R&LHS, NMRA, and many independent historical societies and single railroad groups are busy solving the problems for them. There is no shortage of alternatives.

MX

When I decided to get involved with trains as in actually restoring trains, I looked at several organizations via computer in my area and actually made a few phone calls. None that were close had any actual equipment and many were more involved as a modeling club. There is nothing wrong with a model club, it just wasn't what I was looking for. That is why I joined and am a avolunteer at the Pembeton Township Historic Trust. Although we do have a GE diesel and twelve or so historic PRR pieces on site, we do not have anyplace to run them..........today. No telling what will happen tomorrow but isn't that what life is all about? Time and money are in short supply but every member and volunteer does what they can.

I am also a member in clubs of other interests as well and have left other clubs due to the GOBS (Good Ole' Boy Society) mentality.

Just my two cents!

Later!
Mr. Ed

Then I stand by my earlier posting "cut'm off" If an organization is not responding to your overtures, then quit trying, life is too short. There are other other organizations out there that will welcome your assistance without putting you through a lot of hoops.

I found p51's comments on explaining his dilemma the best and most frank I have seen on the subject. All he wants to do is join, to find out what is going on, and the chapters don't respond. I wonder how my own chapter looks to outsiders.

I had a chance in 2005, at the NRHS convention, to meet with some young people involved with planning for the ORHF museum, and found them to be very open. It must be tough to coordinate developing one museum among the various locomotive groups and historic societies, each of whom values their own projects above the others. Have you, p51, made contact with them? Perhaps your age and interest will help you connect with someone there, and then navigate through the groups until you find the one that fits you best.

I also agree with Mark Bassett on voting with your wallet. There is always a reason for a group to lose members. We need to let them know why.[/i]

One group of "volunteers" that provide their time to the NRHS and other groups are the guest program presenters who include authors and industry people who travel some considerable distances to help out. I know quite a few of them, and many of them have similar comments regarding NRHS monthly meetings, many of them very critical of the way meetings are run. So in the spirit of "volunteering", helping to identify the problems, and providing constructive and readily implementable suggestions to improve the organization, here is the most common comment I hear (over and over): "The NRHS disrespectfully wastes their speakers time".

Guest speakers as well as the audience are held hostage to incompetently run business meetings that are often a total waste of time. This delays the start of the program, steals the time needed to show it properly, and exhausts the audience before the speaker ever has a chance to try to do so. It also results in late finishes to meetings that sometimes make it necessary for speakers to stay over night in the area when they might not otherwise have to.

Fixing this is easy and would cost the chapters next to nothing: Hold the business meeting separately, as many independent historical societies already do. Make it open to the members that want to attend (usually none will), but start it an hour before the monthly meeting and require that it be completed at least 20 minutes before the program session begins. At the beginning of the program session allow only announcements of pending events, two minutes maximum per announcement, then start the program.

Of course doing it this way would be extremely unpopular with the officers (and the clowns) since it deprives them of their "stage" and the captive audience that has to sit and listen to them in order to get to the program. But it would greatly improve the chapter meetings and the image they project to visitors and guests.

The horribly run business meetings are by far the most publicly visible failing of the NRHS, but they are also one problem that could be corrected with just a little effort.

MX

I didn't contact that group because frankly, I live a pretty fair distance from Portland. But really, that wasn't my point anyway. My point was about NRHS chapters as a whole and the national organization, and how they don't seem to be doing anything to revitalize what I have heard from many people to be a possible downward spiral. I have verified through a very embarrassed person at the national HQ this morning that indeed several chapters have gone under in the past five years due to lack of membership.
There are plenty of tourist operations around me that have nothing to do with the NRHS that are doing just fine and I'm sure would welcome me with open arms. But again, that was never my point.

Following up on P51's earlier comments. I opened my mailbox one day last week to find a surprise - the 2005 NRHS Yearbook!

Several items I found interesting: Quite a few chapters did not file any report at all, or their report did not make it into the yearbook, so you end up with just a block of text naming the officers of the group. Also, a surprising number of groups show "no permanent address", which falls in line with P51's comments about the difficulty in getting in touch with these groups and finding out what their activities are.

