I believe the most important asset a not-for-profit organization can possess is trust; that is, being trustworthy or worthy of trust. Trust comes before collections, money, reputation, members, or any other asset. It has been my experience that trust is difficult to earn or establish and easy to destroy. As in the relationship developed between a couple through marriage or a sound friendship, the trust between a not-for-profit organization and its donors, members, visitors, and the like grows over years of nurturing. The way an organization can build trust is by starting with a sound foundation. Trust is why a not-for-profit corporation must be as transparent and as honest as possible in all of its activities.

As in constructing a building, a new organization should start with a firm foundation and a firm foundation should start with solid cornerstones. These are written and published documents that drive the organization. Members may have various opinions but written facts are what count.

The first cornerstone of this foundation is the purpose stated in the Articles of Incorporation, Charter, or Constitution, depending upon the state of registry. For example, the Articles of Incorporation for the Railway Historical Society of Milwaukee (to become Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society) states the purpose “to maintain and operate a museum and historical organization perpetuating the memory and history of railroading, including the people, equipment and geographical locations therein involved, and to engage in, assist and endow such literary and educational activities and undertakings as will aid and abet in preserving said memory and history.” Articles of Incorporation, et cetera are public record and can be obtained from the Department of Commerce or Department of State of any state government.

The second cornerstone of this growing foundation is the Bylaws, which establish in general terms just how the corporation will be governed. Bylaws should be like the U.S. Constitution in defining governance in general terms and should occupy only 6 to 8 pages. A well-written bylaws document should be rarely amended and amendments should be added at the end in an amendments section. The way, anyone can view the bylaws and be able to follow exactly how governance of the corporation has changed over the years. A big mistake boards of directors make is to incorporate policy decisions into the bylaws. Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society does this and the volunteer fire company I am a member does this with its safety regulations. Thus, MCRHS bylaws are 18 pages long and have been amended about every year and the fire company bylaws are 62 pages long.

The third cornerstone is the Mission Statement. This document defines the goals, standards, and/or functions of the organization and should be a greater detail of the stated purpose. This document keeps the board, staff, and members in line with the purpose and serves as a yardstick by which donors, contributors, members, and visitors can actually evaluate the success or failure of the leaders. For example, the Mission Statement for Mid-Continent was established by the board of directors in the late 1990s and continues to be published in the annual calendar, each issue of the Railway Gazette, and on the website. A comparison of the Mission Statement with what the member, donor, or visitor sees and experiences should determine if the organization can be trusted.

The fourth and equally important cornerstone is the Strategic Business Plan. This plan defines in detailed terms the finances of the organization presently and in general terms the finances of the organization in the immediate future. The immediate future can be for up to five years in relative detail and up to twenty years in lesser detail. This document should answer questions about expansion and how any expansion will be financed. These documents should be made available to the public upon request. Confidential plans, such as a future purchase or collection acquisition where competition could enter the picture, could be included as appendices that are only available to the board of directors, officers, and executive director. The finance committee should review the Strategic Business Plan at least twice a year and report to the board their suggested changes, if any, in order to keep the document current.

My experience has been that the purpose and bylaws have not been problematic and are pretty much straight forward. And more organizations are publishing their mission statements. However, strategic business plans are more problematic. Either they are composed then ignored or never established in the first place.

The Mission Statement for Mid-Continent describes its primary focus “shall be on railroading of the Upper Mid-west during the Golden Age of Railroading, 1880-1916” and describes six principles: (1) collect and preserve rolling stock, structures, and other artifacts to meet the Museum’s focus; (2) restore the equipment based on sound scholarship; (3) operate a demonstration steam passenger train in an historically accurate environment; (4) interpret through Museum display and education programs, the history, equipment, skills and the human facets of the rail industry; (5) maintain a library and archival collections for historical studies; and (6) hold the Museum’s collection in the public trust ensuring long term care. This being stated, I have to wonder if leaving newly restored wooden and steel cars outside exposed to the elements for years, if operating a diesel-powered passenger train for the past ten years, if replacing the original boiler of C&NW #1385 with a welded boiler containing fake rivets, if leaving drive wheels in Chattanooga for years, if storing the tender for C&NW #1385 in a member’s yard, and if storing archival materials in a rented garage more than seven miles away for years are all compatible with the mission statement, just to name a few examples.

In order to protect the collection and expand the museum, the board of directors of Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society unanimously accepted the Strategic Short and Long Range Planning Committee (SSLRPC) report of November 4, 2001. They supported the development of the southwest quadrant as defined in the SSLRPC Report and identified the large collection storage building as the first phase of construction. The strategic plan is about 100 pages long and describes planned construction of a New Display Hall west of the existing Coach Shed, a Visitor Center north of and adjoining the New Display Hall, Future storage building south of the existing coach shed (phase 2), turntable west of the Display Hall (phase 3), and round¬house north of the turntable (phase 4). This strategic plan is a culmination of 30 years of planning effort (see May 1976 Gazette reprinted in Gazette 40(1):16-17, 2007) and Mid-Continent blog of May 3, 2010. To date, none of these plans have been followed.

Near the end of the annual members meeting of MCRHS on November 4, 2006, I asked the manager about plans for the next year and the next five years. I also asked for his vision of where MCRHS and its museum will be twenty years from then. He was unable to answer any of these questions. However, three blogs followed that said little of substance. One interesting blog of January 29, 2007 was titled “Making Plans.” I thought the comments of one reader were very telling. He mentioned.” I read your comments with great interest. I'm curious about the 2005-2009 strategic plan, how was it communicated to the general membership? Is the plan available for review by members who haven't seen it (or have faulty memories like me?).”

The following is a quote from the first paragraph of the Manager’s blog of July 24, 2007. “This past week [the current president] began assembling a new strategic planning committee. Their charge is to formally do what we have been informally doing via the web log these past few months – compiling our own version of a strategic plan as a guide for Mid-Continent’s development over the next several years.” I have not and my friends have not seen this new plan.

I urge all members of not-for-profit organizations to request copies of these four cornerstone documents from their leaders. Furthermore, I urge the members to read each of them cover to cover and ask questions if there are inconsistencies. It is up to the members, and especially the voting members, to police their leaders to determine if there are competent leaders, if everything is above board, and if there are personal agendas being played out that deviate from these documents.

I will add my thoughts and professional thoughts about leader responsibilities next week and follow that with members’ rights and responsibilities and will read any comments with interest.