I Ain'ts Done Yet!

The 9th Annual State of the Company, Board of Directors Meeting of 

 The Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co. 

A Dubiously Structured Corporation (the “Company”) 

Held on 22nd September 2015, 10:ish AM Arbitrary Daylight Time 

at the Car House Tavern, San Dollar, California.

 Board Members Present: 

President:                           Dan D. Sparks

Chairman:                          Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager:                Robin DeRail

Finance Manager:              Count DeMonet

Director of Development:   Arnie Clever

General Manager:              David Lyman

Quorum present?                Who can tell?

Others Present:

Man of Mystery:                  Fred Gurzeler

Technology Genius:            Volkmar Meier

Company Orchestra leader:     Bill Bolton Orchestra & Surf Band

Absent:                     Effort

 Proceedings:

· Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone called the Meeting to order at some point.

- Secretary Mrs, Roundbottom recorded the minutes between sipping her Gin Fizz .

 · Secretary Roundbottom presented to the Board the minutes of the Sept. 2014 meeting of the Board for approval, whereupon motion duly made, seconded and toasted with another round of drinks.

Opening Message from Chairman:

 Lettuceleaf  Malone

Pompous windbags - The whole lot of them! I (Secretary Roundbottom) am supposed to be recording the speeches of these gentlemen, but between these marvelous Gin Fizz's and all this bellowing, I just can't be bothered. Truth be told they are all a lazy lot. Between Mr. Sparks racing his yacht (or whatever these moguls do), Mr Malone playing the ponies, and General Manager Lyman always loitering at the Nickelodeon and doodling cartoons all day, its amazing this enterprise is afloat at all! 

Well, I suppose I should pay attention and record these proceedings. At the very least it should be entertaining to listen how these gentlemen will endeavor to put a positive spin on such a dismal year! So if anyone is interested here you go:

· Traffic Managers Report  Provided by Chair:

Robin DeRail

Aye! The programs I instituted to remove nefarious characters and scalawags from eating up valuable bandwidth from this blog has been highly successful! See for yerselves:

Unique weekly blog hits (visitors, not page hits) from 9/22/2014 to 9/21/2015:

• Overcrowded cars have been cleared out nicely! This blog hosted 3,294  visitors this last year (Sept. 2014 to Sept. 2015). That's down from a crushing 4,930 last year, and 3,355 the year before that. They visited 5,521 times, down from 8,960 times last year and 6,621 times the year before that. That makes for an all time grand total of 42,154 visitors. I'm quiet proud of that I am! 
•  This blog is now averaging 21 visitors per day. These viewers of quality have a much longer attention span!  Their attention has increased to over 2 minutes (2:09 minutes)! That's down from 29 average daily viewers watching for an average of only 1:58 last year! 
• Due to the way Google displays data now, it is no longer possible to ascertain what the top 3 posts for last year were. But it is possible for an all time basis, which are:

1. A Grand Union Intersection In Action!     2,351 views
2. The Adventures of Bending Wood        1340 views
3. #426 Project ~ Cleaning and Preparing Brass for Painting     936 views

So to sum up: Less loiterers, and more viewers of quality! Aye!

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair:    

 Count DeMonet

A happy side effect of reduced ridership has been less heavy coins in the fairbox for the cars to have to carry around (It takes two large men to carry one of those!). The company should be seeing some significant savings from the reduction of weight!

• The Count reported that revenue earned took a dive to an average of $0.03 per day, down from an average of $0.05 per day last year and $0.06 per day the previous year.
•  DeMonet continued with that the annual earnings for this last fiscal year came in at $10.18. Down from $19.43 last year and $22.78 the previous year. This now brings the grand total to $91.87. Google won't pay out until that total reaches $100, expected sometime this next "fiscal year" (Sept. to Sept.). The Board has agreed that the money will be put towards a DCC system for the layout. 

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair,      

Arnie Clever

• Mr. Clever expressed his dissatisfaction that nobody listens to him and his planning has come to naught. 
• Despite this situation however, Arnie has carried forth and has been looking into robotics and automation with promising results. Some of which shall be instituted in the very near future!

Mr. Sparks' closing speech summed up his concern that the company has been seriously neglected and it's time to roll up our sleeve and make some significant progress on the layout.

And with that, Orchestra leader Bolton struck up the Orchestra/Surf Band with a rendition of Tales of a  Raggy Tramline:

· Meeting adjourned around Noonish.

· Minutes submitted by a very tipsy Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

I Can't Believe It's That Time Already For:

The Annual State of the Company, Board of Directors Meeting of

 The Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co.

