Minnesota Transportation Museum

steaminfo · **Posted:** Tue Jan 11, 2022 10:33 pm

This was just published in the "Minnesota Railroads" group on Facebook. It is quite impressive for what it DOESN'T say...

Quote:

Dear MTM Friends and Members,
This has been a challenging week for our great organization, and some of you have expressed concerns. As the remaining members of the executive committee, and with support from the overwhelming number of MTM board members, we want to assure you of stable leadership, ongoing operations, financial oversight, and a bright future.
We want you to know that the actions taken this past week by the vast majority of the MTM voting membership were done in good faith and with the best interests of the organization in mind. The actions were taken with good legal representation and consultation. While some board members were removed from their director roles by the membership, MTM still has the majority of the board in place. The board will continue to provide responsible fiduciary oversight and leadership.
In the weeks and months ahead, please rest assured that MTM business will continue to be done in a responsible manner. All grant funds that are restricted for specific projects will be used as the funders intended and we will be accountable to our funders and to you as members. With the support of a newly contracted certified public accounting firm, MTM’s finances will be managed professionally and with integrity. Our bills and salaries will continue to get paid. Grant applications continue to be written and submitted. Transparency is our full intention.
As we move forward, we are engaging former board leaders and former MTM executive directors to form a management team to provide advice and guidance to our interim executive director. We are also working to fill vacant volunteer positions in order to keep all operations running smoothly. The Board must also fill its vacant leadership positions. All of this will be discussed at the upcoming board meeting later this month.
There is a lot of work to do to prepare for a successful 2022 season in Osceola, to grow our museum operations at Jackson Street, and to restore and maintain MTM’s historic equipment and archives. We need the support of all members, both those who are active and those who have been absent in recent years. We hope each of you will continue to volunteer at MTM and support our important work going forward. You are all needed and welcome.
These have been difficult days, but now is the time to look towards the future. Please stick together, share your positive ideas, come home to MTM if you’ve been absent, and let’s make MTM a fun place to volunteer and a treasure to be shared with our community.
On behalf of the MTM Board of Directors, thank you for staying the course and helping build new momentum for the Minnesota Transportation Museum
Sincerely,
Bob Puelston, Secretary
Wayne Merchant, Executive Committee Member at Large

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 12:15 am

Okay, someone who knows:

Give us the one-sentence summary of what's NOT being said. Just facts and not opinion, please.

Pegasuspinto · **Joined:** Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:43 am **Posts:** 777

It's pretty plain.

"The only ones left in here are elderly, stubborn, knuckleheads, (ESK), that can't understand why they don't have volunteers beating the door down to do our bidding. The power has shifted and ESK group A has kicked out ESK group B and C and made them scapegoats for our group failures. While we do things exactly the same way we have done for 50 years, we are on the search for young, vibrant, new people with new money and ideas, who conform to what ESK group A wants them to be and do. Since no young people are the hard working, moral, stable people the ESK were at their age(These damn kids now a days!!), the pickings are pretty slim."

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 1:02 pm

It's my understanding that the "coup" did not conform to the museum's by-laws, and museum counsel issued an opinion that the actions of the parties taking over control would not withstand scrutiny by a court.

That being said, it appears from my contacts at the place that the vast majority of volunteers who actually get stuff done, including the entire group that keeps the diesel locomotives functioning, decided to vote with their feet after the takeover.

While the long-term effects of this are yet to be seen, this reminds me of what happened to the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington in the 1970s. There, the museum's membership narrowly voted down an offer to accept a piece of railroad, which included a shop building. Subsequently, the volunteers do did restoration and maintenance work walked out of disgust, and you can see what the place is like today.

psa188 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 2:46 pm

It is not good form to post something that assumes everyone is familiar with the internal politics of an organization located halfway across the country. The name of this website is not "Minnesota Museum Gossip."

the original post should have come with an explanation as to what the foxtrot this was about, or else why should we care?

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:23 pm

Issues of how non profit organizations involved in historic railway preservation choose to govern themselves are entirely up for discussion. Some organizations set an example of best practices on how to manage the various tensions involved in getting people passionate about this to work together. Other groups are also examples, but of what not to do.

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:35 pm

wilkinsd wrote:

Issues of how non profit organizations involved in historic railway preservation choose to govern themselves are entirely up for discussion. Some organizations set an example of best practices on how to manage the various tensions involved in getting people passionate about this to work together. Other groups are also examples, but of what not to do.

I don't think the poster was disagreeing with that in the least bit. I think they were just asking for more context with what's going on at the museum instead of "here's a big mystery with a one-sided statement".

psa188 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:57 pm

bigjim4life wrote:

I don't think the poster was disagreeing with that in the least bit. I think they were just asking for more context with what's going on at the museum instead of "here's a big mystery with a one-sided statement".

