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Post by khitomer on Jan 22, 2014 12:24:43 GMT
I'm trying to drum up interest in setting up a club in the North West of Ireland. Therein lies the query. I live in Derry/Londonderry which is the second largest city in Northern Ireland. We are only four miles from the border with the Republic of Ireland. The Irish IPMS has quite a good set up but only in the Dublin, Limerick, Cork areas, hundreds of miles from here. My query was if I managed to get sufficient members to sign up to form a club what would be the issues over members from counties Donegal, Sligo (in the republic) and Derry, Antrim and Tyrone joining a local group here in Derry city? The catchment area would need to be this big I believe to get enough members to form a viable club but I know the UK/Ireland crossover may be frowned upon by the two separate governing bodies. Any thoughts comments or recommendations? Thanks.
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Post by John Tapsell on Jan 22, 2014 22:31:53 GMT
That's a really good question - If you create an IPMS Branch north of the Border then it should officially be a Branch of IPMS (UK) - if it was south of the border, then officially it should be an IPMS Ireland Branch.
There is no restriction on where your club members originate from - but to call yourself a UK Branch then at least five of your guys must be UK members (the rest of the club members can be IPMS UK, IPMS Ireland or non-IPMS modellers, although we would always encourage branches to have as a higher proportion of IPMS Members as possible). The one thing that neither we, nor the IPMS Ireland guys want to be seen to be doing is poaching members from each other.
Another option might be to create a broader 'independent' model club that incorporates an IPMS (UK) Branch. As an independent club, your catchment area can be whatever you want it to be, but it could still provide a 'home' to a group of UK Members who wanted to form a Branch. There are several mainland UK Branches that exist within a larger independent club. It seems to work well for them and I see no reason why it wouldn't work for you.
As an IPMS (UK) Exec Committee Member I'd love to see a new IPMS (UK) Branch in North West Ireland, but ultimately I'd rather see a vibrant and successful model club, operating in a manner that best suits the environment in which it exists.
If you want to bounce some ideas around, drop me an email and we'll work out who the best people to speak with might be.
Regards, John Tapsell IPMS (UK) Publicity Officer publicity@ipms-uk.co.uk
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Post by khitomer on Jan 22, 2014 22:45:15 GMT
Thanks John, I'll drop you an email. Interesting that the membership fees for the UK are £23 but Ireland only €20! I've tried to find locals but as we have no model shop as such it's difficult to find other modellers. The city has a population of 100,000 so I'm sure I cannot be the only modeller!
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