Birds of a Feather Breakout Rooms
NMRA SIG Program Coordinator: Seth Neumann
What is Birds of a Feather?
Birds of a Feather (BOF) groups are an important part of the convention experience and we look forward to bringing this experience to this year's convention. A Birds of a Feather group is a themed group with everyone there having at least this one similar interest in common. Great discussions, new friends and meet ups with old friends will happen here. They may have people host discussion times but these hosted times will not be clinics or demonstrations. Examples would be narrow gauge, SIGs, specific railroads, Z scale modelers, technology in the hobby, Cool Tools, etc.
What BOF Groups Will There Be?
We are pleased to have these groups hosting breakout room sessions as of: :
- NMRA breakout room – Gordy Robinson, MMR® will host Meet the President sessions:
- Wednesday, July 7th, 12:30 PM
- Saturday, July 10th, 12:30 PM.
- The Layout Design Special Interest Group (LDSIG) will have their OWN channel up for the whole convention to provide a virtual "SIG Room" experience. You can get the link on the Attendee Video Links webpage that will be emailed to you with all the convention Zoom Webinar session links. ALL OF THE LDSIG ACTIVITIES ARE OPEN TO ALL CONVENTION ATTENDEES.
- They'll have 45-minute layout design consulting sessions
- SIG Meet & Greet Monday evening, July 5th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
- SIG "Dinner" Thursday night, July 8th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
- Website: LDSIG, Rails by the Bay, NMRA Convention 2021
- CMRI SIG will have a meeting hosted by Seth Neumann, Wednesday, July 7th, 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
- Proto:87, with host Rene Gourley, will hold a session, Friday, July 9th, 9:00 – 11:00 AM
- B&O Railroad Historical Society
- Tuesday, July 6th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM • About the BORHS: Check out their information, archives, and collections.
- Wednesday, July 7th, 5:00 • 7:00 PM – B&O Equipment and Infrastructure: Photos, drawings, documents, engineer reports, etc.
- Thursday, July 8th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM • Operations: Use of Form 6, freight working books, terminal operations and more!
- For Ladies in the Hobby, hosted by Cydney George-Abatecola (TSG Multimedia), Michelle Kempema (Colorado Model Railroad Museum) and Christina Zambri (Marketing Consultant for NMRA):
- Tuesday, July 6th, 1:00 – 2:00 PM – Meet & Greet
- Friday, July 9th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM – Virtual Dinner
- Modular Signal System – MSS SIG breakout room with Jere Ingram hosting sessions:
- Wednesday, July 7th, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Thursday, July 8th, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Narrow Gauge breakout room hosted by Dave Adams:
- Wednesday, July 7th at 12:00 PM
- Friday, July 9th at 12:00 PM
- Small Scales breakout room for those into N, Nn3, TT, TTn3, and Z scales. Hosted times: Thursday, July 8th, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Operations breakout room hosted by Bob Ellis, discussing Passenger Ops:
- Wednesday, July 7th at 3:00 PM
- Thursday, July 8th at 10:00 AM
- Cool Tools breakout room:
- Ed Merrin – discussing Photos/Photo Processing, Wednesday, July 7, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Seth Neumann – Eagle CAD session, Thursday, July 8, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Ray Persing – discussing 3D Printing (and the AP Program), Friday, July 9, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Jack Burgess, MMR® - discussing Hand Tools, Saturday, July 10, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
- Scratch Building breakout room with a hosted session by Ray Persing to discuss "Is Scratch Building Dead?," Tuesday, July 6, 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- ProtoSteam Throttle breakout room with sessions hosted by Mark Stafford discussing progress on the ProtoSteam Throttle:
- Tuesday, July 6th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
- Friday, July 9th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
- YouTube Modelers
- TSG Multimedia Wednesday, July 7th, 5:00 – 7:00 PM.
- Human(c)ity Junction,
Tuesday , July 6 12:00 – 2:00 PM
Thursday, July 8 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- Plus all these other great rooms:
- Garden Scale
- Model Railroad Technology - DCC, JMRI, Arduino, LocoFi™, Dead Rail™, etc.
- Modeling Modern Railroads
- Modeling Canadian Railroads
- Modeling Eastern Railroads
- Modeling Non-US Railroads
- Modeling Pennsy
- Modeling the NYC
- Modeling the UP
- Modeling the SP
- Modeling the Western Pacific
- Modeling the Rio Grande
- Modeling Western Railroads (ATSF, BN, BNSF, D&RGW, SP, UP, WP, etc.)
- Modular Layouts
- O Scale
- Small Layouts
- Small Scales – TT, N, Z
- Train Photography
- Under 30 – Are you 30 years old or younger? Meet others just like you in the hobby!
- Our Social Gathering Rooms - any topic!
- The Hotel Bar
- The Dining Car
- The Lounge Car
- The Observation Car
- The Caboose
- Chief Vendor Focus Room
See you at the convention!
Seth Neumann
NMRA SIG Program Coordinator
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