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In the recent TCA Headquarter News I noticed that someone from Fall River, MA (NETCA-New England – 11) had recently joined TCA. I thought about that for a while, and after several days I phoned him and left a short message. Several more days passed and he returned my call. Relieved that he was not a nut burger, we had a nice conversation.

 

He is building a layout that he hopes will incorporate the latest electronics (That was his field before retiring) and was planning to visit http://www.miannebenchwork.com/review1r.htm in nearby Attleboro to buy bench work. He has Legacy, and DCS and he’s on his way to building his 3rd layout.

We plan to meet soon and hopefully we will have each made new friends in the hobby. Rarely does anyone close by become a TCA member.

 

That is why I find it so irksome that TCA no longer includes a DIRECTORY OF INFORMATION (membership directory) with membership, not even online as the LCCA does http://www.lionelcollectors.org/. The guy down the street could be TCA and you would have no way of knowing. Eliminating this membership perk was a big mistake on the part of National…but don’t get me going.

 

Any comments or opinions appreciated, as always.

 

Bruce E. Vincelette

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Well I know there were a number of reason they stopped printing it

 

1) Cost

2) People freaking when they showed up on eBay etc

3) Many folks saying "I really don't need one"

 

I would like the online one, but I can hear the concerns about hackers getting the entire directory and TCA not really having the security knowledge to protect it and how those roving gangs of train thieves would be getting the guide to know who to rob

The TCA membership directory is available on their website.  Just go to the members pull down located on the top border and select "members only information".

 

It will take you here:

http://tcamembers.org/membership/membersgateway.htm

 

Log in (or create your account) and you can then select the directory and view alphabetical or geographical after you enter the site provided directory password.

 

I understand and agree that the printed version's days have passed.  However, I still have my copy of the last printed version.  Sometimes it's faster to pick up the book and look up a member by name/region/number than it is to go online, log in, and search.

Originally Posted by Keystone:

The TCA membership directory is available on their website.  Just go to the members pull down located on the top border and select "members only information".

 

It will take you here:

http://tcamembers.org/membership/membersgateway.htm

 

Log in (or create your account) and you can then select the directory and view alphabetical or geographical after you enter the site provided directory password.

 

Well one problem I see already is that the link to the members list doesn't look like it's secure using encryption (SSL).  The indicator is that it is using http: instead of https:  (the "s" indicates a secure encrypted page).  Ditto for the link to create your login account.

 

That's not helping to safeguard from someone hacking into that site to harvest all the membership info there your nor your account details.

Last edited by John Korling
Plus, I feel with the 2 signature rule gone I am very Leary about transactions and the such now. Don't get me wrong even with the 2 signature rule you had to be careful, but now there is no effort on someone's part to get into t.c.a. whereas before it was like someone was vouching for you and Mabey in some way that helped the integrity level a little.
Originally Posted by E-UNIT-79:
Plus, I feel with the 2 signature rule gone I am very Leary about transactions and the such now. Don't get me wrong even with the 2 signature rule you had to be careful, but now there is no effort on someone's part to get into t.c.a. whereas before it was like someone was vouching for you and Mabey in some way that helped the integrity level a little.

They still have the probationary period.

 

The 2-signature rule had two problems with it as I saw it:

 

One, it's been noted that TCA members would just haphazardly sign for anybody that handed an application form to them without really taking the time to know the person anyway, and two, it created a burden for those that live in rural/remote areas where finding anybody local to sign for them was next to impossible.

 

So it seems that the TCA 2-signature rule was well-intended but really amounted to being as effective as placing gauze in front of a runaway semi truck, to paraphrase Robin Williams.

Last edited by John Korling

I too miss the paper directory, but it did become a very significant expense for the TCA at a time of declining membership. I only hope the online directory becomes a secure site.

As an aside, the TCA membership voted to eliminate the two signature rule and so be it. It seems to me that the entire vetting process for TCA membership had been gradually diluted in the past decade or so with membership applications (with two signatures already in place) being handed out freely at York. Personally i will no longer accept personal checks from TCA members with membership numbers later than the year 2000.

I only hope the two signature elimination has the desired effect of increasing membership. But again my personal feeling is that i would hope the TCA could get its financial house in order, and then restructure to become a viable organization with 20,000 or fewer loyal and active members, rather than a struggling one needing 30,000+ members.

jackson

TCA 82-21538

Well, the two-signature rule--which I always favored and still do favor--went away primarily because a small number of members violated both the purpose and intent of that rule.  A real shame in my opinion.

 

As for those who claim that they live in remote areas where they couldn't get together with a couple of sponsors, there were other courses available that could be followed to gain membership (initially contacting division officers for that particular region, for example).

 

But that signature rule is gone now.  I'm quite confident that its elimination will not do anything, over the long run, to either boost membership or to enhance the quality of the membership ranks.  There was, indeed, a certain sense of "security" that one had in dealing with fellow members in earlier years.  That, too, is now gone unless you are dealing with one of the longer-term members.

