Key Helper
The Key Helper is a certificate awarded by a Host of operating sessions to a person or persons who have made a distinguished, ongoing contribution to the preparation and maintenance of the host’s layout to make it continually ready for operating as well as helping during hosted sessions.
The Key Helper typically attends the Host’s operating sessions as a helper, mentor, organizer, and fixer. These are the vital people the Host considers to be major contributors to their goal of having regular operating sessions, and the intention is to bestow this Achievement on those individuals that have made a selfless and noteworthy contribution to the Host’s layout.
To award the Key Helper Achievement, the OPSIG member Host must fill out a form generally describing the service provided by the candidate. Recipients of the Key Helper Achievement award will receive a button and certificate with the name of the layout and host memorialized. The Key Helper Achievement can be awarded to OPSIG members or non-members.
Statement of Intent: Key Helper Award
The purpose of the Key Helper Award is to acknowledge those members of your operating crew who rarely get credit for their service. These are the folks who attend your sessions as dedicated helpers, standing around fixing things, mentoring people, jumping up and down to fix problems, and quietly providing critical session support. Their service may mean they don’t get to run a train all that much during sessions with guests. It is often these same people who prep your layout for operating, cleaning track, staging and resetting, sweeping the room, maybe even stocking the fridge.
In our opinion, every operating layout of medium or greater size has at least one such helper who greatly relieves the pressure and workload of the Host.
These are not the people who got you into the hobby, mentored you, inspired and encouraged you, provided valuable advice from afar, were longtime friends, and/or made your experience better. You can thank them separately. The Key Helper Award is reserved for those who get their fingernails dirty and clear their calendar most every time you operate.
Disclaimer About Privacy: OPSIG respects your privacy and will use reasonable best efforts to keep submissions confidential, with the exception of any additional due diligence that we may need to conduct to verify the details of certain submissions. Please do not submit any information that you believe is confidential in nature, as we can make no assurance that we can protect and maintain confidentiality.