I am wondering if members of other museums would share the make up membership of their museums boards. Are they made up of just museum members or from outside the museum? Maybe business men from the local area?

I am curious as to what seems to work and what does not. I have seen a movement at times to get the museum community to have their boards made up by outsiders rather than the museums members.

The museum I am associated with right now has a board that is mostly composed of people from outside the museum. They tend to act like most business men today do. They are more interested in the bottom line. Does this work in the long run for railway and trolley museums?

Our board has had two different business women and a retired State delegate from the community in addition to Museum members. So far it has been a good mix for us. The community members bring additional insights beyond our usual focus on operating a railway and maintaining large artifacts like streetcars.

Wesley

Don't you want to run it like a business? If not throw the businessmen off the board and elect a bunch of guys who will spend the business meetings arguing over who gets to drive the choo choo the next weekend.

You must have a board that has worked with budgets and understand how businesses operate and bring those skills to the table. You must have planning process and adopt 5 year plans and set goals. This has allowed our museum to grow from nothing to becoming an operating museum, purchase land, equipment, restore and refurbish equipment, build buildings and we have no debt and money in the bank. You must have people who understand business operation. Drake

I would prefer to have people on the Board of Directors who bring real world experiences of running a business, being middle or upper managers, working with community leaders, being in the non-profit world, knowledge of technical and social history, and the like instead having it filled by a popularity contest of members.

I have heard a museum member say, "I can't remember the name of who I voted for. But, he was the guy who drive the truck that brought so much equipment to the Museum." How many trucks you have driven for the museum, how many cars you have scraped paint on, or the like should not be the reason to be voted onto a board of directors.

I would have to agree with the postings above. Our organize is built on the funidmentals of business practices. Lets face it. It cost a lot to run business right more then it does to run by the seat of your pants. Most folks think run the choo choo and they will come. Not any more. You need to advertise, Market it and have a 5 year growth plan to follow so you don't die on the vine.

I would say make sure your board has an understanding of what your trolley or railroad is trying to do. If you have a board that does not understand this can cause it own issues. I have found when they are just looking at the bottom line and your asking we need another passenger car because we have need to put more people on the train and they ask why and you have people standing outside because there no more room this can be a real problem. So the point is just because your a 501c3 does not mean you should not follow a real business plan and run yourself as a business.

We tried the "outside business leaders" - a 100% total FAILURE. Run us into the ground. There isn't a bottom line in railway preservation, so, they couldn't relate. They just pissed off a lot of good volunteers. We went back to an all elected members Board. There are challenges there too, but, MUCH better.

Jim,

Yours was an expensive lesson to be sure, but I think it is a rare occurrance stemming from the particular individuals involved in the issue. By and large, a business approach to museum mangement can bring many favorable things such as organized planning, fiscal accountability, and a broader range of community contacts. The key is not to give too few people an inordinate share of teh power. Spread it around. Hopefully, we all get boards that have disagreements once in a while to keep the conversation lively and force defense of potentially hair-brained ideas.

As an aside, I feel exactly like Brian Norden does regarding board make up.

After reading my posting, I failed to note that all our board members are members of the museum and have been for many years. They bring skill sets to the table that we have been and are continue to be used in our efforts. From a CEO, CPA, professional administrator, Railroad Contractor, Class 1 Railroad Claims Agent, Street Superintendent of a metro city, etc. All who understand the purpose of the museum, but also understand the need to operate like a business. I agree with Brian and others. Drake, Secretary, Oklahoma Railway Museum, Oklahoma City, OK.

The old cliche' for a non-profit board is the three G's, Give, Get, or Git.
The board member gives money, gets money, or gits off the board.

The problem with too many railway museums is that the board acts as an executive committee and micro-manages the operation. That's where the problems begin. If you want a board of outside community leaders for their fund raising and public relations abilities, you need a competent manager or executive committee to to handle the daily routine of running the museum. The board needs to have confidence in the museum manager(s).

A board composed of good 'ole boys or members with a large sweat equity in the museum rarely includes people with fund-raising ability or with the conrtacts of outside directors. Some of these people don't even have good business sense.

fk

Dear Chris:
The Valley Railroad (a for-profit company that looks and acts like a non-profit) has a Board made up of local business men, women who are directors at non-profits, a State Representative, a former State Commissioner, an architect, a mechanical engineer and a couple of nut turners (I fall into the later and some of the former catagories).
It is a fairly balenced board in that we have a group with a variety of skills and life experiences.
The business men depend on the nut turners to tell them what is feasible/how much it will cost, the women provide their take on what half the population thinks about "all this", people familiar with State government inform us on how we "fit in" with current thinking at the capitol and so on.
This approach to the composition of the Board has worked well for us.
J.David

Guys,

The Western Railway museum has found that having a foot in both camps works for us.