A Pulled Out of The Posterior Corporation (the “Company”)

Held on 22nd September 2014, 8:00 AM Specific Daylight Time

at the Offices of the Company, San Dollar, California.

San Diego Electric Railway Class 1 1915 Exposition Car. Inkscape Illustration By David Lyman

 Board Members Present: 

President:                         Dan D. Sparks

Chairman:                         Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager:               Robin DeRail

Finance Manager:              Count DeMonet

Director of Development:  Arnie Clever

General Manager:             David Lyman

Quorum present?              Minimally so.

Others Present:

Man of Mystery:                Fred Gurzeler

Technology Genius:          Volkmar Meier

Company Orchestra leader:     Bill Bolton & Orchestra

Absent:                    Consciousness.

 Proceedings:

· Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone called the Meeting to order at 8:01 a.m.

- Secretary Mrs, Roundbottom recorded the minutes.

 · Secretary Roundbottom presented to the Board the minutes of the Sept. 2013 meeting of the Board for approval, whereupon motion duly made, seconded and recounted as the good-ol'-days.

You down with PCC? Yeah, you know me!

Opening Message from the Chairman:

Wow what a year! This blogs "fiscal" year (Sept 2013 to Sept 2014) saw the successful completion of the complicated overhead and the railroad is now running and functioning as designed! AND this fiscal year saw the successful construction of the first few fancy Streetlamps designed to not only illuminate, but also support the overhead wires! These two mini-masterpieces mark a long sought after success. Now all the major projects that remains are the converting the layout to Digital Command Control, The completion of the Streetlamps so that the temporary poles in the building lots can be removed so that the construction of the city buildings can commence. And of course, the populating the layout with more streetcars. Here's looking to another successful year ahead.

· Traffic Managers Report  Provided by Chair, Robin DeRail:

Ach! Viewership of this blog has flattened out! BUT! We saw a real humdinger of a post that smashed all previous viewership records! "A Grand Union Intersection In Action" saw just shy of 1000 views (963) in its first week! That obliterates the previous record of 283 views of "Jumping on the 3D Bandwagon" last year! Alas, now with the construction of these intricate, complicated streetlamps, layout construction is progressing at the speed of molasses on a winters day, viewership has slowed a bit.   Prepare yeselves for the numbers breakdown!:

Unique weekly blog hits (visitors, not page hits) from 9/21/2013 to 9/21/2014:

•  Viewership has increased nicely! This blog hosted 4,930 visitors this last year (Sept. 2013 to Sept. 2014). That's up from 3,355 last year, and 3,064 the year before that. They visited 8,960 times, up from 6,621 times last year and 5,484 times the year before that. That makes for an all time grand total of 34,396 visitors. Not bad eh? We'll see if we can hold on those number next year, heh! 
•  This blog is now averaging 29 visitors per day. And they find our content slightly more interesting!  Their attention has increased to almost 2 minutes (1:58 minutes)! That's up from 20 average daily viewers watching for an average of a 1:39 last year! I'm sure the 3 minute Grand Union video really helped those numbers! We'll see if we can hold on to those number too!
• The top 3 posts last year were (ofcourse):

1. A Grand Union Intersection In Action!  1,953 views (11.55%)
2. The Grand Plan (Layout track plan)          478 views (2.83%)
3. Birney #301                                               408 views (2.41%)

I always say that the videos are the popular item on this blog, so I propose we build a theater on this site for easy access to the video archives.

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair:     Count DeMonet

Despite the surge in viewership, revenue from ads (the only source of revenue) on this blog has slipped. Further emphasizing the need of not having all the ads "below the fold". The Grand Union in Action video was "above the fold", so all those viewers didn't need to scroll down and thus no ads were loaded.

• The Count reported that revenue earned slipped to an average of $0.05 per day, down from $0.06 last year but still up from $0.04 per day the previous year.
•  DeMonet continued with that the annual earnings for this last fiscal year came in at $19.43. Down from $22.78 last year but still up from $16.07 the previous year. This now brings the grand total to $81.69. Google won't pay out until that total reaches $100, expected sometime this next "fiscal year" (Sept. to Sept.). The Board has agreed that the money will be put towards a DCC system for the layout. 
• The Finance Chair went on to try, once again, to persuade the Board that placing a banner ad above or below the blog title, as is typical with almost all websites, would increase revenue appreciatively. As it is now, all ads are "below the fold", and no revenue is gained unless the viewer scrolls down and the ads load. With the prospect of the eminent Google $100 payout, the board is warming up to the idea to help speed things along.