 

ALL of the national train clubs have membership retention concerns.  It was an inevitable development that could be easily seen by anyone who had been associated with the hobby for a period of time.  If club officers had only had the foresight to see the writing on the wall back in the latter years of the previous century, it might have been avoided or at least significantly mitigated.  At this point, they will have to be very creative in coming up with innovative ways to hold onto what they already have, let alone grow (the LCCA is at least most definitely trying).  I offered a suggestion or two re: TCA memberships and the organization's future in the past, but that apparently fell on deaf ears.  Oh, well, that's the way the cookie crumbles!

Last edited by Allan Miller
Originally Posted by Allan Miller:

There was, indeed, a certain sense of "security" that one had in dealing with fellow members in earlier years.  es!

They have a name for that, it's called "feel good" documentation.

 

That, too, is now gone unless you are dealing with one of the longer-term members.

I think that's a little unfair to say about newer members.  The true character of anybody reveals itself sooner or later, and everyone is new once.  You still have the probationary period to give ample time to make any objections or recommendations for removal of the applicant.

The SSL or https only encrypts the data from your computer to the server. Credit card data and the like would be easy for a hacker sitting outside your house grabbing keystrokes.
While encrypting your user name and password into their data display can be done it has nothing to do with a hack of the server itself. The http://tcabuysell.org is not running https as there is no "sensitive" information being transmitted.

The join and login for this forum is not running SSL so I'm not sure what people here are excited about.

Originally Posted by John Korling:
 You still have the probationary period to give ample time to make any objections or recommendations for removal of the applicant.

Well today someone can join the TCA without a single member ever having  met this

person.

 

Snf should this complaint [thread] have been posted on a TCA forum?

Paul,
It was so costly because it was a directory of information rather than simply a members directory. Most of what was in there wasn't needed: it should have been on their web pages.

I too found the paper directory very useful.  However for everyone's FYI, the directory in it's last year of publication cost about $80,000. to print!!

Paul,

 

I'd say the same goes for the Headquarter News: it's overloaded with unnecessary print. Compare it, for example, to the LCCA's InterTrack(/). There is a quality publication, printed on quality paper, with only interesting and pertinent information. And, as a bonus, it has a table of contents on page 2 where it belongs.

 

 

Paul Edgar

 

Originally Posted by Bruce E. Vincelette:
I'd say the same goes for the Headquarter News: it's overloaded with unnecessary print.

 

Now there's a publication they could do away with entirely, in my view, and save a pile of money. 

 

--Important information for members could be incorporated into an expanded Quarterly magazine and/or (depending on the type) posted online.

 

--Probationary member list info might just as well disappear altogether now that the signature rule is gone.

 

--Member classifieds can all go to the online site.

 

--Ads could be offered in the Quarterly to offset increased costs of an expanded version of that publication.

 

--Etc., etc.

I agree, Alan, but change is slow to come. I get SO much more "bang for the buck" with my LCCA membership. Those guys seem always to be on the cutting edge when it comes to meeting their memberships wants, and needs. And, they do it on a much smaller budge...Go figure.
 
Originally Posted by Bruce E. Vincelette:
I'd say the same goes for the Headquarter News: it's overloaded with unnecessary print.

 

Now there's a publication they could do away with entirely, in my view, and save a pile of money. 

 

--Important information for members could be incorporated into an expanded Quarterly magazine and/or (depending on the type) posted online.

 

--Probationary member list info might just as well disappear altogether now that the signature rule is gone.

 

--Member classifieds can all go to the online site.

 

--Ads could be offered in the Quarterly to offset increased costs of an expanded version of that publication.

 

--Etc., etc.

 

Originally Posted by pennsyk4:
Originally Posted by John Korling:
 You still have the probationary period to give ample time to make any objections or recommendations for removal of the applicant.

Well today someone can join the TCA without a single member ever having  met this

person.

That's already been happening anyway.  Do you really think there's that much of a difference between that and letting someone join that you only met for 5 minutes?

Last edited by John Korling
Originally Posted by railroad-guy:

The SSL or https only encrypts the data from your computer to the server. Credit card data and the like would be easy for a hacker sitting outside your house grabbing keystrokes.
While encrypting your user name and password into their data display can be done it has nothing to do with a hack of the server itself. The http://tcabuysell.org is not running https as there is no "sensitive" information being transmitted.

The join and login for this forum is not running SSL so I'm not sure what people here are excited about.

You want the page to be encrypted when logging in and accessing it.  Because the lack of it is the largest point of failure from a security perspective when accessing online resources.  Hacking into an online website is fundamentally no different than hacking into the server, because the server is hosting it.

Originally Posted by C W Burfle:

quote:
Probationary member list info might just as well disappear altogether now that the signature rule is gone.


 

I thought that part of the justification for the elimination of the signature rule was the idea that "bad apples" would be caught in the probationary member listings.

 

Perhaps the TCA could link up to the FBI background check info. 

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