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I'm a R&LHS member, have never been a NRHS one.

I see I missed the same thought (RLHS) posted by Mr. Mitchell in another thread.. oops.

Are you in a Chapter or an at-large member?

I am a national member and a member of the Golden Spike Chapter.

I have been an R&LHS member for quite a long time. They are a fine organization that publishes a very high quality railroad history oriented magazine and they conduct business in a very polite and respectful manner. I would recommend the organization to anyone who is a serious student of railroad history.

PC

The closest Chapter to me is the Lackawanna.

I see the RLHS officials emails and phone numbers are on the website.

Ditto.

These endorsements are good enough for me. I will be joining shortly and contacting the relevant officials to see how the present NRHS Chapter can join assuming that this goes through. For that matter, I think I will propose a dual affiliation.

I'm a member of both NRHS and R&LHS.

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I been involved with the Southwest Chapter since 1985. I briefly served on the R&LHS board as the SWC rep in 1996.

Robby Peartree

There's the famous expression "all politics is local."

In decades now long ago, the R&LHS magazine (Bulletin) and its newsletters functionally served to offer a place of publication for well-done "academic" histories/papers on specialized subjects--biographies of distinguished rail officials, histories of small local railroads, complete all-time locomotive rosters of railroads or builders lists of loco builders (even to the extent of filling an entire issue), and even whole issues devoted to the history of one railroad. And, of course, plenty of book reviews in the rear.

In recent years, the shift of what is now named Railroad History has been less away from the specific and more towards the "bigger picture"--railroads of Cuba (two-parter), the steam-to-diesel transition, railroads and the military, dome cars, railroads and slavery, etc. These articles, on average, attempt to place their subjects in a national perspective, not just in a technical sense but a cultural sense as well. And then there are the book reviews, and various editorial essays.

Now go look at the respective websites. The NRHS website, to be blunt, tells you what they have--somewhat. Now, go to the R&LHS website and look at their "Reference" and "Archives" menus. They happily guide you with links to other archives, libraries, etc, and even give you guides to searching the National Archives and other places. Now go to "Publications" and look at their indices.

The R&LHS, for better or worse, has shifted its focus quite some time back to actually serving the needs of railroad historians and putting railroad history in a broader social context. Not useful if you want to know which Amtrak Sprinters are running as of this week so you can shoot video, but useful if you're actually trying to find out something on the Dagoscahounda and Punxsutawney or whatever, and/or where you might actually find something on it, and then make a case about why anyone should care.

The NRHS's long-time focus on administrating a set of "railfan social clubs" has left it painfully vulnerable to being passed by in the wake of the Internet, cell phones, social media, and the like. As much as railroading has to be a group activity by definition, railfanning remains an intensely personal pursuit, and one need not "network" with the local "club" to stay abreast of "news" any more. The NRHS *COULD* do so much more nationally just with the website--a national database or website of rail preservation information and data, a geographical guide to rail history and museums, a platform for "default" websites for non-web-savvy Chapters, forums for discussions like this, "eye candy" of fascinating vintage photos, etc.--but, either because of a lack of vision or talent, hasn't done so.

I am a Board member of the NRHS and a member of the New Business Committee.

The reality is that the NRHS model has gone bust. It is not the fault of President Molloy, or the members, or even previous Boards. The basic problem is that the world changed a lot and the NRHS hasn't. NRHS members and members of the rail heritage community can be upset at the fact that the world changed...but it is reality and we can't alter it. I will offer a few facts to dispel mistruths in this thread and others.

Fact 1: The NRHS Board formed a committee to deal with this business issue. The NRHS Board overwhelmingly approved the creation of the committee.

Fact 2: Greg Molloy has not been involved in the development of the new model. He has been busy with other NRHS business but has had virtually no input into the new model.

Fact 3: If the new model is adopted, Greg Molloy will not be President of the "new" NRHS. In part because he doesn't want to and in part because he doesn't feel he is the right person to lead it.

Fact 4: The new business model committee is not a play for Greg Molloy to retain power as President of the NRHS. It is a play to establish a model that will allow us to stay in business. Reality is that the current path leads to extinction.

The NRHS has a long history of conspiracy theories and in this case they are simply not true. The truth is that the NRHS is fighting for its life and a committee is offering a plan to allow it to survive.

Jeff Smith
NRHS Board Member

"The NRHS Board formed a committee to deal with this business issue. The NRHS Board overwhelmingly approved the creation of the committee."

Well swell. Politicians routinely create committees to make determinations that they don't want to make (anybody remember the BRAC to deal with military bases?).

However, committees are meant to be advisory, to issue recommendations (hopefully multiple options, not one love it or leave it option). Commitees are supposed to be answerable to boards, to serve them, not to rule them.


"The reality is that the NRHS model has gone bust. It is not the fault of President Molloy, or the members, or even previous Boards. "

Let's examine this a bit:

Malloy had been in office since the early 90's. Are you suggesting that this happened overnight, dues ex machina?

The principle job of corporate boards and officers is to anticipate market changes IN ADVANCE and to react appropriately to ensure that the organization reacts appropriately. The very fact that you use the term "gone bust" shows that this is being pushed with slogans.

At fault? Maybe not? RESPONSIBLE, yes, just as the officers and boards of Eastman Kodak did not anticipate and react appropriately to the digital revolution.

They did not, EK is gone as a ticker symbol, now on the pink sheets, no longer a blue chip.

Assuming for the sake of argument that the model has "gone bust" (I'm trying not to laugh at the sloganeering here) who says what's proposed is the only answer, one that must be rushed in soon, before the membership starts to say "wait a minute".

And the responsible official (with a long and distinguished record as a member and officer) who spoke at my Chapter last evening indicated that when he made inquiries as to whether Malloy could be reinstalled, the answer was "yes".

"Reinstalled" is the wrong word to use

Any defeated elected official can always chose to run again at a later date, consider for example, what happened with a man named "Nixon", or what may or may not happen with a man named "Romney".

Bob H