We are forming a Friends group to support our local industrial museum. I am looking for some info. about what Friends groups have been able to do with various rail museums. How big are some of these groups and what activities are they involved with? What kind of an impact do thay have on the operation of the museum?

Which type of Friends group are you planning on starting? From what I have seen there are 2 types:

Volunteer arm of a for profit company, i.e.; FEBT (Friends of the East Broad Top RR) at East Broad Top RR in Rockhill Furnace, PA, FVR (Friends of the Valley Railroad) at Essex Stream Train, Essex CT, and Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec RR, at the Cumbres & Toltec RR in Chama NM. There are probably others that I have not heard of. Where they restore and maintain the non revenue equipment and some of the buildings. Not sure if they also help to maintain the revenue equipment at any of the places.

The other type of friends group, are like what we have at the Ct Eastern RR Museum which is a membership option for people that want to support the museum but have no desire to belong to the NRHS. In our case the friends volunteer along side the regulars, the only difference is that they don't have voting ability at meetings or the ability to hold office (because the museum is operated by the Ct Eastern Chapter of the NRHS), but at meetings they have the same ability to make suggestions that will need a member vote to pass and give input on other votes. http://www.cteastrrmuseum.org/member.htm

Take care,

Rich Cizik
MoW Foreman
Blacksmith Shop Co-Head
Ct Eastern RR Museum
Willimantic, Ct 06226
http://www.cteastrrmuseum.org

I would suggest you look into the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the Foundation at the California State Railroad Museum.

Both of these museums are State facilities and the support groups are full fledged 501C3 non-profits.
i believe that they both have paid staff and take a major part in operating their respective museums.

Unlike a government agency; they can lobby the state government and the Frineds in Pennsylvania had a direct part in getting the State to come up with the money to build the not so new building extension.

They are now looking for money to build a round house to shelter more of the collection.

The Pennsylvania museum has recently purchased some additional land that they have wanted for years. So maybe the round house is going to advance at long last!

And as mentioned above the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec is a busy group. They run what is most likely the largest volunteer program to care for historic buildings and rail cars in the nation.

Ted Miles