By Peter DeKeles LSOL.com Special Projects Editor

Author  Bio This year's National Convention will be held in Denver, CO. Chuck O'Reilly, the Convention's Chairman, was kind enough to provide the following information about the Convention and the philosophy behind it. Come see why you need to be there.

This year's National Convention will be held in Denver, CO. Chuck O'Reilly, the Convention's Chairman, was kind enough to provide the following information about the Convention and the philosophy behind it.

At the end of the article there are links to the NRGC Convention, Marriott Hotel, Pricing Matrix and Convention Application.

Take it away Chuck-

It's been said that "If you do what you have always done, you'll get what you have always gotten." The 2009 convention committee decided that if we wanted a different kind of garden railway convention, we would have to do things differently.

Our committee members understand that a significant amount of money and time is spent for travel and lodging. Once these travel expenditures are made they become more worthwhile if there is more substance to the primary purpose of the trip. Our thought is that after spending the money to get here, maybe you'd like to stay longer and do more before you leave. Maybe if we offer reasonable rates you'll consider riding our comfortable buses to the train rides and the garden railways. If you take our bus, you know that you'll get there on time and there will be a reserved seat waiting for you.

The 2009 Convention Committee gave a lot of thought to what events should be planned. The local Marriott had given us its best rate during the week of July 4 through July 11, 2009, a period when many families go on vacation. This lead us to planning more than a convention, we started planning a vacation. We wanted to plan a great vacation that would have reasonable costs. To keep the costs low to our attendees, we first had to understand what all of our real costs were and then have a reasonable markup on those costs.

To decrease our costs we bundled the activities into three packages. Then to increase your interest in our three vacation packages, we applied our lowest markups to these packages. We believe that when you look at the total cost of previous conventions and compare that to the content and cost of our Platinum, Gold and Silver Packages you will see real value.

The first one, the Platinum Vacation Package guarantees you a reserved seat on three train rides, a tour of a mine, attendance at the banquet, dance and the Ice Cream Social, five days of touring garden layouts, access to the convention hall, clinics, guest speakers, the optional tour of the Forney Transportation Museum and a bus ride to the Colorado Railroad Museum for more train rides that include Galloping Gooses and a BBQ dinner. The Platinum package registers one for all convention activities from Sunday morning, July 5, to Friday evening July 10, 2009.

The Gold Vacation Package includes all of the above, with the exception of Sunday's Cog Railway ride to Pike's Peak and the train ride through the 1,000 foot deep Royal Gorge. The Gold package registers one for all convention activities from Monday morning, July 6, to Friday evening July 10, 2009.

The Silver Vacation Package excludes Sunday's and Monday's activities. The Silver package registers one for all convention activities from Tuesday morning, July 7, to Friday evening July 10, 2009.

For those that wish to do it on their own there is an extensive Al a Carte menu. The Basic Registration package gets one the program book which contains maps and directions to all of the garden railways that are on tour each day, attend the Ice Cream Social, have access to the clinics and the convention hall.

We think this convention committee has done a great job of planning a Colorado vacation for those of you that choose to come.

Sorry: this link is no longer available from source. Convention Website

Package_Matrix

Registration Forms

Marriott-Host Hotel

NGRC in Denver

I have been attending national meetings/conventions of G Scale railroaders since Hyannis in 1990. Denver looks like it will be the best ever. Even "disappointing" conventions had enough to offer to make the expense worth it. The 2009 meeting is goung to pay dividends!!!

Bill - 04/15/2009 - 10:01

ngrc in denver

This will be the first convention for my wife and myself we are also new to gscale.We are doing the drivers special and are looking forward to visiting all of the layouts and attending the convention activities. Hope to get a chance to meet new gscalers and take home some ideas.

pete digiacomo - 04/15/2009 - 18:51

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