It used to be customary that when an enthusiast organization asked somebody from the railroad industry or who was a member of some other organization to help them out by doing a clinic or program at an major event, they would invite the speaker to tour around the place or perhaps to sit in on some of the other activities and presentations, even if they could not stay for the entire event. Fortunately a lot of groups still provide that kind of hospitality to their visiting program presenters.

But lately I am hearing an increasing number of instances (organization names withheld to protect the guilty) where outfits are asking a speaker to drive across four or five states to do a program or clinic, then telling them that they will have to register for the entire convention or purchase a day pass to get to see any of the displays or sit in on any clinics other than their own. At first I thought this was pretty strange, but recently I am hearing it from more and more presenters.

Does anybody know for sure what is being "protected" in these situations? It certainly can't be the organizers' financial security considering the very small percentage of people in the industry and the hobby that do programs and clinics. Are some groups getting so incredibly cheap and petty in these times of financial strain that they can't afford to maintain some good will with the people who go out of their way at their own expense to try to help them?

PC

From your account, PC, it appears some groups need some education in protocol.

My experience might be instructive

Fifteen years ago, I invited an author of numerous Kalmbach books to address an international business association on railway export opportunities. In my invitation I explained that the association did not pay honoraria, but it would reimburse for travel and overnight lodging.

The author accepted the terms. During his presentation, it was evident that he had devoted considerable time to research and rehearsal. Association membership greatly appreciated that devotion to detail.

Upon receipt of expense vouchers, the association's treasurer dispatched a reimbursement check. I wrote a one page thank you letter.

It doesn't take much to attract significant people to help your organization. But omitting simple courtesies such as a thank you letter will peg your organization as either unfriendly or just sloppy in its practices.

Sloan

I can't believe that some hobby or other not-for-profit group in this genre would not roll out the red carpet for someone they want to present a program or seminar for a banquet or convention.

I was just involved in the Akron Railroad Club having Don Phillips in for our banquet last month, and I can tell you that in addition to picking up his expenses, we showed him about the best time you can in Akron, OH in December - including a cab ride on the CVSR Polar Express. In return, we had the best turnout for a banquet we've had in a number of years, and also one of the best programs we've ever had. Thanks, Don!

Having just heard that Bill Clinton got $1 million for ONE speech last year, I think that admission to the events of a convention, in addition to some meals and a hotel room is not asking too much of an organization for getting a speaker to give of his time and travel. I guess being cheap isn't just a trait of a few isolated fans.

I've seen this balderdash firsthand, sadly. The excuse they use is that "you have to be a member of the organization/convention to be covered under the insurance."

On the other hand, I can--but won't--recount one annual banquet where the guest of honor managed to mark the wrong day on his calendar, forcing the group to scrounge up an emergency reserve backup program, which had been brought along for just such an emergency.

One friend of mine, in the past couple days or so, relayed to me someone else's recounting of a railway club meeting in Europe, with some amazement expressed at one somewhat standard modus operandi over there: Each attendee paid the equivalent of a couple bucks' fee to attend the meeting. This usually pays for the cost of meeting hall rental, in my experience. Other clubs routinely meet in pubs--imagine how well that would go over here.

On a related note: what is the normal protocol for associated meetings withing rail museums? As one example, the Baltimore Chapter NRHS meets monthly at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, which entails at least one member of the BSM being on hand to open and close the building for the evening meeting. In spite of a fair deal of overlap in BSM and NRHS membership, the Chapter pays an annual stipend/donation to the Museum for the meeting space.

I have heard of the "insurance" excuse being used too. Of course if that one is applied it pretty well locks out having speakers from other groups, the railroad industry, the equipment manufacturers, FRA, AAR, and the academic community. Get used to a steady diet of your own members slide shows and old videotapes!

Oh well, I know a few groups that are like that anyways.....

