Division Four is an official sponsor of the 4H Model Train Club of Medina Ohio
In addition to providing volunteers to assist in the club's efforts, the Division will match donations up to a total of $150, for a period from now until the June 2008 meeting.
The following is a statement from 4H Organizational Advisor Peter Stroth providing additional information about the program.
Subject:
NMRA Division 4MCR and
Thank you for recent call and email of 17 April outlining the proposal by
the Division 4 Board of Directors to match dollar for dollar all donations made
by division members up to a total of $150.oo in donations.
Your proposal is very generous and will be appreciated and put to good
use by the 4H group.
How would your donation
be used ?
The operating highlight, the from the member’s point of view, last two
years at the Medina County Fair, has been the DCC controlled operating sessions.
Our general plan for using any donation received will be to apply the
funds toward the purchase of a club owned DCC control system.
Given that we have strong Digitrax and NEC advocates, yet to be
determined is the specific make and model controller which has the broadest
applicability coupled with simplicity and durability.
We would appreciate NMRA member’s good, or not so happy, personal
experiences and suggestions on the control unit to consider – CVP, Digitrax,
Lenz, MRC, NEC, or another make ?
Other ways for NMRA
members to personally help
NMRA train enthusiasts can help 4H in several areas.
You likely have a special interest or skill that that would interest some
4H member and their parents.
We meet at: old
Lafayette elementary school in
the center of Lafayette
on the south east corner of
at the intersection of Route 42 and
Route 162 east (
about 3 miles southwest of Medina
).
We meet on the second floor of the old building which is accessed from an
outside stairs to the northeast parking lot off Route 42.
We meet one Sunday a month from
If
you are interested in helping our 4H program please call the Stroths to discuss
how your interest could best assist the program.
Help members build
modules –
Help to get the job done, from about
Teaching the skill to the 4H member and parent one on one.
1.
Laying roadbed and track.
2.
Wiring
3.
Building scenery
4.
Your own idea and special skill is ?
Present a Clinic
–
Clinics most conveniently fit into the existing schedule sometime around
Remember that the primary audience is from
The secondary audience is the parent.
PART 1: 12 to 20 minute action sound bite demonstration on
one specific subject
Teach the skill
Hand out of one or two pages,
to help them do it again later at home
PART
Getting the job done the
4H member does it and parent observes and helps
Modest fee for consumables, if necessary ( say 50 cents to
$1.00 max )
1.
Scenery building
2.
Structure building
3.
Rail car building
4.
Locomotive tune up and maintenance
5.
Your own idea is ?
Fair focuses the year’s
efforts.
The focus of the group effort for each year is for each member to
complete a new 2 by 4 foot module which mates with other club modules to show
and operate the entire Fair week at the Medina County Fair.
In 2007 we fielded a 20 module 12 by 32 foot modular railroad.
In 2008 we anticipate again operating that same size layout with about
four more modules operating in the center of the loop.
The operating layout showcases the member’s work and also is a recruiting
tool for both the train group and also 4H in general.
Advisors use the one on one speaking opportunity created by the trains to
promote both the train program and 4H to parents of prospective members.
We aggressively try to recruit boys viewing the layout, before they
become captured by computer action games.
We shamelessly try to capitalize on the “
What and why is
My wife and I have been 4H advisors for more than 25 years because we
appreciated the positive impact of the 4H experience for our own children.
We started the Train Club ten years ago with about six members and have
built it up to about 25 current members with six other advisors helping us.
We saw a 4H train club primarily aimed at boys as a way to provide the
benefits of 4H while also building a lifelong train hobby interest.
Interestingly we now have four girls as members, three are sisters of
boys in the club, and one is a train module only member.
We attempt to accommodate all their interests, whether train related or
not, so that the club meeting is a family one stop shop event.
What is 4H all about ?
4H focuses on developing member’s basic life skills and also their
leadership skills, in youth from age 9 through 18, through the medium of
“projects” and various leadership development opportunities.
While 4H started in the 1900 era with a rural and farm youth focus, the
urbanization of
Counties, such as Medina, which have transitioned from agriculture into
being an upscale distant bedroom county now have a 4H membership majority of
rural non farm and suburban youth participating, in Medina’s case, in about 50+
clubs with 1200 members, and about 200 advisors.
The 4H cows / corduroy jacket / clodhopper image remains a tough sell
with today’s youth whose top of mind interests tend to be computers / internet /
sports / band / and Scouts.
Each club has member officers elected yearly by the group.
Officers learn by doing leadership, organizational skills, people skills,
planning, public speaking, money skills, promoting, - all this requires intense
effort from the advisors and member’s parents to develop these skills in the
student officers.
The 4H experience is delivered by volunteer advisors overseen by a small
cadre of permanent staff attached to the county extension service office which
is part of ( in
The module project
Building the module tends to become the focus of the year’s activity
simply because the physical task is daunting and we only meet once a month from
January through July with the deadline of the Fair being, in Medina’s case, the
first week of August. Most of our
members are young and need much help to get the job done.
The project and a blue ribbon is not the goal – it is the medium for
accomplishing the real goal.
The real benefits of the project to each 4H member are the intangibles of
learning new skills such as wood working, mechanical skills, electrical skills,
working with your hands, planning, goal setting, time and skill management,
money management, working toward a group goal, helping others, leading others,
observing the world, learning what not to do, and about trains and the railroad
hobby.
I hope that this provides the necessary information you need.
Sorry that it is so close to the deadline, life intrudes.
Please call if you need any other information
Thank you,