This would be a major change for SANTRAK!   Much of our increase in membership had been due to our relaxed and informal club structure.  Did the membership really want the organized structure of By-Laws? Would it really help our club to go forward and expand?  What problems did we have, other than a lack of participation at club meetings and what would the By-Laws do to correct that particular problem?

The first club meeting of the 1998 calender year saw a very respectable turnout of club members, more than had been seen in the past couple of years.  When the subject of By-Laws came up, it was decided, by vote, that we would explore the possibility of adopting a set of By-Laws.

During the February meeting, we had a reading of a modified version of the proposed By-Laws as written in the NTRAK How-to Manual. A couple of changes were suggested and adopted at this time.

At the March meeting, there was a final reading of the proposed By-Laws.  But, Article V, which is Association Rules, was NOT discussed.  When questioned, the answer was that the Rules could be changed at any time by a simple majority.  Another comment was made to the effect that we should go ahead and vote and get it over with.     Our By-Laws were adopted by a 51% majority  - - - one vote!  After the vote was taken and the meeting adjourned, a couple of members were heard to say, “Oh, I didn’t understand it that way, I should have voted against it”. Other members voiced their distaste for anything political, they just wanted to run trains.

And so, as of 22 March 1998, SANTRAK changed from a disorganized group, to an organized club that was to operate under a duly elected set of By-Laws.  The first act of the club was to elect a set of officers, and from that point on, things started to go down hill.  The whole idea of organizing under a set of By-Laws, had been sold as a means to improve club operations.  In actuality, the discussions and voting process simply magnified the difference in opinions of various members, eventually resulted in bad feelings and ended up causing us to loose several members.  In less than two months, two of the newly elected officers had resigned.  This, of course, required another election to fill the vacancies.  Some members again voiced their distaste for anything political and simply failed to show up for business meetings.  The “Fun Factor” had disappeared from our model railroad club.  The usual low, summertime attendance at this point, resulted in a   less than quorum count as set forth in the new By-Laws so that the club was unable to call a meeting to order for two months in a row.  A member now had to own one or more modules in order to vote.  Active, participating members, that had not yet constructed a module, could no longer vote on club business.

Attendance began to improve by September of 1998, but we still had some lessons to learn.  Major decisions that could easily have been voted on in the past, now had to be brought before the membership, discussed during two consecutive meetings and then brought to a vote.  This again resulted in a couple of failed actions and created additional bad feelings

1998 was a year of revelation for our club, but we were able to learn from our mistakes. We initiated a couple of minor changes in the By-Laws and will probably make some more revisions as time goes on.  Our New Year’s Resolution for 1999 - - - LEARN TO OPERATE WITHIN THE BY-LAWS!!!