A brief history of the GRVRRC

     In December 2009, 5 members of the West Michigan Train Club -- Roger Fenske, Al Crum, Brad Crum, Doug Voss, and Steve Melnick -- decided to start a new club. 
     In January 2010 they rented a table at the Riverbend club’s show to promote the new organization, originally intended to be a modular club. 
   . In June 2010 Roger, as president, found the current location for our club, and a layout was started in the first room at the back of the hallway.   In 2014, the second room where the oil refinery is located, was completed. Both rooms originally had cinder block walls, which the club covered with drywall and Masonite board.
  Only four months old in April 2010, the new GRVRRC hosted a train show in the Home School Building that we still use. That first show had 256 vendor tables and the Holland Modular RR Club layout. Since then, except for 2020, we have had two train shows a year, in Spring and Fall. Roger ran all the train shows for the club in the early days.
  In 2012 Ken began to go with him to other shows and help him with selling tables for our shows.m   In August of 2014 Roger decided to move to Arizona. Ken volunteered to be Train Show Coordinator. Roger gave Ken floor plans of vendor tables and a list of contacts for advertising the show. After coordinating the shows in November 2014 and April 2015, Ken noticed that some vendors were not at the shows. In checking with vendors, Ken found out there were other shows on the dates that we used. This was the start of the “Train Show List MI, IN & OH”.
   Using the information gathered from vendors, especially the conflict with the Lansing Model RR Club’s show in November, we switched our November show to October. Since that time, the “Train Show List” has grown to its present size. Another important marketing tool is a database of attendee email addresses. In 2017, a train show sponsor told me he started an email list by requiring the addresses on Door Prize entry forms.  Since then, we have acquired 1,212 attendee email addresses. The total email list enables us to market our show widely and to keep our name current. The Train Show List is sent to 497 vendors, 113 Model RR Clubs, 34 Hobby shops, 88 NMRA Divisions, 42 Model Train Manufacturers, and 98 Train Show Sponsors. 2,084 individuals and organizations currently receive our list in MI, IN & OH. Vendors use the list to plan their sales activity.
  Our show is one of the premier shows in Michigan. It is the second largest show in Michigan. It also might be the only show left in the Grand Rapids area. Five years ago, there were five shows annually in Grand Rapids, sponsored by the Riverbend RR Club, West Michigan RR Club, and the Grand Rapids Model RR Historical Society, as well as us. The future of those other shows is now in doubt.
  Another marketing tool started in 2016, was renting a table at other train shows to promote our club, our own train shows and add names to our emailing list. This bodes well for the success of our shows. 
  After he Fall 2021 shw, Ken retired, and a "Show committee" was formed from 4 members.        The 10/9/2021 train show had our largest number of vendors (88) and the most selling tables (260). We had our second largest attendance (630).
  In the last 24 months our club has doubled its membership to 44  paying members.