Thanks for your welcome

As I said, I am undecided what will happen to me when I turn 26 myself. Some people in the community suggest I retire from it, and others think it would be acceptable for the Manager of the group to be 'over-age'. I think I'll gauge the opinion of members on the matter nearer the time - the organisation is for them after all. And I suppose it also depends on what I'm doing outside of the YREA when that day comes. At the moment I work 33 hours a week at ASDA so running the YREA in my spare time isn't an issue, but that could've changed by then.

I'm still surprised that the group has lasted as long as it has. Whilst I do have high aspirations for it, I've never had much in the way of self-confidence and definitely didn't expect the organisation to still exist six years after I started it, but that's where we are today.

Gender is a big issue in the railway hobby I think - I am almost certain that you could count the female YREA members on one hand. I think Network Rail and other companies within the industry have started doing a good job at promoting female railway employees, and we'll be highlighting that as well when Rail Week starts later this year.

I'll definitely stay around - I'm at least a two post wonder now right? Whilst I won't be a regular contributor not living in the area that Coffee Shop represents, I'll definitely drop by when I plan to visit the area!

Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you to the Coffee Shop admin for approving my account almost instantly, you're very kind. I was shown this topic by a friend and I'd be delighted to answer any of your questions.

I can see that Grahame has already shared our history and what we do, so I won't go into that too much, but hopefully this post will answer some of your queries in this topic.

The YREA is not a commercial operation as such. We do accept donations (either directly or in the form of 'First Class Memberships' for extra Forum privileges), however these are only to help me to meet the costs of running the website. We also sell advertising, but mostly we give this away to businesses in return for prize donations for our competitions. We do not have any long-term sponsors or government support, however we do receive frequent donations in the form of prizes from many companies in the railway industry - including GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), who have supported our film making competition Video Fest every November since we launched it in 2010.

The group is run by myself (I'm 23) and two other members who help out with event planning (Tom and George, who are both college age). I am currently undecided about what will happen when I myself reach 26!

If there's anything else you would like to know, I'd be more than happy to help