The outline of T-Trak Network

(November 2003)

Originated in Japan, T-Trak was launched by RM Models (a Japanese magazine for enthusiasts of model railroading) and some modelers in October 2000, and about three years of time has passed since then.
In the meantime, most of operation meetings have been held by RM Models. Unless we participate in the meetings held by the model clubs adopting the standard, we haven’t had any means of communication among the participants.
As the operation meetings have been held repeatedly, the participants have become fixed and a situation similar to a club rose. Because of the reasons below, the demerits have come to occupy larger proportion.

The current tendency

1. The events are too large for magazine medium to carry out.
2. Those experienced in T-Trak can not show the concepts of their works freely in open events.
3. Experimental plans and verification in open events are difficult to achieve.
4. With the situation only open events are held, prior unification of purpose is difficult to obtain and the events tend to lack uniformity as exhibitions open to the public.

Considering the future, an organization has come to be indispensable, which handles information for sharing among those experienced and for newcomers. And some people who agreed with that idea rose to establish T-Trak Network.

1. Outline
   
   1. We aim at a individual and group network mainly focused on sharing information and offer of gathering places, which is rarely seen at conventional model railroad clubs.
      
   2. We adopt a registration system instead of a member system.
      
   3. We set up a secretariat aiming at presiding information and offer of gathering places.
      
   4. Except for operation meetings, we hold neither competitive work performance nor　any other whole event as the sponsorship of this T-Trak Network.
      
   5. In case any events being held, they are supposed to be carried out by the individual or organization that planned them with the approvers.
      
   6. We adopt the same method as 5. about plans at any secret operation meetings.
      
   7. We notify the registrants of the contents about management through the Internet in advance.
      
   8. As for open operation meetings such as JAM (Japan Association of Model Railroaders) convention, we call for and establish an executive committee for every event.
      
   9. Although the secretariat mainly manages the matters, when the participation as the secretariat is difficult, we set a person in charge independently.
      
   10. We consider operation meetings as two kinds (below).
       
       1. general public presentation = a stable run, theme operation, and improvement of appearance
          
       2. secret = subjective and technical experiments among participants

2. Policy
   
   1. We put much importance on the equal relationship as hobbyists, and eliminate concentration of power to specific person and the vertical relationship.
      
   2. We accept and respect others' works and their sense of value, unless they cause direct nuisance on the circumstances or are unsocial things.
      
   3. To achieve these, a secretariat organization understands the concerns between registrants enough, gropes for the best form, makes up proposals and performs.

3. Organization
   
   1. In a secretariat, a secretary-general, a director for public relations, and a press officer are set up. Since the regions where registrants live are extremely widespread, we emphatically use the Internet for notifications and debate. We offer both public and secret (for registrants only) homepage or a mailing list.
      
   2. Accounting control is held independently from a secretariat.
      
   3. Neither a secretariat nor accounting control department functions as a higher rank department inside the organization. They function as the department which supervise and coordinate matters among individuals who register and groups. These are managed on a "by-turns" basis according to the necessity.
      
   4. All information including purchasing equipments and accounting control is open to the registrants . We create atmosphere in which the registrants can freely make proposals or objections to the reports, and the opinions are supposed to be reflected as much as possible.