OKHIKER posted:Allan Miller posted:OKHIKER posted:In regards to Allan Miller's and Ed Boyle's presence at York this spring I know all of us appreciate and applaud it because they are dedicated hobbyists but it would seem to me that these appear to be individual decisions rather than corporate decisions because there will be no official OGR booth there which certainly mirrors a corporate decision.
Ii appears that some folks may have a mistaken impression of how big our OGR "corporation" actually is. Truth is, it's four people, and Ed and I are two of them. There are, of course, other separate agents and agencies involved with producing the products that we do--graphics team, copy editor/proofreader, printer, distribution, financial, etc.--but the core group is four. All four of us are dedicted to the hobby and to seeing it grow to the extent we can promote and influence such growth. If that was not the case, there likely would be no magazine and, by extension, no OGR forum, among other things. And, yes, we expect to be at our Orange Hall booth in October, flying the flag as usual.
I am happy as I'm sure others are that there will be an official OGR booth at York in the autumn. I know this is just my opinion but I feel that an OGR official booth this spring would have been a good common sense decision to display their continued good will towards all of the individual hobbyists who enjoy traveling to York twice a year to engage in the buying and selling of toy trains as well as the warm camaraderie experienced there. OGR might not sell much there but the good will they would spread by their presence would continue to be incalculable. Unfortunately, some of the comments which have been made by at least one OGR representative and possibly more over the past few years would appear to indicate that their primary interest is one of quick monetary benefit rather than the long range financial benefit they would realize by a continued twice a year official presence at York. I fully recognize that you understand this Allan because you and Ed are taking the time and effort to provide a presence there at your own expense and to me that speaks volumes.
I think OGR as a corporate entity, whether it be four people or four hundred, should realize that their bread is buttered by the several thousand individual hobbyists, including me, who purchase their magazine and travel to York multiple times a year to enjoy the fruits of the world's greatest hobby. Without us OGR does not exist and many of us want York to remain a twice a year experience. It has been unfortunate that some at OGR have argued so vehemently in the past to reduce it to strictly a yearly experience.
OK....it is time for me to chime in here as I am tired of some of the non-sense.... OKHIKER....before you make some of the statements you have made above, you need to consider that there are MANY decisions a business has to make in order to be able to survive in this hobby. Some of you have no idea how much OGR supports the hobby! To even imply that there are some here at OGR who don't is pure crap. We certainly understand where our bread is buttered but a lot of that "butter" is given back to this forum where a few of you feel entitled to bash OGR's intentions and do so even putting down OGR because we try to survive by making a profit....GHEEEZZZ.... I guess we are suppost to spend $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 every year to keep going to a meet at which we sell perhaps $500.00. Yeah...that is right...last fall we made total sales of just a few dollars over $500.00. Just in case you don't know, that has been going on for YEARS! The last 6 years of Yorks (that is 12 of them) we have gone way in the hole to attend. Read Jack's earlier post as he hit the nail on the head as far as from a manufacturer's perspective. As far as your last sentence above....I don't know of anybody currently with OGR that has vehemently argued for York to be only a yearly experience. Why would we do that....? Now...have we discussed it being a yearly experience for OGR...yep, we have. So...let me clue you in how that meeting went. The four partners: Ed, Jim, Allan, and myself discussed at length how we as a small company could best support York and other things we do and still survive as a company so that we could keep producing our magazine as well as our product line(s). The way we decided to do this was to cut costs where the benefit for both OGR and our readers/advertisers was greatest. We decided that Allan, Ed, and Jim who have been going to York for many, many years would still do so and would do so on their own dime. The "company" would go ahead and pay for the booth space so as to still show we support York and of course to make sure we would have the space in the fall....even though the nice folks at EDTCA told us that they would try to place someone in our space in order that we would not have to pay for it. I paid for it anyway and do not expect a refund nor do we want one! OGR is a very small business compared to the other businesses that have made the decision to attend the York show once per year and to be honest, in their case the money they save on all of the expenses Jack discussed in his post above will be directed to where they can reach more potential hobbyists. OGR on the other hand will use the money to pay our bills like this forum that is FREE to folks like you...so you can continue to smack us in the face with implied and personal statements. Oh..and by the way, just in case you think the advertising on the forum pays for all of the forum expenses, you are sadly mistaken. Meantime, I will remain here at the office during this York meet so that someone is here to answer phones, support Allan, Ed and Jim if they need to contact the office during the meet and help folks that may need assistance in some way. Hopefully, more calm and rational minds will realize some day that OGR in fact does perform an important place in the support of the hobby all over the country which includes not only certain meets but through our individual contributions as members of the OGR team.
