I am a member of the Central Indiana Division of the NMRA. We usually have quarterly modeler’s meets in which we have someone give a presentation on something related to the hobby and have a time to discuss and show some of the projects the attendees are working on. Last year we also started having a monthly get together called “Track Talk” at a location chosen by various members usually involving food.
Since the Covid-19 situation and the social distancing required, this has all changed. One of our members is now hosting a “Track Talk” Zoom conference on Saturday mornings. Last Saturday there were about 25 participants on Zoom plus an additional 10 on Facebook. We had two members give virtual layout tours and had some good discussion about members problems and fixes, new ideas, and such.
The Zoom platform is impressive and for the time being, it looks like that will be the extent of our interaction. Some of the members are really into operations and are having withdrawal symptoms. This weekly virtual meeting seems to help with that somewhat.