MX (Obviously Not My Real Name)

Two comments to the above:

*Our NRHS Chapter hosted a notable guest this month, a certain locomotive owner, and to begin the "meeting" the officers called to entertain a motion to dispense with the business portion of the meeting; I literally had to shout my lone dissenting voice over the "allinfavorAYEallopposed..we'dliketowelcomeour........."
(adding "I realize I'm outnumbered, but....") because there was a legitimate issue I wanted to bring quickly before the board. Not that our legitimate business meetings ever stretch beyond 20-25 minutes anyway even with announcements, and we actually have reports on behalf of the Streetcar Museum (heck, it's their building we meet in) and the B&O Museum, and now we're actually running trips again.........

Having said that, I have heard from one guy who stormed out of an NRHS meeting in some city directly to our south after a forty-five minute "passionate" (meaning name-calling was getting involved) discussion over the color of jackets to be worn by excursion car hosts on an upcoming series of excursions. That guy is still a head mover and shaker in several projects around town, but somewhat bull-headedly will never bother with any NRHS chapter again. Ever.

*The dissolution of certain NRHS chapters is hardly a surprising one in retrospect. For years, a great many NRHS chapters were formed almost exclusively to bring Southern steam excursions to a town or area. In the 1970s and 1980s the NRHS had a HUGELY disproportionate chapter presence in Southern territory, as opposed to raw per capita proportions. Also, how many chapters--and, indeed, how many museums and excursion operations--basically started as "personality cults" centered around one person's drive, ambition, and dreams? In Baltimore we have the Baltimore NRHS, the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, the Baltimore Society of Model Engineers, and more, all thanks to George F. Nixon. Similarly, even though it has grown (as any mature institution should) to exist beyond the formative individual, we have Tom Marshall to thank for the Wilmington & Western, Henry K. Long and William Moedinger to thank for the Strasburg, the Biegerts to thank for the Grand Canyon Railroad, etc. etc.

In my city, I see many, many churches that promptly fold up and die after their leaders die or are otherwise removed. I see high-end restaurants fold after one partner quits. It's hardly surprising to me that at least some NRHS chapters and rail museums eventually fold after a change in leadership or circumstances (suburbia, anyone?).

Sandy, this is truly amazing news. An NRHS chapter actually does exist where the officers would voluntarily forfeit their opportunity to bore a trapped audience to death in order to get the program started? Does the national organization know about this?

After 35 years of going to NRHS meetings, this concept of a chapter promptly allowing the speaker to present the program just seems so incredible that it is hard to believe it has really happened. Imagine what the NRHS would be like if the entire organization did things this way!

Are you SURE this group is really part of the NRHS?

If word of this leaks out, who knows what the consequences might be!

New members might even show up!

I looked at a local chapter's website yesterday, it says there is an upcoming change of meeting locations (it did take place, back in the middle of 2003). There is also a reminder to the members posted on the home page, to get their registrations in for the annual banquet, and provides information about the speaker. Sounds like it is a very interesting program, but unfortunately it is a notice for the 2005 banquet.

Well, at least that matches the 2005 yearbook the NRHS just sent me.

MX

This is far too common a problem in the non-profit world, not just the NRHS or rail preservation.

It only takes one knowledgeable person to set up a competent Chapter website, but if that website isn't made accessible to the other officers, or that person leaves and no one else is either able or willing to step in and routinely update the website's time-sensitive content, it goes to heck very quickly. I can think of at least three rail operations, including my own local chapter, where this has happened (in our case, the webmaster got peeved at some rule in the by-laws and left, and is now doing so much overseas work that I can't get a hold of him to figure out how to update the site).

I had a similar website situation with my reenactment unit. The guy had good intentions but was spreading himself too thin. We finally shamed him into reworking it by having mention of getting quotes for a new website in our minutes (which are distributed by email). The website was reworked within a week.

This seems like a good reason for the national organization to host websites for the smaller chapters. At least they would have a record of the access password and could "turn off the lights" if the chapter folds. Leaving incorrect and outdated information posted helps nobody.

I am reminded of the S. S. Nobska restoration effort. The website is still sailing along, asking for donations and promising meetings and events, a year after the ship has been scrapped.