How can a model club deal with members passing away?

[robdebie]

I'm a member of an IPMS-NL chapter that has monthly meetings with 30-35 members. All in all, we're having good fun. But there's one thing we're not prepared for: members that pass away. We've had only one death in the last 15-20 years, which is amazing, but this cannot go on forever.

We share the feeling that we should prepare ourselves, with some kind of protocol. In a few days, we'll have a meeting on that subject. We want to discuss in which ways we can help the families, dealing with collections of built, unbuilt and partially built models, plus paint, tools, decals, books, etc. At the same time, we cannot overload the club with large collections that take months or years to offload. Plus: how to remember former members, what kind of tribute is suited.

We would like to learn from others, therefore the question: how does your club deal with members passing away? Any ideas or experiences will help us. Thanks in advance!

Rob

[peteski]

Over the last decade or so we had about half a dozen members pass away.  We are a closely knit club, and the club usually helps the spouse or family with disposing of the accumulated models (both built and unbuilt), tools, and supplies.  In some cases the club buys the model collection then auctions it off to the members or even to the public.  In other instances the spouse is familiar with online auctions and sells the models herself.

As for the tributes, during our annual model contest (open to the public) we have a tribute table displaying models and photos of the members we lost, and we also have their models featured on the website (along with still active members).  This is our member's page http://classicplastic.org/people.html , and here are couple of pages for our deceased members linked from that page: http://classicplastic.org/del-p.html http://classicplastic.org/barry-f.html .

Back when we (unexpectedly) lost our first member we realized that we didn't really have much info about him.  Our club's historian then started compiling "Members' Profiles". It is a 3-ring binder where a single sheet of biographical info about each member is kept.  It is a live document which gets updated every time we lose or gain a member.  It is a printed document, only accessible to the active members.

[Jon Haigwood]

13 hours ago, peteski said:

Over the last decade or so we had about half a dozen members pass away.  We are a closely knit club, and the club usually helps the spouse or family with disposing of the accumulated models (both built and unbuilt), tools, and supplies.  In some cases the club buys the model collection then auctions it off to the members or even to the public.  In other instances the spouse is familiar with online auctions and sells the models herself.

As for the tributes, during our annual model contest (open to the public) we have a tribute table displaying models and photos of the members we lost, and we also have their models featured on the website (along with still active members).  This is our member's page http://classicplastic.org/people.html , and here are couple of pages for our deceased members linked from that page: http://classicplastic.org/del-p.html http://classicplastic.org/barry-f.html .

Back when we (unexpectedly) lost our first member we realized that we didn't really have much info about him.  Our club's historian then started compiling "Members' Profiles". It is a 3-ring binder where a single sheet of biographical info about each member is kept.  It is a live document which gets updated every time we lose or gain a member.  It is a printed document, only accessible to the active members.

Our club did  the same when a Founding Member passed last year.  

[ctruss53]

We had a long-time member of our model car club pass away.  We worked with his wife to gather up his modeling tools and kits.

Then we auctioned off the items in our annual club auction and gave the proceeds back to his wife.

[robdebie]

On 4/9/2023 at 2:47 AM, peteski said:

As for the tributes, during our annual model contest (open to the public) we have a tribute table displaying models and photos of the members we lost, and we also have their models featured on the website (along with still active members).  This is our member's page http://classicplastic.org/people.html , and here are couple of pages for our deceased members linked from that page: http://classicplastic.org/del-p.html http://classicplastic.org/barry-f.html .

I like that idea of making a tribute display at a show. I've never seen that done at any show I attended.

That members page is great, with excellent photography (by you ?). For our club, that's a bridge too far, we're not that organized. But with a little work, we could make a tribute, using the photos made during regular club meetings.

On 4/9/2023 at 2:47 AM, peteski said:

Back when we (unexpectedly) lost our first member we realized that we didn't really have much info about him.  Our club's historian then started compiling "Members' Profiles". It is a 3-ring binder where a single sheet of biographical info about each member is kept.  It is a live document which gets updated every time we lose or gain a member.  It is a printed document, only accessible to the active members.

Your club is really well organized, wow.. I'll save that idea for later.

Rob

Edited April 10, 2023 by robdebie

[robdebie]

Jon and Chad,

Thank you for your comments too.

Rob

[Bugatti Fan]

Without trying to seem morbid, a suggestion would be for each member to write a letter that could be kept in a safe place outlining where and to whom to contact to dispose of kits, tools and reference materials.

For example, contact details of local club, dealers who buy complete collections of unbuilt kits etc. Also with regard to reference material, books could be donated to loca! university or high school libraries. Old magazines, particularly Auto Modelling magazines and brochures etc. could go to the Model Car Builders Museum, Sandy, Utah.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Bugatti Fan