I've noticed a trend recently where some organizations (FEBT, WW&F) are scheduling a few big work weekends instead of "every Saturday" work sessions. These "blitzes" seem to get a lot accomplished. I'm looking into the possibility of doing something similar at SCRM. We did some mini-blitzes a few years back when we rebuilt all our road crossings, and they worked well. I have a few technical questions about organizing and working at these events:1. How much advance notice is typical for a blitz work session?2. How much "behind the scenes" setup is required? Note that at SCRM's normal work days, we often spend anywhere from 30 minutes to two very annoying hours fixing tools and finding materials before any real work can get started.3. What sort of jobs are most interesting to volunteers driving long distances for a big work session?4. What's a good start time for work sessions? (Things rarely get going at SCRM much before 9:00 on normal work Saturdays)I'm most interested in feedback from folks who have conducted or worked in such blitzes, but responses from anyone are welcome. I'm also interested in knowing if anybody here would be interested in attending a work blitz at SCRM at some point in the future (probably next spring), assuming a $25 membership is required for insurance purposes?

The C of G RHS pretty much painted the W&T caboose in a day adjacent to their annual meeting in Savannah. Acually, a few of their members did it - we had everything else repaired and primer on it ready to paint with adequate brushes and supplies on hand so no wasted or down time apart from cleanup. I'd recommend jobs like this that are pretty much fast and provide immediate gratifying results for those who do them. dave

At the WW&F we have Saturday Volunteer work sessions every Saturday year round. They start with breakfast at a local eatery at 6:00am and work at the Museum starts at 7:00am. And yes, we allow people to sleep in and join the work party whenever they get to the Museum.Our two "Super" Volunteer Work Sessions are always the same two weekends - The last weekend in April (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and Columbus Day Weekend (Friday Saturday, Sunday and Monday) These dates are published in our newsletters , our website, and our annual calendar.Again, we meet for breakfast at 6:00 am and work starts at 7:00am.Local volunteers spend the two or three saturdays before these large work sessions making sure all the material is staged and the tools are ready.Of course, rail, ties and OTM are purchased and received well before these weekends.There are three or four volunteer coordinators assigned - one for laying rail, one for tamping , one for painting, one for other projects, etc.The most popular draw for our weekends is actually laying the rail and ties.

Here are some observations from the FEBT work sessions. 1. advance noticeThe schedule for the entire season is set early in the year, and goes out by direct email to past volunteers and by postal mail via the organization's newsletter, typically in March.2. behind the scenes workMost jobs get underway after about an hour of gathering tools/supplies and unloading of volunteers' cars. Sometimes longer if there's a first order of business like an 'all-hands' move of lumber, etc. Usually less on the second day as everything is already closer to the job, but then there's the hour needed to clean up, packup, store, and otherwise secure things.The larger behind the scenes work is in the prep for the session, getting home-shopped pieces built/rehabbed, arranging for lumber/etc deliveries to the site, planning the approach and setting goals for each of the jobs, and getting specialty tools/supplies lined up. Most importantly, making sure the expertise/tools/supplies will be on hand to meet the amount of labor that shows up. You don't want volunteers to go away annoyed that after going to the effort/expense to get there, their time was wasted because the job was completed too soon or stalled out for lack of some necessity.3. jobs of interest Track work and railcar work are the more widely interesting jobs. 4. start timeWe start at 9am, which works well. Time for breakfast beforehand, and still time to get setup and get some work in before lunch. It also makes it easier (relative) for volunteers to drive in that morning instead of incurring the expense of an overnight stay the night before.