| Volume 39 Issue 1 | September 1999 |
| Volume 39 Issue 1 | September 1999 |
My name is Ray Persing, and I'm the newly designated Regional Contest Chair. I've been a member of the NMRA since 1993, and model railroading since I could stand on a chair and "help" my dad with his Lionel and Marx HO trains
Being the regional contest chair means a couple of things to me. First is that it has become my responsibility to arrange for judging and help with the contest room at the regional conventions.. More importantly, it also means that I need to try to increase the participation of you, the region members, in the regional model contests.
Arranging for judging is easy. We have a number of qualified judges in the region, and many of them show up to the regional conventions on a regular basis. We would, however, like to get more judges into the pool.
I can see the looks now - "Yeah, right, I can't do that!" And, I'm going to tell you that you're wrong. Anybody can judge. The NMRA has spent a lot of time and effort on making the judging process more straight-forward, and has provided a lot more guidance than was the case a few years ago.
If you've never judged before, you can be teamed with one or two experienced judges until you get comfortable. But, you CAN do it. Please check with your division AP chair to find out how to get started. Try it at the division level, and you'll see how easy it really is.
The more important part of my job is to encourage participation in the Regional Convention model contests. I have been disappointed with the turnout in the last several years. I know there are more models being built than the 50 to 100 we see at the convention, and I have heard a lot of reasons why people don't bring models...
Reason one: "I don't want to fill out the paperwork." People don't want to deal with 'the paperwork' of entering a model. There is some attendant paperwork that goes with entering a model in an NMRA contest. It does not, however, need to be a massive effort. One or two paragraphs for each category is more than sufficient, along with copies of the prototype plans. I will typically take no more than an hour on the paperwork for a contest model. It's a good record of what I did, so I can go back and recreate the model if I feel the need to, or describe what I did to somebody else (which is what the contest paperwork is really all about).
Reason two: "I don't want people to nit-pick at my efforts." People don't want to have their work criticized. The contest is not intended to criticize a model, but to critique it. The difference is that the judges provide feedback on how they evaluated a model, what they felt was well-done, and what they felt fell short of representing the prototype. The objective is not to nit-pick the model, but to help to improve modeling skills. I have never met a judge who would not dicuss the reasons for a score, or suggest alternatives to a modeling technique which didn't work out. Every model built is a learning experience, and part of the job of the judges is to help that experience be as beneficial as possible.
Reason three: "My work isn't good enough." Perhaps its not good enough to win an award. However, that's no reason for not sharing your efforts with others. I like looking at models, any subject, any scale. I've seen models which I would never try to duplicate (knowing my own limitations), and I've seen models which I couldn't wait to attempt a version of my own. I've made lots of friends through the contest room by exchanging modeling techniques, and talking about our own particular ideas on model-building. That doesn't happen if the models aren't there in the room.
We're going to try a few new things over the next two years. One, I'm personally sponsoring a "Best First-time Entrant" model. It will be available only to somebody who has not entered a regional model contest before. Second, all judging teams will be required to provide written feedback on each category of model. Right now, feedback is something which usually happens, but not always. It may be constructive criticism, or just an 'atta-boy' for a job well done, but it will happen. Third, we will institute a ' no-paperwork' category of model entry. These models will not be judged for AP certificates, and therefore will be ineligible for the judged awards. They will, however, be eligible for popular vote awards, which will be tallied for each model category.
The ability to attend an NMRA Regional or National Convention is a major benefit of being an NMRA member. I treasure the friends I have made in the last six years by going to these events, and look forward to the ones I haven't met yet. I've learned modeling techniques which would have taken years for me to discover on my own, if ever. And, I've seen some absolutely fantastic models.
If you've never been to a Regional convention, please start planning now on attending next year's event. If you're going, bring a model and enter it in the contest room. Give the rest of us a chance to see the fine work that I know is being done in the region!
© 1999 Division 3, MCR, NMRA