The TCA National National Convention 2002

e*Train Issue: Sep 2002 | Posted in: TCA Adventures

St Charles, Illinois, June 23-30th 2002

A FEW CONVENTION THOUGHTS…
by Dr. Paul Wassermann

The Midwest Division, under the leadership of Chris and Marlene Rolfing and Steve Holic provided approximately 1000 registered members with a fabulous convention. The years of careful planning were fully realized in what appeared, to me, to be a smooth week of fun and great toy train related pleasure. Since I was participating in the board meetings for two of the days, I didn’t get a chance to do as much as I would have liked, but my early arrival on Monday did allow me to compete in the TCA National Golf Tournament Tuesday morning. Forty (that’s right…forty) golfers participated in a great event that including wonderful prizes for all kinds of “bests” including best drive, best putt, best shirt, best shoes. Thanks to the Callaway Handicapping system my gross score was netted into the winning score and I won a $50 gift certificate at the pro shop, which I turned into a nice silk shirt.

Highlights, from my perspective included:
Best public layout displays I have ever seen at a convention. (Lego, Dorfan,
Erector, Standard Gauge Girl’s Train Layouts!)
Great layout tours including a visit to the Hoge collection of toys and trains
A fabulous dinner cruise, complete with fireworks and a mouth-watering steak.
Wonderful Kids Club racing events
Huge welcoming party full of near euphoric train collectors!

From start to finish this was one wonderful week, which literally flew by! But the most gratifying moment, for me, occurred when the National Board of Directors unanimously approved our request to shift the National Convention date from June to July, 2009. . This exception will allow us to use the Desert Ridge Resort as our convention hotel and means the attendees in 2009 will be staying in a five star resort, complete with 4 acres of pools, 100,000 square feet of exhibition space, 950 rooms (all with view balconies), two golf courses, 9 restaurants, all for a 2009 guaranteed price of $135!!! I am already trying to think of ways to make 2009 a “Star Spangled” convention and I hope you all start thinking in that mode too. We have the opportunity, with seven years of planning, to really do something extraordinary and special.

Shop Amazon and Help TCA

TCA members who shop at Amazon.com can have each of their normal purchases generate a modest payment to TCA! And it won’t cost you anything!

The Train Collectors Association is now a participant with AmazonSmile, which is a special website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com.

The difference is that when customers shop at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.

The process is simple. Just search for and select Train Collectors Association when you sign up and shop at smile.amazon.com.

You use your regular Amazon.com username and password, but when you log in to smile.amazon.com, you’ll see that you are supporting TCA with your purchases:

Note that if you just log in to the regular amazon.com, this benefit does not operate.

There are no costs to either you or TCA, but TCA benefits!

This is a great way for TCA to earn extra cash to offset costs, so sign up today to help support TCA.

* Note: TCA is not a party to any of your Amazon transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors.

Helping TCA with your ebay purchases when you use PayPal

If you’re an ebay user and have a PayPal account you use to make payments, you can designate a donation for TCA when you’re checking out — any amount, small or large.
If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can pre-designate a percentage of your sales to be donated automatically in your name to TCA as long as the purchaser pays with their PayPal account.

In both cases, you will receive a donation receipt from the PayPal Giving Fund, and enjoy applicable tax advantages.

How to do it:

Click on the image above, or use this link. This will take you to ebay, where you will see the following page (log in to ebay if you are not already):

This offers TCA as an option. Click on the “Add to My Charities” button where indicated with the red arrow. Thereafter, when you make a purchase, at checkout you will be offered the option to make a donation to TCA in any amount of your choosing. Small amounts add up, larger ones are great! It’s always up to you!

The option will appear at the lower part of your checkout page, something like this:

If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can allocate a portion of your sales proceeds to be donated to TCA. Look at the green arrow marked “Optional” above to see how to do it. Details on how ebay calculates the donation may be read here. This is a wonderful way to share the financial benefits of your hobby with the organization that promotes it!

An added benefit to TCA is that these donations are not subject to normal processing fees, so that makes your donation work harder!

* Note. TCA is not a party to any of your eBay transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors. PayPal issues the receipts to you for your donation, not TCA.

The TCA National National Convention 2002

St Charles, Illinois, June 23-30th 2002

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