Narragansett Bay Railway and Navigation Co. - Rhode Island (Photo: Allan Bishop)

Thursday night was a relatively sleepless one wondering what problems Friday would bring.  I arrived at the Silver Fox before noon and there were already a few people waiting to set up.  The room slowly started to take shape and by 7:00 almost everyone was set up.  At 9:00 we closed the place down.  The room looked quite impressive, to say the lest.

We moved on to the Quality Inn where they had a spread of food and “drinks”  in their large courtyard area.  From the comments I’ve heard I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time, especially the folks that won gift certificates to local restaurants.

Friday night was another relatively sleepless one wondering if the public show would be successful.  Would there be enough interest?  After all the publicity (full front page article in the Journal Pioneer, PSA announcements, radio interview, and an on-location spot with the local CBC television weather guy) folks should certainly know about it.

During the show (photo: Jean Cormier)

It was hard to tell what the public attendance was like through the day on Saturday.  We’re used to the Truro and Moncton venues and what the crowds look like there, but this venue was bigger.  It didn’t look like there were many people around, especially in the morning.  The afternoon crowd was a little better.  Vendors gave mixed reports of how well the day was going.

Ron Day - Fast Tracks Clinic (photo: Derwin Cole)

The clinic rooms were a worry for me because they were only curtained off areas.  I hoped the noise from one room would not interfere with what was happening in the other room.  The rooms were a little noisy, but I think they worked okay.  I didn’t hear many complaints about them, anyway

We were a little rushed during the banquet.  The Silver Fox had a dance scheduled for 9:30 and I was hoping we’d be done by then.  We were done a little after 9:00, but like I said we felt rushed to finish things up.  Part of the problem was that we did such a good job of soliciting prizes that after the contest prizes were doled out we still had tons of stuff to give away.  I was drawing names for at least 30 minutes!  In the end almost everyone got something.

The Quality Inn was nice enough to provide us with a suite that we could use as a hospitality room so things moved there after the banquet.  Another late evening, but I slept a whole lot better than the previous two nights!  I knew there was nothing to worry about for Sunday.

Brian Chappell, Derwin Cole, and I opened our layout rooms for the tours on Sunday.  We all had lots of visitors.  About half the registered delegates participated in the tours.  The tours ended about 2:00 and I, for one, enjoyed a well deserved rest for the remainder of the day.

The final tally was 81 delegates, 105 for the banquet, and over 500 for the public show!  Those pretty much double my budgeted numbers!  The dollar figures aren’t final, but I know we’ll be making some sizable donations to our charities and perhaps even add something to the MFMR coffers to boot!

I want to thank everyone who participated for making Island Rails 2009 a grand success!  Without you it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun!

See you at Tracks and Tides 2010 in Saint John (the next MFMR Convention) on May 20 – 23, 2010!

Scott

Narragansett Bay Railway and Navigation Co. – Rhode Island (Photo: Allan Bishop)

UMG setting up (photo: Allan Bishop)

Saint John N Scale (Photo: Derwin Cole)

EasterN BeNders (Photo: Derwin Cole)

Truro Club (Photo: Derwin Cole)

Saint John HO Scale (photo: Derwin Cole)

Moncton HO scale (photo: Derwin Cole)

UMG (photo: Derwin Cole)

Lots of final touchups! (photo: Dave McMahon)

During the show (photo: Jean Cormier)

What railroad scene on PEI would be complete without 1762? (Photo: Dave McMahon)

Narragansett Bay Railway & Navigation Co. (photo: Derwin Cole)

Narragansett Bay Railway & Navigation Co. (photo: Derwin Cole)

Huge sales? Don’s HO (photo: Derwin Cole)

Will Lawrence – Locomotive Maintenance (photo: Derwin Cole)

Ross Young – Bragdon Powders (photo Derwin Cole)

Ronald Grandmaison – Structures (photo: Derwin Cole)

James Whatley – CNR Van Details (photo: Derwin Cole)

Ron Day – Fast Tracks Clinic (photo: Derwin Cole)