The thread on volunteers started by GP made me think, especially since this is a more or less constant topic here.

I think a lack of volunteers is a generalization that can flow from two separate problems - attraction or retention. Deciding which is your specific problem requires some careful thought.

The difference is crucial. If attraction is the problem you MAY have an organization that meets the needs of existing members- but has "barriers to entry"-which could be any of the "old boy" issues discussed below.

On the other hand, if your roster is a revolving door-you may have to ADD rigor to your program. There's a long-known phenomonon among social scientists that difficult initiations produce better group retention. It has been practiced for centuries by religious orders, professions and fraternities/sororities to create a sense of investment. (I'm not suggesting an Animal House style paddling of "pledges")

Additionally, you can't view your volunteers as a homogeneous group. Each is a different person- with different goals and limitations.

Some folks are connecting with history, some with their ancestors, some are living a fantasy (always have to worry about them) and some just want socialization. Of course many are motivated by a mixture of many motivations.

The great irony is those with the most time always have some limitations. Retirees have wisdom but more physical limits. The really young can lack caution-so crucial around a railroad and often need closer supervision. Those in the middle have jobs, spouses and children.

Each person is different. Some forces are always outside your control, such as the age or death of an older volunteer or the career or parenthood of a 20 something that suddently renders ol' 99 a much lesser priority.

You have to find ways to work around that-make sure that they know their contribution is valued.

On the other hand, small things can be important. Railroads are dirty places. Do you have shower facilities and lockers?

Are there customs to produce comeraderie? Many organizations meet for dinner after a days operation.

Then there's the management of a group. One of the great dangers in this advocation is the individual that leverages personal proficiencyge to obtain special treatment and/or lords it over other individuals. That's a difficult situation for a group leader.

Are you honest with your people? If you use formal performance appraisals- do you inform people of their deficiencies and work with them to provide realistic, attainable ways to improve? Its a lot easier to say "great job" every year or on the other head say "you aren't ready"-but people eventually figure out your blowing smoke.

In conclusion- there's no simple answer-no one size fits all. Much good management is more the opportunistic and persistent practice of stolen ideas gathered over years of experience rather than the latest "paradigm" from Ivy League B-Schools.

It would be interesting to learn by example. Does anybody have any SUCCESS stories to share.


superheater@rrmail.com

Another very thoughtful and insightful essay.

Railroad museums, particularly ones that have an operations focus, are close to unique. Only organizations like the Confederate Air Force or the Liberty Ship restorationists work with such large and potentially dangerous "collections." The consequences arising from major human error are monumental.

That complicates the challenges of finding competent railroad museum volunteers and then getting them safely involved in making meaningful contributions. Selected previous posts -- some of which brought out the red Admin! notice from our talented Moderator -- DO point out the frustration and emotion within our "fraternity" about this subject.

I look forward to seeing further philosophical discussions on this critical strategic personnel issue. Sadly, I do not think we will see a lot of success stories. (I secretly hope I am wrong.)

> The thread on volunteers started by GP made
> me think, especially since this is a more or
> less constant topic here.

I appreciate that you have raised some very significnat points here. On reflection, I'm wondering if there is an intersection between our points of view.

I think (wonder) if it is not important to spend some effort trying to understand who our (new/prospective) volunteers are, and what interests them.

In "the media" (or advertising), if your "focus groups" aren't reached, then you need to reconsider your message. In the "preservation and restoration" community... we need to get beyond "preaching to the choir" and start preaching to the community that we hope (count on) to sustain us.

As far as I can tell, there is no "magic formula" here, it requires effort, and trial and error, with a definite objective to evaluate the results. I'm acquainted with an organization that (apparently) would rather die than change. I'm hoping that is a temporary attitude. I attribute that to a failure to have an overall sense of mission that ALL have/should buy into. That organization seems to be all about "playing trains", while another I'm familiar with seems to be more focused on preservation, but seems to have lost sight of the forest for the trees.

What is my point...? I think that we (collectively) need to think beyond OUR interests, and try and figure out how to appeal (and relate) to the communities with which we share space, and find a way to appeal/relate to a significant (albeit small) number of people who are willing to "cross the line" and become active volunteers.

Outreach is always a challenge, and doubly so if the traditional focus has been inward. If we are to save/perpetuate our museums and institutions, we must look beyond our own short term self interest, and find ways to connect to our communities.

And if I wandered off topic, or missed Superheater's point... I apologize.