We have an executive Director who works directly with the Board on community outreach and fund raising.

We have a recently retired Manager of a transit system on the board.

We also have a few members who mow grass and scrape paint on artifacts.

A person who knows business is good, but they also have to have an interest in some sort of railroad history.Whatever sort of history is of interest to that museum.

Chris started this thread and a manager from his museum recently ended up in jail. That of course is to be avoided!

And Chris has work started on that Ohio Light & Power parlor yet?

Ted Miles

Old Pueblo Trolley's Board of Directors is largely taken from representatives of the community. Of the entire Board, only the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Training Department Manager, a representative from the Maintenance Department, Head of the Bus Division, Head of Southern Arizona Transportation Museum and the Treasurer come from the organization. Pie Allen and Iron Horse Neighborhood Associations each have a representative, as does the Fourth Avenue Merchant's Association, the Arizona Historical Society, Rialto Theater, University of Arizona Transportation Services, the Marshall Foundation (?).

All of the representatives are appointed by their respective organizations to represent them on the OPT Board and Board members are voted in only by the sitting board. All of us have significant previous experience-the CEO and COO are structural engineers. I have previous practical management skills in the tourist rail business. U of A and Fourth Avenue Merchant's Association are both represented by top management level individuals. The other groups are represented by individuals who have extensive experience with non-profit operations and management.

We have found that the coalition approach has worked very well for us. It gives us additional leverage with the City of Tucson. We also make a point to get to know our public officials and invite them to participate. We have made the street railway an assett to these organizations. Twenty five years ago, the street railway was only a dream. Now the street railway is something that none of these organizations could dream of being without. We've worked to benefit them and they've backed us during our hard times. As a member of the Fourth Avenue Merchant's Association (FAMA), we are working to promote Sunday Shopping on the Avenue. FAMA works to get as many member business to open up in the afternoon and we run a 12PM-6PM service with a flat fare of 25 cents instead of the regular $1 for adults and 50 cents for children. We hang large banners on the car announcing this and in return, when we give FAMA our headcount, they cut us a check for the difference between fares collected and normal fare total.

From an operations point of view, the CEO and COO handle different tasks that would normally be the responsibility of an executive director. The Training Department Manager handles the day to day operational matters (excluding crew scheduling)- and training compliance issues-making certain that the state and municipal requirements are met. The Chief Mechanical Officer handles maintenance concerns and supervises the car barn operations. In practice, the CEO and COO are top management and focus on long term projects, community relations and fundraising. The Training Department Manager acts more as a General Superintendant and tends to the day to day matters. The CMO acts as a department head, reporting to the COO as does the TDM. The Directors have little/no input into the day to day operational matters.

The street railway is overseen by the Street Railway Management Committee. The Committee is made up of the CEO, COO, CMO, TDM and one additional representative from the Mechanical/Restoration Department. Matters that require submission to the Board come before the Committee and are either passed or voted down. Our last meeting passed a very large, expensive decision that will be presented to the Board at our next meeting.

Hopefully this gives a good overview of our management system at work.

We tried using outside community business folks on our board. Before I was president it was tried and didn't work, we couldn't get them to volunteer, and we can't pay. I tried it while president. I got one local supporter who owns her own restaurant and cabin rentals to join the board. She lasted less than 6 months. She did not have the patience to sit around debating with few decisions being made. The issue continues to come up at the board meetings, but concensis is, why bother.

Our biggest issue has been and continues to be is how big should the board be? Ours is 12 members, but we currently have 3 or 4 openings. It is difficult to find members willing to devote the time needed to travel and do a good job. We would rather be working on the train or a restoration projects.

dan

Thanks for all the great responces. I threw the question out because we are struggling with decisions as we try to reinvigorate our museum and grow it in a direction that will be viable in the future. We did have issues as many know. A lot of material has been pilfered. WE seem to have overcome some of the issues. To go forward though, we need to have the right combination on the board.

Ted: We have started the documenting process on the NORTHERN. We gave one side of the car a brush coat of paint to give visitors an idea of what will come. We left the other side as it is now so visitors can see where we are starting from. It will be a very public restoration. Parts will be fabricated in the shop and then assembled on the car in the visitor center. The visitor will be able to get up and close to the restoration process. We are hoping that people will come back over the years to follow its process and we also hope to get new volunteers interested. We will also document it all on our web site at www.ct-trolley.org. Follow the links to the restoration page. We are trying to keep the site updated with fresh pictures and info. Click on the cars picture and it will take you to that cars specific page.