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair,      Arnie Clever:

• Mr. Clever has been very, very busy lately drawing up all kinds of plans. With the company finances strapped, planning is in abundance, since planning doesn't cost anything.
• Plans usually aren't posted until the project has been approved and is moving forward. But this has resulted in some plans being buried and their prospect of ever seeing the light of day rather dubious. Arnie expressed concern that the Board is being too cautious (especially with structural drawings, and stalled projects) and encouraged the Board to publish these plans anyway to help generate interest or at least solicit comments. The Board agrees, so expect a lot of Clever posts this next year.
• The Clever One has also conjured up a rather spectacular, innovative project that has to be kept a secret for now, but hopefully soon, it too can be published to the public.

Mr. Sparks' closing speech summed up his confidence that things should be picking up with the blog soon and some interesting/entertaining posts are expected to be coming out soon. This coming year should be another good one for the layout. And he reminded us to "don't forget to scroll down, yes sir! Don't forget to scroll down"! We are all excited by the prospect of DCC around here!

· Meeting adjourned at 8:02 a.m.

· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

Lucky 7

7 Years of Bloggety Blah Blab Blog and the Cars are Finally Rolling!

 What a difference a year makes. With my job going on hiatus (and then, unfortunately, cancellation) I was able to turn much of my attention to the layout. And finally, after all these years, the layout has transformed from a plywood monstrosity to a working, running model trolley layout, with damn fancy trackwork that, lo and behold, actually works as designed! Its still a plywood monstrosity though. So without any further ado, it that time of year again for:

The Annual State of the Company, Board of Directors Meeting of

 The Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co.

A Figment of the Imagination Corporation (the “Company”)

Held on 22nd September 2013, 8:00 AM Specific Daylight Time

at the offices of the Company, San Dollar, California.

 Board Members Present: 

President:                         A placated Dan D. Sparks

Chairman:                        The very relieved Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager:              The hot-headed Robin DeRail
Finance Manager:            The always cool Count DeMonet

Director of Development: The fidgety Arnie Clever
General Manager:            The lethargic David Lyman

Quorum present?              Questionably so.

Others Present:

Technology Genius:          Volkmar Meier

Man of Mystery:                Fred Gurzeler

Company Orchestra leader:     Bill Bolton & Orchestra

Absent:                    That guy who was tying to tell us something vitally important.

 Proceedings:
· Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malon called the Meeting to order at 3:03 p.m.

- Secretary Mrs, Roundbottom recorded the minutes.

 · Secretary Roundbottom presented to the Board the minutes of the Sept. 2012 meeting of the Board for approval, whereupon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously refuted as a pack of lies.

Opening Message from the Chairman:

  

In a spectacular turnaround, this blogs "fiscal" year (Sept 2012 to Sept 2013) saw excellent progress on this little railroad of ours. The streetcars (all two of them) are running under power supplied by the overhead (Which fulfills a major requirement of the 2013 New Years Resolution). This Railroad is now a working railroad.

· Traffic Managers Report Provided by Chair, Robin DeRail:

 
~ Aye! Because of light blog postings last year, the first 5 weeks of this year saw a dismal decline in viewership. But that decline was nixed with a real zinger of a post Jumping on the 3D Bandwagon! Apparently the folks are real interested with this latest 3D Printing craze and wanted to see what we were up to with our Switch Tower and whatnot. This blog saw a mighty spike in viewership with a record 283 views in one week with that post! After that, postings have been almost weekly, helping viewership remain stable for most of the year. Once layout construction was well under way, viewership has seen a nice upswing. When videos are posted, traffic really ticks upwards. We need more videos! 

Aye! Look! I got a chart!:

Unique weekly blog hits (visitors, not page hits) from 9/21/2012 to 9/21/2013

~ What else... aye yes! This blog hosted 3,355 visitors this last year (Sept. 2012 to Sept. 2013). That's up slightly from 3,064 last year, and 1,939 the year before that. They visited 6,621 times, up from 5,484 times last year and 3,379 times the year before that. That makes for an all time grand total of 23,983 visitors.

~  This blog is now averaging 20 visitors per day, but viewing duration declined slightly to a minute and a half (1:39). That's a 20% gain of visitors from 15 average daily visitors viewing for almost 2 minutes (1:52) last year.

~ The top 3 posts visited this last year were:
       1. Birney #301 

       2. #426 Project ~ Cleaning and Preparing Brass for Painting

       3. My Old San Diego Trolley Layout
It should be noted that this years post Jumping on the 3D Bandwagon nipped at the top 3 by making #4 on the list.

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Count DeMonet:

~ The Count reported that revenue from ads (the only source of revenue) on this blog earned an average of $0.06 per day, up from $0.04 last year and $0.02 the previous year.

