The home base for the MidSouth Division Web Site is located in Huntsville Alabama and we serve Alabama, Tennesseeand all surrounding areas.

Late last year the Mid-South Division made a survey for the purpose of determining the activities which would be of greatest interest to the group. The survey was done by mail and included all of the NMRA members and Southeastern Region members within the geographic boundaries of the division.

Fifty-three questionnaires were sent, and the response rate was 43.8%. Of the NMRA members responding, only 33.0% were members of the Southeastern Region.

SURVEY RESULTS:

90% of those responding would attend division meets.
For meet activities, an equal interest was indicated in how-to-do-it clinics, prototype tours, and layout visits.
For showing models at meets, the show-and-tell approach was preferred over contests. The popular vote contest ran second.
For layout construction as a group, modular construction was preferred over a fixed layout by a two to one margin.

For meetings the following were preferred:

76% preferred quarterly meetings.
67% preferred Saturday meetings.
55% preferred half-day meetings.
68% preferred rotating meeting locations between large cities and smaller places.
90% would like a dutch treat meal with the meetings at least occasionally.
100% preferred informal meetings with just enough rules to prevent chaos.
95% indicated an interest in receiving a division newsletter. Anyone want to take on the job of editor? (later this idea did not seem doable, perhaps a web page?)

A number of comments were received with the returned surveys. Reference will be made to these in planning future division activities in the Mid-South. The interests in divisions will vary with the experience background of the membership, and the trends of the time. In any case the survey approach can be used to acquire the information which could lead to more interesting meets, greater attendance, and more enjoyment in the hobby. Model railroading is fun!