The Scale Model Club of the Philippines: Managing Fun in a Hobby Club

In early 2007, the officers of SMCP (Scale model club of the Philippines), an organization
dedicated to the hobby of plastic scale modeling in the Philippines, held their first meeting at the
SMCP clubhouse to discuss the goals and club activities for the year. Edwin was no stranger to
responsibility in the club –he had been vice-president during the previous year and was involved
in all of the club’s major events. He also had extensive experience as the head of his fraternity
during his stay in the U.P. College of Law.

As the newly elected president of SMCP, Edwin opened the meeting with a review of the
agenda. While reciting the list of issues, he remembered all the major problems that had
plagued the club and dampened its activities during the previous year. He knew that these
concerns had to be addressed before the club could achieve its long-term goals.

In the meeting Edwin would propose to the club and its executive board, a plan for establishing
a more structured administrative system that would:

1. Develop club strategy, set strategic goals and objectives

2. Ensure accountability by assigning specific responsibilities to members and creating standing

3. Create performance management systems that would help motivate members to participate

4. Revisit the strategy and system for recruitment

Since it would require significant change, Edwin was unsure as to how the members and
executive board of the club would react to his proposal.

The Hobby

Plastic scale modeling is a hobby that originated in the United Kingdom over seventy years ago.
The hobby involves crafting scale representations or “models” of subjects such as planes, cars,
military vehicles and even fictional robots and characters from plastic kits that are assembled
and painted. In the Philippines, the hobby reached the height of its popularity during the 1980’s
and 1990’s when even most bookstores sold scale models. However in recent years, there has
been waning interest in modeling due to the presence of other pastimes (such as computer
games) that provide instant gratification. Despite these trends, there remains a sizeable
community of modelers in the country and many modelers feel the need to be part of an
organization that will help them improve their skills.

The Club

SMCP was established by a group of five hobbyists in 2001. The founders envisioned the
organization as an ideal venue for modelers to achieve fulfillment in scale modeling and for the
club to be instrumental in promoting the hobby in the Philippines.

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According to the Constitution and by-laws of SMCP, the club has three main purposes:
1) to promote the hobby, 2) provide a venue where hobbyists can meet, be understood, feel
accepted and valued by other likeminded people and 3) To develop the memberships’ modeling
skills for them to enrich their experience in the hobby. Therefore, the club was responsible for
increasing public awareness of the hobby as well as remaining responsive to the hobby related
needs and concerns of its members. It was an unwritten club rule that “having fun” was in itself,
an objective of every member and of the club as a whole. Anything that prevented members
from enjoying their membership was unwelcome.

Building the club

The founders of SMCP wanted to create a tightly knit, informal group with a friendly, non-
competitive culture. Their aim was to promote fun, friendship, group cohesion and to avoid
creating a large, bureaucratic organization. Using personal relationships and informal authority
was the only way to motivate and direct members. The prevailing sentiment was to avoid even
the slightest form of coercion in motivating members to participate and that no-one be expelled
from the club. Members had no fixed-duties like in a bureaucracy; instead, work was assigned
entirely on an ad hoc basis.

This mindset resulted in a set of club rules and regulations that had few disciplinary measures
and procedures for removing members, an absence of performance management, and no
standing committees. There was no membership process; becoming a member was a matter of
filling up a membership form and submitting it.

Initially the recruitment strategy of the club was simple; distributing membership forms through a
chain of hobby stores and hoping that hobbyists patronizing these establishments would
consider joining. However, when relations between the club and the owner of the hobby store
soured, the club was forced to recruit mainly through public exhibits. Additionally, the founding
members espoused maintaining a small group of high-quality members dedicated to the hobby.

During the first few years, several club initiatives were implemented in order to improve the
cohesiveness of the club: monthly group builds meant to bring members together; club T-shirts
intended for use during club meetings and events; internal contests and lectures on special
modeling topics were held to improve members’ skills; a website and a public online forum that
would help promote the club and improve the flow of information; and annual field trips as a
break from the monotony of monthly meetings.

Past club presidents, made public events (exhibits and open contests) a club priority. They saw
these as a solution to all the major club concerns such as recruitment, promotions, member
motivation and skills development. Therefore, club strategy was focused on directing club
resources towards more of these ambitious public events.