BlackRiver@nowhere.com

Are all volunteer organizations down in numbers of volunteers as America get older?

Are most railroad museum's down - as railroads have become less noticeable in our communities?

> Are all volunteer organizations down in
> numbers of volunteers as America get older?

In general, the answer seems to be no, volunteering is actually rising overall. However, there are definate trends in what kind of volunteering is done and where it is done--traditional fraternal organizations like the Elks, Kiwanis, etc., for example, are in a serious long-term decline. IN short, youth still volunteer, but not in the formats their parents and grandparents did. For a 1999 overview see:

http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/m ... /ladd.html

> Are most railroad museum's down - as
> railroads have become less noticeable in our
> communities?

Well, two questions there: are railroad museum volunteer hours down? I think the answer is, no one knows--I don't beleive reliable data has ever been gathered by ARM or otherwise.

The second is, assuming that volunteerism is down, is the declining prominence of railroads a cause? Intuition says yes at first glance, but then, why wouldn't the same factor have made Thomas irrelevant, when as it turns out Thomas was huge? Trains still seem to have a certain magic--I think the question is, are we organized to recruit, train, and reward volunteers they way they want to be recruited, trained and rewarded these days...


eledbetter@rypn.org

> Well, two questions there: are railroad
> museum volunteer hours down? I think the
> answer is, no one knows--I don't beleive
> reliable data has ever been gathered by ARM
> or otherwise.

ARM has not gathered this information. I think it would be difficult to get hard figures. Not every museum is tracking this information. I would like to know who is?

> The second is, assuming that volunteerism is
> down, is the declining prominence of
> railroads a cause? Intuition says yes at
> first glance, but then, why wouldn't the
> same factor have made Thomas irrelevant,
> when as it turns out Thomas was huge? Trains
> still seem to have a certain magic--I think
> the question is, are we organized to
> recruit, train, and reward volunteers they
> way they want to be recruited, trained and
> rewarded these days...

These are new skills to learn. We need to:
* Increase membership
* Find ways to turn membership into support
* Find ways to turn support into volunteering at our museums
* Find the ways to encourage and reward the participation

The museum I'm involved with has had its membership grow from 1100+/- to 1900+/- during the last five years. From talking with our visitors and our membership people, a number of these are family members who have joined because the young child(ren) is (are) interested in trains and there are economic advantages to having the membership. But I have not seen the number of on-the-property volunteer workers increase by a similar proportion.

When talking with these families I have made the point that helping the museum can take many forms. They can help just by helping get the word out about the museum and our special events.

Brian Norden

In a link down this page, there is a corollary discussion including a sugegsting that this entire issue get treatment at a TRAIN or ARM meeting.

Sounds like a great idea as membership replenishment appears to be a critical strategic challenge and threat to survival.

amiller@rtms-movietrains.com

> ARM has not gathered this information. I
> think it would be difficult to get hard
> figures. Not every museum is tracking this
> information. I would like to know who is?

> These are new skills to learn. We need to:
> * Increase membership
> * Find ways to turn membership into support
> * Find ways to turn support into
> volunteering at our museums
> * Find the ways to encourage and reward the
> participation

> The museum I'm involved with has had its
> membership grow from 1100+/- to 1900+/-
> during the last five years. From talking
> with our visitors and our membership people,
> a number of these are family members who
> have joined because the young child(ren) is
> (are) interested in trains and there are
> economic advantages to having the
> membership. But I have not seen the number
> of on-the-property volunteer workers
> increase by a similar proportion.

> When talking with these families I have made
> the point that helping the museum can take
> many forms. They can help just by helping
> get the word out about the museum and our
> special events.

> Brian Norden

Brian makes a very good point. Some people approach an organisation from a cautious standpoint and look for easy ways to get involved that are going to be fun and rewarding for themselves as well as thier families. Groups who provide a broad range of potential experiences will attract more volunteers who, if handled correctly, will become the future foundation of the group.
As for tracking volunteer hours, in Canada, when applying for grants etc. the first thing that any agency wants to know is the totals of volunteer hours to show committment to the long term goals of a group. To not record and promote volunteer hours and volunteer contributions is to miss out on a significant number of benefits. He who pulls himself up "by the bootstraps" gets the long term support. Some of our hardest working volunteers are not "railfans or preservationists", but rather people who see something good happening and want to be a part of it and its success.


gandmferguson@shaw.ca

No need for surveys and such for some museums! As someone astutely pointed out a few weeks ago in this forum, the egregious offenders in the museum community either don't read this interchange or pay no heed to its practical wisdom. They deserve to die out as museums and leave the pool of volunteers to more worthy candidates. A Darwinian selection of sorts, you might say.
My local RR museum falls into that category. Tag it a DNR: Do Not Resuscitate!

