For those of you who are knowledgeable in this area, how is the volunteer work force holding up these days? If it is down, have to explored the reason why? What have you tried to address this? Have you cut back on the projects/activities you do?

If it is up, what do you think you are doing right?

For those who know - are all volunteer activities down (church, YMCA, museums, little league, etc)?

Jim

Jim@sdrm.org

An individual railroad museum's volunteer trends tend to correlate strongly with the sincerity of the "Welcome Mat," and with the amount of accomplishment, achievement, and personal satisfaction the organization allows a volunteer to attain.

Ask the membership services coordinator of any really successful volunteer organization if these are not critical factors in maintaining a strong volunteer base. Simply being dedicated to the cause of railroad preservation and or railfan is not enough.

Thank you Art. Good point.

Is this the right venue for this discussion? Should I try a different list?

Jim



Jim@sdrm.org

> For those of you who are knowledgeable in
> this area, how is the volunteer work force
> holding up these days? If it is down, have
> to explored the reason why? What have you
> tried to address this? Have you cut back on
> the projects/activities you do?

Pretty much all volunteer organizations share the "10% rule" -- 10% of the members do 90% of the work. The outfit I've adopted as my own has a slightly higher level of participation, close to 20%. Our leadership tries to emphasize volunteer recruitment, and we welcome new volunteers. However, it seems to me that our new volunteer recruitment is just keeping up with attrition. You're always going to have people who burn out, die, get ticked off about something and quit, move, etc. A certain amount of attrition is normal. It's when you start losing key people or large numbers that you need to start worrying.

The South Carolina Railroad Museum
mconrad@msmgmt.com

> Thank you Art. Good point.

> Is this the right venue for this discussion?
> Should I try a different list?

> Jim

I can't think of anything MORE relevant to this list.


eledbetter@rypn.org

Matt:

I agree with:

"Pretty much all volunteer organizations share the "10% rule" -- 10% of the
members do 90% of the work."

So - maybe the real question is our railroad museum keeping the membership up as old members pass away or is the new generation not interested in trains and volunteering?

> Matt:

> I agree with:

> "Pretty much all volunteer
> organizations share the "10% rule"
> -- 10% of the
> members do 90% of the work."

> So - maybe the real question is our railroad
> museum keeping the membership up as old
> members pass away or is the new generation
> not interested in trains and volunteering?
We have a lot of members in our chapter who's main interest is watching slides and modeling. We have about 15% who do hands on work with what we as a chapter are trying to preserve. We have strived to get all members involved somehow, weather with free food, give aways, asking for opinions from them on what to do etc. but mostly it still boils down to about 15% who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. I am open to any suggestions on how to prompt others to at least give a few hours once in awhile.

galberti990@comcast.net

> We have a lot of members in our chapter
> who's main interest is watching slides and
> modeling. We have about 15% who do hands on
> work with what we as a chapter are trying to
> preserve. We have strived to get all members
> involved somehow, weather with free food,
> give aways, asking for opinions from them on
> what to do etc. but mostly it still boils
> down to about 15% who aren't afraid to get
> their hands dirty. I am open to any
> suggestions on how to prompt others to at
> least give a few hours once in awhile.

Hmm... There's a model train show coming up. Maybe I should represent our railroad as an opportunity to model in a larger scale with an incredible amount of detail. I believe we call this the good ol' 12":1' scale, right?

I used to think that model railroaders would be easy pickin's to recruit as volunteers, but over the years I have found this is not the case. It's understandable that projects on a model railroad may not take as long to complete as full-scale restoration. Of course, I can think of some people who aren't patient enough even to be model railroaders. Model railroading may also suit a person with a busy schedule better than a tourist railroad. I'm sure there are many more reasons.

I think back to the days of scraping sand, mud, and grime off the running gear of ol' No. 75. I thought it would never end! But the locomotive did eventually run. Now our "new" little 0-6-0 sits in the yard and I think a lot of us hope for the day that it will move under its own power, but it will take a lot of work, time, and a substantial amount of money.

The best thing you can do to recruit and retain volunteers is to get them to capture the vision of the goal at hand. Some may even have their own visions or goals of learning how to be a brakeman, conductor, fireman, or engineer. Working as a brakeman now doesn't seem like much to me, but I do remember how excited I was when someone first taught me how to couple the steam engine to a trainset.

- Mike

Heber Valley Railroad
dakota97@xmission.com

My sense is that railroad museums need to recognize that their membership -- just like their visitors -- is comprised of more than one market segment. Once that realization sinks in, then it is up to the organization's leaders to develop tactical and strategic plans that address the interests of these various segments. Those in the various member market segments must be allowed to meaningfully participate and make meaningful contributions.

If a group has 10% doing 90% of the work, perhaps it needs to carefully examine how it defines "meaningful contributions." A little thinking outside of the box might be in order to see how some of the interests of the inactive majority might be addressed.

Now obviously, an operating museum like TVRM will place a greater emphasis on operations and restoration. And of course, there must be reasonable limits. [Something might rightly be said if a small group proposed cleaning out the East Chattanooga Back Shop and turning it into a huge model railroad layout. In fact, for those folks, there is a CHA area model railroad club.]

However, an organization wastes talent and will fail "to be all it can be" if it does not encourage and respect a variety of contributions. Making sure an organization does this is a major challenge of affinity group leaders. Be they called Boards of Directors, Trustees, or whatever, it takes a sincere interest in and sensitivity to members' needs by its leadership to make an organization successful. It's a major challenge. And as history shows, some leaders have flunked the test.

I am going to brag here...TVRM members are a pretty fortunate lot. In fact, when reviewing the recent writings appearing here about organizational issues, there are far more railroad preservation organizational successes than failures.

PS: My email will be back up tomorrow...I am changing domain registration services.

amiller@rtms-movietrains.com

> So - maybe the real question is our railroad
> museum keeping the membership up as old
> members pass away or is the new generation
> not interested in trains and volunteering?

There's currently a lively debate on what the end result will be of the current "fetish" of public-service obligations being imposed upon young people as a prerequisite of graduation from high school or college.

On the one hand, this could provide an opportunity for our groups to find labor pools for projects. On the other hand, there's the viewpoint (completely valid, in my experience) that such programs are ultimately counter-productive, instilling the "I did my time; go find some other young punk" mentality.

Have any of our readers successfully navigated the minefield of getting a public-service "volunteer" group or individual integrated into a longer-term commitment?

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net