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The Membership

There are several key similarities and differences among members that make it challenging to
manage a club like SMCP. Club officers need to take note of these characteristics when
planning events, assigning responsibilities and formulating club policies.

Demographically, a vast majority of members were married, middle-aged males from Metro
Manila. Most come from socio economic classes AB & C; not surprising considering the nature
of the hobby. A majority are college graduates, with several graduate degree or professional
degree holders.

Members come from a wide variety of occupations. There are members who are doctors,
lawyers, accountants, architects, politicians, government employees, law enforcers, clerical
staff, educators, managers, entrepreneurs, NGO employees and artists. There are a few who
are modelers by profession and earn a living by building model displays.

Most members prefer building military subjects, but recent trends have indicated that many
members enjoy branching out into other categories to develop new skills and experiences.
Members have different reasons or motivations for joining the club. For example, not all
members build models. There are some who just collect and there are others who do not build
but join the club mainly because they enjoy the company.

Members can also be divided according to skill level. More than ¾ of the members are either
advanced or intermediate modelers. Only a handful of members are true beginners. Perhaps
the informative monthly lectures and strong organizational support for novices could be credited
for this. Another explanation is that novices may be intimidated by the work of the more skilled
and as a result, attend less or simply leave.

Finally, members also exhibit different levels of commitment. Some religiously attend meetings
and participate actively in all the events while others are totally unreliable and contribute nothing
to club activities. The rest who make up the majority are somewhere in between –they attend
some of the events and meetings and participate when asked to do so. It was observed that the
more participative members quickly develop their skills.

The Evolution of SMCP

Since 2001, the SMCP has garnered acclaim both locally and globally through its tireless efforts
to promote the hobby of scale modeling. The club was awarded the “Chapter of the year” award
for 2006 by the Global Scale Modeling Association – the parent organization of all local scale
modeling clubs. Through a series of public events, the club assembled a portfolio of corporate
sponsors that would help finance future club events. The SMCP was also contracted by a local
museum to build a series of historical dioramas for their exhibit.

Finally, the club began offering scale modeling classes in a premiere private school; this marked
the club’s gradual transition into a more professional organization.

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Though the club had accomplished much in its brief history, there were also many shortcomings
that suggested the need for improvement. The club membership was stressed by the demands
of the public events, work was unevenly distributed and this taxed the more active members.
The lack of new members exacerbated further the problem of distributing work. Some events
were understaffed and this forced the club to shorten their duration. The lack of defined
responsibilities for each member resulted in free-riding, work redundancies and a lack of
specialization in club administration. It was obvious that as the projects grew in scope, size and
complexity, the club experienced increasing difficulty managing the work.

The Dilemma

Edwin revealed his plans in a brief twenty minute presentation. However, SMCP’s executive
board remained skeptical about the new president’s plans for 2008; they obviously had their
reservations. Greg Santos, one of the founding members of SMCP, raised several key points.

“Admittedly, this presentation was well prepared and presented. However, I think that you forgot
several important facts. Firstly, this club was established to promote the hobby but NOT at the
expense of the members having fun. I predict that these “systems” are likely to over-
bureaucratize this organization and strangle the fun right out of it. Please consider that the club
has done fairly well following our formula of informal friendship and I see no reason for us to
implement this rigid structure on our members. Members are supposed to act on their own
initiative and to know what is expected of them and where they must contribute. Members work
for the benefit of the club because they love the hobby and that is enough of a motivation for
us.”

Edwin attempted rebut Greg’s argument:

“Ok, I’ll agree to work within the existing system, but there are several things that I’d like you to
address. How can we have enough manpower if there is no systematic way of attracting and
screening new members? How do we ensure that our members participate actively so that we
can actually have successful events? When people do participate, how do we make sure that
work is fairly distributed? And finally, how can we leverage people’s talents if there is no
opportunity to focus on a single task or job that is compatible with their skills? Your suggestions
on how to solve these issues without my proposal would be highly appreciated.”

The executive board recognized these as valid concerns, but they wanted to stubbornly hold on
to traditions that they felt were central to the identity and character of the club.

Guide Questions:

1. If you were Edwin, would you continue with your plans to restructure the club and to change
its culture? Or would you follow the executive board and retain the status quo?
2. If the proposal were to be implemented, what would be the appropriate change strategy?

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