Fall is upon us ...

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Sep 2004 by Dixon, Tom

With this issue we start into the Fall selling season, when we actually get about half of our annual income. The catalog goes to all members and to about 300,000 others.

But it is the C&OHS membership that is the biggest and most consistent buying group, and we absolutely rely on a good season to ensure our survival throughout the rest of the year when business is slower.

We are continuing to try to initiate new model projects and we're keeping an eye out for new releases of C&O-subject models. We'll advertise them as they're known.

The matter of pricing our products (models in particular) continues to come up, with folks saying that we don't always have the lowest price. I will say again, we discount everything we can to the maximum extent based on what we have to pay and how much we have to make it even worthwhile handling the product. I can almost guarantee you that someone on the Internet will be selling what we sell at a better price. In fact we noted someone last year that was retailing the Bachmann J-2 for what we had to pay for it wholesale. I don't know what kind of deals go on, but this happens. That said (again), I will say (again) that we rely on the members to support us. Perhaps you pay a bit more, but that bit more is what we need to make the C&OHS survive as it is today and go forward with our work. I leave it in your hands.

It may seem to you that what I say in this column is often related to sales, money, donations, and work sessions. You may ask, why doesnt the president of our Society concern himself more with developing the collections and concentrating on history. Well, the fact of life is that we must have a certain level of resources even to think about doing that basic mission. The world intrudes; we must grub for money and take every opportunity to get the resources so we can make progress on the history/collcctions/archives side.

As the Fall approaches I would like you to think about giving a donation of some type to the Society. The 490 Club was set up so you may do it spread out over 12 months, and I hope we'll get more folks to sign up to that on an ongoing basis. You may also give lump sums, and some have occasionally given us equities (stock), which we sell, using the funds for our work.

In this connection I'm happy to announce a very nice donation about $3,000 toward our publication program from retired C&O/Chessie System V.P.-Public Relations Howard Skid more, whose stories have appeared in this magazine over the years and who is a great supporter of our cause.

The model I want to mention in particular is our series of specially named HO Hranchline George Washington 8-1-1 and 12-1 heavyweight Pullmans. We have arranged with Branchline for a number of names which you can't get anywhere else but the Society, but you should order soon!

Thanks again to everyone who supports us by membership, purchases, or gifts of moncv or time! Without that, we're lost!

Tom Dixon, Chairman & President