> In a link down this page, there is a
> corollary discussion including a sugegsting
> that this entire issue get treatment at a
> TRAIN or ARM meeting.

> Sounds like a great idea as membership
> replenishment appears to be a critical
> strategic challenge and threat to survival.

Great point. Holds true at TVRM, where a couple of our finest contributors came to us not due to an keen interest in railroads. Instead, they have outstanding skills in welding, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, and carpentry...and just liked the opportunity to do something different.

> ARM has not gathered this information. I
> think it would be difficult to get hard
> figures. Not every museum is tracking this
> information. I would like to know who is?

> The museum I'm involved with has had its
> membership grow from 1100+/- to 1900+/-
> during the last five years.

Brian, at SVRy we began tracking volunteer hours about three years ago (Jerry H. knows exactly when we started doing this). The hours are sorted according to crew hours which are specific to the task, and other volunteer hours. The "other hours" category is not sorted as to job but I believe are sorted as to individual. This category is useful as a total for grant application. It began as an FRA requirement for train crews, but the idea of tracking volunteers hours had been discussed for some time before FRA needs.

This tracking plus many other things around the RR is attributible to Jerry's unselfish volunteering.

We continue to grow, although not dramatically. I believe this is due to the small population base. Eastern Oregon is sparsley populated. About half of our active members come from western Idaho. Boise is less than 2 hours away. The other half come from Portland (6 hrs.), Medford (7 hrs.), Alaska (??hrs.) and other distant places.

dan

svry@cmc.net

Is what you'd be doing to make the Boise-Sumpter run in less than two hours. I live 60 miles closer and rarely make it in under 2-1/2 hours although I do have to spend a little longer on secondary roads.
Not to quibble here, but "1/2 our volunteers from Portland/the Valley and half from Boise" ignores the large and active support base from Baker County locals who probably work more volunteer hours than all the rest of us. I don't know all the demographics of the membership, but in terms of active participation my observations suggest the locals are probably in the lead with Portland/Valley area and Boise/western Idaho following in that order. The rest are geographically scattered, although in recent years there has been increased volunteerism and ridership from the tri-cities/Spokane area as well (about 5-6 hrs)
At any rate, the SVRy must be doing something right. Able to draw and retain volunteers, many of whom are willing to travel long distances to participate. And, as you said, still growing in spite of the general trends.
J

jeff_acock@hotmail.com

Certainly didn't mean to leave out the local folks. My apologies to them. And, they are key to the operation. My estimate on travel time is based on comments as I remember them from crew members living in the Boise area.

dan

svry@cmc.net

It is great that you have much local support. Have you had people relocate into the Baker County either for work or for retirement because of their involvement with the railroad?

An organization needs to be connected with the local community. It needs to have supporters that are part of the local service clubs and chambers of commerce. It needs to provide support to those groups -- a location for a social mixer, door prizes from the gift shop -- anything to get noticed and get support back in return.

I remember about 15 years ago asking a long-time member of one mid-atlantic streetcar museum if any of the members lived in the county that the museum was located. I knew that this person and others were from a city about two hours drive away and that the offical address was then at that city, not at the museum location. Well, he could not name anyone who was active with the musuem and living local to it. That sure is not the way to part of a community and get its support -- I'm sure that the locals looked at this group as a bunch of outsiders that were not part of their community. Since that time, they have had a President that was from the local community and probably have others contacts.

Brain Norden

> It is great that you have much local
> support. Have you had people relocate into
> the Baker County either for work or for
> retirement because of their involvement with
> the railroad?
Actually, Yes.
My wife, who is the SVRR's financial officer and I moved to Baker City three years ago just because of SVRR. I had been volunteering 11 years at that time and my wife was on her sixth year. I currently volunteer about 320 days per year at SVRR.
another of our operating members purchased a home in my neighborhood last summer with plans to relocate from western oregon.
Others are still looking for the right house.
Jeff's right in that SVRR has a strong group of "locals" that are onsite frequently, five of us today.
However Jeff must drive slowly as I made the trip from Nampa Idaho yesterday in 1hr,45 minutes.
See you soon Jeff.......Jerry


lmcx@eoni.com