~ DeMonet continued with that the annual earnings for this last fiscal year are estimated at a record $22.78. That's up from $16.07 last year and $7.34 the previous year. This now brings the grand total to $62.26. He reminded us that we won't see a cent of this until the blog earns over $100. Debates raged over how to spend it, though the consensus seems to be to either invest it back into the blog somehow or into the layout itself.

~ The Finance Chair went on to try to persuade the Board that placing a banner ad above or below the blog title, as is typical with almost all websites, would increase revenue appreciatively. As it is now, all ads are "below the fold", and no revenue is gained unless the viewer scrolls down and the ads load. This sparked a raging debate over the artistic integrity of this blog.

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:

~ Mr. Clever lamented the fact that with the razor sharp focus on getting the layout running, very little of the companies resources have gone to his planning department.

~ Despite this, "Good 'ol Arnie" continued, much is still needed to be planned. With the layout running now, what comes next? Usually, when the trackwork is complete, the next step is scenicing. And what with this being a city layout, the scenery this case are buildings. But! Arnie pointed out, the poles on 1920's street are temporary and are installed in the building lots next to the sidewalk until the specifics about the permanent poles are determined and the sidewalks drilled for them. So the next logical step is designing and building these complex poles. Only then can the temporary poles be removed from the lots, freeing up the space for buildings.

~ The Development Chair also revealed new plans for modules to be built for the Southern California Traction Club layout. So as not to interfere with construction of the layout, these modules will built at the clubs regular Sunday meetings.

 

Mr Sparks closed the meeting with remarks that pretty much boil down to, "well lets wrap this up and go run some trolleys. Yes sir! Lets go run some trolleys!

· Meeting adjourned at 3:05 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

Come back again because the next post will feature a video of the trolleys running. Yes sir! A video of the trolleys running!

Dandy

6 Years of Bloggety Blah Blah Blog

 "6 years! The prototype San Diego Electric Railway was built in less time for crying out loud! Yes sir! The prototype was built in less time!"

 Dan D. Sparks' annual rant.

 Dan D. Sparks

President. Yes sir! President!

And thus brings to a close a dismal "fiscal" year (Sept. 2011 to Sept. 2012) of modeling for this blog. But today marks the beginning of a very bright year ahead. So lets see where we stand so we can accurately gauge how far we go in this coming year. And now, without further ado:

The Dan D. Sparks Plywood Development and Transportation Co.

Annual State of the Company, Board of Directors Meeting 

22nd September 2012

8:00 AM San Dollar, California.

 Board Members:

 Present:

President:                         A very unhappy Dan D. Sparks

Chairman:                        A very nervous Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager:              A smug Robin DeRail
Finance Manager:            A jubilant Count DeMonet

Director of Development: A crafty Arnie Clever
General Manager:            David Lyman

Quorum present?              More or less.

Others Present:

Man of Mystery:                Fred Gurzeler

Company Band leader:     Bill Bolton & Orchestra

Absent:                              No Show Joe

 Proceedings:
· Meeting called to order at 8:09 a.m. by Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone
· Last year's meeting minutes were read and regarded with nostalgia.

Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Chairman

Opening Message from the Chairman:

Life is a balance between Family, Occupation, and Hobby. Most of the time, these are out of balance. One usually requires presidence over the others. This past year was no exception. "Occupation" was the focus this past year. Without it, the other two suffer. And with it, the other two can benefit greatly.

"Hobby" is about to benefit greatly from this years employment. So hang on... because here we go!

Robin DeRail

Traffic Manager

 · Traffic Managers Report Provided by Chair, Robin DeRail:

 ~ Last year we were enjoying a nice upswing in viewership. This year, despite half the blog entries being posted (19 posts, down from a record 28 posts last year), we managed to hang on, with a some gain, to that viewership.

~ This blog hosted 3,064 visitors this last year (Sept. 2011 to Sept. 2012) visiting 5,484 times. That's up from 1,939 visitors visiting 3,379 times the previous year, for a grand total of 16,668 visitors.

~  This blog is now averaging 15 visitors per day viewing for almost a whole 2 minutes (1:52)! That's a gain of 50% from the revised figure of 10 visitors per day viewing for a minute and a half (1:34) last year.

~ The top 3 posts visited this last year were:
     1. My Old San Diego Trolley Layout
     2. Birney #301
     3. Painting Brass Models

Count DeMonet

Minister of Finance

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Count DeMonet:

~ The Count happily reported that revenue from this blog (from ads) has more than doubled and is now averaging over $0.04 per day, up from a $0.02 daily average last year. 

