Model Railroad Hobbyist | July 2016 | #77 ASSISTANT EDITOR Don Hanley editorial What is the NMRA’s future? In last month’s “Staff Notes,” 1 MRH publisher Joe Fugate shared a letter, “Reversing the Decline in Participation in Model Railroading Depends on Taking Two Steps” by Nicholas Kalis, and started a discussion thread 2 . A common theme in the thread is the NMRA’s part in the hobby. I thought that it was important to separate the discussions, and started a thread 3 regarding the NMRA which generated a lot of interest. According to the NMRA, its membership peaked in 1979 at 29,139. Through the years the membership has declined with membership reported at 19,496 in 2009, 4 the last year I could find information for. In its Strategic Plan 2019 5 the NMRA looks at identifying weaknesses as well as opportunities to exploit. I would encourage our readers to look at it. As can be seen from the membership numbers, the NMRA mem- bership has never been a large percentage of those participating in the hobby. However, I believe that it’s an important part of the hobby. As with any organization, it must change and adapt with the times in order to maintain its relevance. Several themes permeate the threads: • INDEX • TABLE OF CONTENTS