Yep, except the contextual stuff necessary to create the experience is an exhibit. First, biggest, last, etc., is relevant, but not nearly as important as placing something within a meaningful context that is both physical and intellectual. It should not take a "book on the wall" to do that.

But also, it is about management, and the management of a non-profit and its volunteers is different from the management of a for-profit business and its employees.

Well, the bigger question that's actually here in this thread is 'do this varied organizations and individuals and goals actually need two separate organizations to represent and protect them - or are they really under the same umbrella? Problem or opportunity?

Within ourselves, there are certainly a lot of dual personal citizenships, including memberships in both organizations. Both organizations benefit a LOT from being together and meeting each other. Not that there aren't philisophical differences, but they're a lot muddier and I think, a lot more mutually respected, than 20 years ago. Many of the for-profits I work with owe full recognition and sometimes survival to a non-profit 'friends' preservation organization. And the non-profits have come to accept that philosophy is great, but if you want that preservation grant, 10,000 people showing up for a special event gets you noticed, and now you can afford to rebuild that 1880 wood coach that you've had rotting away since 1960.

For advocacy to the outside world, like it or not, we're all 'old trains'. If it isn't the FRA on us, it's the neighbors that hate rusty collections, significant or not. Copper thieves don't differentiate. Everybody has a stake, like it or not, on what happens in Congress from PTC down to ADA acccessibility to STB decisions on abandonment policy, trails, you name it. If we're getting stepped on, deliberately or accidentally, an organization speaks effectively as a representative. And the price just to show up - say at a Washington DC hearing, is very real.

Here's a great example of exactly what I mean:
http://www.stb.dot.gov/filings/all.nsf/ ... 228969.PDF
And can you imagine the impact on all of us if that particular one fell though the cracks? Suddenly you have to submit all operational notifications to the STB as a regulated rail carrier? What's that worth?


The Shortline association is one of the more effective advocacy groups out there and have a Washington DC office with a paid staff, but just as a reminder.. annual dues are $1570 for an excursion railroad and get up to nearly 9K for a regional. TRAIN is a sliding scale by revenue but peaks at $575, and ARM is about $250. When you're paying memberships, there is an expectation of effectiveness, and then its all about the numbers, too - participants X cost.

Erik made a very interesting comment on the previous page of this discussion about the combined organization possibly being able to offer training. I wonder if he might be able to expand on that topic and perhaps give us a general idea of the range of services that might potentially be considered.

PC

=o)