We held off as long as we could to see if there was any way, but that proved to be futile. I too wanted to see the New Oakville Sub, so hopefully we will be able to reschedule sooner rather than later.
The full copy from the letter:
Hey Everybody!
Everyone has been hunkered down and sheltering in place, I trust. These are tough times for everyone, including our members, our manufacturing supporters, and our hobby shops.
We are now a little more than 60 days out from the scheduled start of our convention, and your intrepid crew was deep into the preparation as is usually the case just before a convention. Dick and Jon were working hard with local hosts, Don and Regine Messerli, to make this convention have a distinctive regional flair, and it was looking to be a great one. Unfortunately, the world unleashed a situation that turned Convention preparation into crisis management.
At this point in time and with all of the uncertain factors, we have no choice but to postpone our convention in Nashville. The results of our survey of already-registered attendees were overwhelmingly in favor of this option. We don’t want to take any chances with the health and welfare of our attendees, thereby making this the safest track to travel on. We are also at the trigger point where, if we were to wait any longer, there would be very large financial exposures for attending members, sponsors and for the NSE that would be impossible for many to deal with..
Even if the “curve is flattened” and this initial wave does dissipate, many people will remain vulnerable for a while, and we can’t risk it. There is also discussion of a ‘second wave’ after the first one clears with unknown consequences and impacts. Frankly, the NSE Board, like most people, does not know what is going to happen in the future
SO-
Instead of seeing you in Nashville in June 2020, we will attempt to return to Nashville sometime in the future. We are exploring later this year and, if that does not look likely, then possibly in 2022, as we are in the final contract stages for our 2021 convention. Regardless, we want to have a great Nashville convention, and we will try our darnedest to make it happen.
In the meantime, we would like to give great thanks to:
1- Our generous home layout people. The 2020 Convention award plaques will be presented for the efforts to share their work with all of us. And the layout coordination team, Charlie Vlk, Don Pocek, Jim Reising, and Bill Strunk.
2- Our N-Trak and T-Trak layout registrants which will see the convention dash plaques going out for their desire to share and operate at the convention. Also we need to acknowledge the layout organizers from Ntrak- Bruce Alcock and John Wallis and our layout designer Steve Gillet.
3- Our already committed manufacturer and hobby shop exhibitors and Raffle supporters, Micro-Trains Line, Scaletrains.com, Atlas Model RR Company, Bluford Shops, Walthers, Fox Valley Models, N Scale Railroading, N Scale Kits, Woodland Scenics, Railsmith Hobbies, Richmond Controls, The N Scale Architect, Feather River Railroad, Digitrax, Trainworx, White River Productions, Walthers, Kato USA, GHP Media, Fifer Hobby Supply, N Scale Magazine, Brooklyn Locomotive Works, Prototype N Scale Models, TexNRails, Blair Line, Boston and Albany Hobbies, N Scale Kits, Lombard Hobbies, Rail Smith Models and Hogstrainz.com and anyone I inadvertently forgot (email me, I’ll make it right) deserve our thanks for their support. Without their belief in the scale and the modeling community, we would all have nothing to do with our spare time.
4- Our volunteer staff, who work so hard to make this event great every year- from the Auction Crew both live and silent, to Raffle Sales to Special Run Production and Sales to Bus Captains to Clinic Presenters to Banquet Entertainment and Raffle Crew to our Registration Crew, to Swaparama management and Door Monitors, to the Action Team, and all of the other volunteers who make this thing possible- all deserve your thanks and appreciation.
If you have the time, please drop them an email and say thanks to our event volunteers. If you send your email to Conreg@NationalNScaleConvention.com, we will make sure all of the folks hear you.
Of course, we are working on the method of refunding convention registration fees. In addition, in the coming weeks we will be contacting you with some special offers and participation ideas to commemorate the “Convention that almost was”. We will also shortly be informing you about our next convention.
I hope you all stay safe, and we will see you further down along the tracks!
Chairman George
Director of Conventions Dick Ollendorf
Deputy Director of Conventions Jon Monsein