Correct. The OP assumed we are all familiar with this situation, which is not true.

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:18 pm

My sincerest apologies. I misread what you said.

The Readers' Digest version as I know it is:

Older group of volunteers staged a coup and had a special meeting (of which the legality of such is in question) which ousted key board members and officers of the organization. In response, younger volunteers, the ones who actually make the place run, voted with their feet.

Pegasuspinto · **Joined:** Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:43 am **Posts:** 777

This is a public group, the comments there are interesting, I think anyone can view the group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1360051961027253

Another post on the same group:

Brandon G
1-11-2022 at 4:18PM ·
Actions have consequences.
This past Saturday was a sad day. This post was shared in another MN RR group but I feel the more light this issue receives, the faster it can be resolved and never be repeated.
As pictures show, toolboxes and personal gear were packed up and moved out at the Minnesota Transportation Museum.
The Jackson Street Roundhouse shop is essentially going dark after Thursday night's action to "remove" the Board Chair, Vice Chair, and Treasurer without taking advice from MTM's corporate counsel. Discussion was not permitted by meeting leader Noel Petit. Secretary Bob Puelston and board member Kurt Mahre also led this charge.
The good old boys club, with a decades old chip on their shoulder successfully drove the future of MTM out the door.
Work on 454-A restoration has come to a halt. Qualified work on the diesels will halt. Passenger car work will all but come to a crawl. Only one locomotive in the entire MTM fleet has a blue card, with nobody else qualified remaining to get the trains ready for the 2022 Osceola Season.
Best of luck to the new "leadership group" at MTM to get trains moving safely this season. Grant opportunities will be lost. Donations will be lost.
First of many unintended consequences after an illegitimate meeting and vote.
For years we have all dedicated countless hours maintaining equipment, track and facilities. Now we have been called replaceable. Our ideas are too radical. Our importance is not understood.
Last week a few individuals, who have for decades actively worked against the betterment of the organization, hosted an illegitimate vote to recall the Chairman, Vice Chair, and Treasurer of the organization. This was the final straw that resulted in the vast majority of the shop crew moving their toolboxes out and turning in their keys.
We all care a great deal about this organization, but until major changes are made, we are done.

HudsonL · **Joined:** Mon May 24, 2010 10:22 am **Posts:** 548

I don't know about the legality of the meeting, but the three
members of the Board they were trying to remove resigned
before the meeting.

-Hudson

steaminfo · **Posted:** Thu Jan 13, 2022 2:00 pm

psa188 wrote:

It is not good form to post something that assumes everyone is familiar with the internal politics of an organization located halfway across the country. The name of this website is not "Minnesota Museum Gossip."

the original post should have come with an explanation as to what the foxtrot this was about, or else why should we care?

As the original poster I'll cheerfully acknowledge that I could have phrased that better. What I was trying to say was "WTF is going on here. I know nothing. Please enlighten me."

p51 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 13, 2022 3:57 pm

I don't have clue about what happened, and am not familiar with the group in any way.
That said, I have zero problem accepting that a group ousted another and the younger folks who did stuff walked out.
I think we've all seen it happen countless times, also in fields other than RR preservation.
I know of a non-RR museum that imploded spectacularly exactly like this. The older folks who founded the museum thought they controlled the universe, but they didn't realize that none of them actually did any work. Some younger ideas came in, the older folks hated anything they didn't come up with themselves (including some key donations of large equipment that would have drawn more people) and they did something like this.
By the end of that meeting, every single person who actually did work got up and left. "Fine," the old folks said, "We'll get other who will do out bidding…"
And that didn't happen.
I'm told that the day the scrappers and trucks showed up to take everything away to other owners (or in a few cases, people who had owned some of their stuff from the start but had it on loan), the old folks were literally standing outside, crying their eyes out at how they'd let it all slip through their fingers. One apparently admitted to a newspaper reporter that they'd brought the end of the museum on themselves.
Now clearly, I don't wish that in this case, but I think this has happened lots of times over the years, in various non-profits.

nedsn3 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:17 pm

Not sure what's going on there but I spent almost 4 years in Minneapolis working on the Hiawatha Project and got to know several of the members well. The Museum did a fabulous job getting the turntable installed and the roundhouse configured back to a railroad facility, something I wasn't sure could happen. But it did.
What happened here may not be uncommon but it is still sad to see.
Ned

EWrice · **Joined:** Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:14 am **Posts:** 367

I certainly hope that people can come to their senses and attempt to find mutual ground before the whole thing implodes. The timing of this is inteterting because I am watching an organization, that I resigned from in 2019, go through a very similar situation. As of yesterday they were up to 18 ground floor volunteers that had resigned in less than a week. These were almost all of the people that made the day to day happen. Makes me sick.

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