~ DeMonet went on to report that the annual earnings for this last fiscal year are estimated at $16.07. That's an increase of over 100% from last years earnings of $7.34! Bringing the grand total to $39.48.

~ The finance chair went on to suggest that product placement may help the bottom line. When pressed further, he offered an example; "The finer photos in this blog were photographed with the affordable Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm IS II Lens. Should anyone buy that camera by clicking on our link, we receive a referral fee!".

  

This was met with great skepticism by the board.

  Arnie Clever

Director of Development

 

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:

~ Mr. Clever reported that though things have cooled off modeling wise, planning has continued in earnest. "Oh the projects that are planned!" he went on. "This company has plans coming out of the wazoo! Why, this company has more plans than could possibly be implemented in a single lifetime! Oh-boy do we have plans!" he explained. "Plans, plans, plans! You want it? I've planed it!".

~ The development chair, on the verge of collapse from the lengthy revelation of all his plans, explained that during these robust times the company has managed to stockpile a sizable amount of modeling materials and may actually see some of these plans through to fruition!  The board blinked at each other in silent amazement.

And on that note, Mr. Sparks offered: "Well then... lets get to it. Yes sir! Lets get to it!

Mr. Bolton stuck up the band with a rousing rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again".

 

· Meeting adjourned at 11:59 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.

Now let's get to it! Yes sir! Let's get to it!

Dandy

4th Dandiversary ~ 101 Posts!

The Dan D. Sparks Land Development and Transportation Co.

Board of Directors Meeting 22nd September 2010

8:00 AM San Dollar, California.

 Board Members:

 Present:

President: Dan D. Sparks

Chairman: Lettuceleaf M. Malone

Traffic Manager: Robin DeRail
Finance Manager: Pastor Buck

Director of Development: Arnie Clever
General Manager: David Lyman

Quorum present? Probably not.

Others Present:

Various Company Minions

Absent:

Slacker Sam

Proceedings:
· Meeting called to order at 8:01 a.m. by Chair, Lettuceleaf M. Malone
· Last year's meeting minutes were marveled at and approved.

· Traffic Managers Report:
- Last weeks post "Niles Project ~ I Cal, You Cal, We All Cal For Decals" brings this blogs total posts to 100! The board broke out the champagne and proceeded to congratulate themselves.
- An Australian reader of this blog, Bill Bolton, forwarded a rare document to the company containing invaluable information about the San Diego Niles cars not seen before by this committee. The committee broke out in a chorus of "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow!" and drank a toast honoring Mr. Bolton.
- Average daily readership of this blog is 5.57 readers. Up from 4.12 daily readers last year. The board commenced to congratulate themselves again and drank more champagne.
- Most hits received in one day was during the U.S. Senate hearings with Daniel Sparks of Goldman Sachs. The board once again congratulated themselves, this time because there was no relation to Dan D. Sparks, so this company isn't being investigated. I'll drink to that!
- Blog post most read: Birney Project~Fresh Homemade Decals with 305 pageviews. No congratulations since the post is over a year old but the sipping of champagne continued.
- In fact, no posts from this year even made the top ten posts read according to Google Analytics. Board members giggled over the offhand joke "well, you wouldn't have analytics without there being anal".

· Finance Committee report provided by Chair, Pastor Buck:
- Revenue from this blog is now averaging $0.01 a day, up from $0.005 last year. That means a whopping $3.65 a year earnings! At this rate we should make our first million in 273972.6 years! The committee proceeded to hide the expensive champagne.
- That brings this blogs all time estimated total earning from the last 4 years to: $19.11. Committee members sent out for coffee.

· Board Development Committee's report provided by Chair, Arnie Clever:
-Despite this blog being rather insignificant and having a tiny readership, Clever recommended continuing the blog for another year since the numbers are continuously improving. MOTION to continue this blog for another year; seconded and passed with a "...ah, what the hell, why not."
- Clever suggested to the Board that actions can be taken to improve this blog such as adding some how-to videos. MOTION to add how-to videos; seconded and passed.

-And Clever strongly suggested we finish building these damn Niles cars soon and get to building the layout and run some trolleys! MOTION seconded and passed with a resounding "Huzzah!".

· Assessment of the Meeting:
- General Manager David Lyman noted that this meeting was pretty much a huge waste of time, time that could have better been spent actually building models. He reminded members that the focus of this blog is to chronicle the construction of the layout and was never intended to make anyone rich. Unfortunately, the board was too hung over to pay any attention and the meeting was adjourned.

· Meeting adjourned at 10:30 p.m.
· Minutes submitted by Secretary, Mrs. Roundbottom.