But seriously, anyone who does even a moderate amount of writing for the railroad enthusiast publications gets quite a few requests each year to do programs. Groups demanding that speakers join as a member in order to do a program for them will cut off their access to many potential speakers. From personal experience, the expense to do a program that requires travel to another state usually averages over $200 for fuel, meals, and motel (and was much higher in summer 2008). If you add to that the cost of joining the group or paying a convention registration, many potential speakers will just say "NO". Try explaining to your wife why you are doing an long driving trip to help out a group she has never heard of before, and then let her see that you have to get your wallet out continually while you are at the meeting. You will hear about it on the drive home.

The "emergency backup program" fire drill that Sandy mentioned, is another place where groups frequently fall flat on their faces. They ask a substitute speaker to upset their schedule and make an emergency trip in to help them because their original plans went down the drain, then they don't bother to mention or thank the substitute speaker in their newsletter or on their website. Think that person will go through all the effort and inconvenience to "save" them the next time?

PC

After having a speaker suffer what became a fatal stroke in the hotel before the banquet and not show up, the Akron RR Club always has an emergency back-up slide show ready (usually the bulletin editor's last vacation), not just for banquets, but, I think, for most regular meetings as well.

I remember when I was a kid, one meeting night a program presenter (a member) had the bulb for his movie projector burn out before he got started and had to drive back to Cleveland (like 35 mi. each way) to get a replacement (this was the late '60's/early 70's when gas was 30 cents/gal. and the speed limit was 70). Just about everybody stuck around the hour it took him to make the trip (he was an insane driver anyway). I don't know if most members would have that kind of patience today.

Hi all,
I heard someone spoke of insurance being a problem? You can cover a person with insurance by allowing them to have a one day membership. For that day the person will be a full member of your organization. They just put their name and address on a membership form and pay $1 dollar and that is all. And since this can be considered an expense then the Group can pay the fee.

Andrew Martin

I ran into the exact same situation recently. I have been asked to have my home N scale layout open for an upcoming convention on one afternoon. However, I am not a member of the organization, and have no intention of joining, but have been told that to have my layout open, I have to take out a membership for at least 6 months. That makes sense, ask me to go through the trouble of getting my layout ready for display, have a bunch of strangers trapse through my house to get to the layout, then ask me to take out a membership, even though I'm doing you a favor (kind of). I have said I will gladly have my layout open for display, but not if I have to take out a membership in a group I have no interest in. I have memberships in many different railway museums, regardless of whether I ever make it out to them or not because I believe that every penny helps when it comes to non profit museums. I'm waiting to hear what thier decision is on my display.

Ken

That is a good one, Ken. I wonder if they will also want you to have your driveway redone to make it more suitable for a 57-seat touring bus! I have also heard a few similar stories relating to regional and national conventions of model railroad groups. Sometimes convention organizers don't just want you to help them out, they want you to run an obstacle course for them too.

Going back to the guest speaker situation, I think the most inconsiderate and inept treatment I ever saw a group give an emergency replacement speaker was in the follow-up to an annual banquet. They had asked the substitute to come in with only a day or two advance notice, he showed an excellent program that was seen by all their officers and their newsletter editor. A bit later the newsletter with the meeting coverage comes out. The newsletter editor who was present all during the presentation published the description of the program that was cancelled, rather than the program that was shown and that he attended. Apparently he had the original speaker's program description and was too lazy to write even a few words about the substitute's program (like THANKS for example). That group has some nerve using the word HISTORICAL in their name when they can't even get the details of their own events recorded correctly.

PC

Okay, folks, let's stop kvetching around here. We're all sounding like a bunch of cantankerous curmudgeons here.

I certainly understand when we're dealing with, say, the president of a railroad, or a major author/photographer, etc. But for at least SOME of us, we feel that the cause is as worthy or more so than any gratitude, reward, or thanks. As one noted name said to me once, "Why am I shooting these slides if I'm not going to show them? To make a headache for my executor fifty years from now?"

Someone invoked the model railroad open house circuit. One I am familiar with started as a club opening a few houses, but now with a coordinated effort, it now has spread region-wide to dozens of model railroads, many far beyond the original focus/area of the group that coordinated it. As I was told, they didn't require membership, only coordination with the club so they could print up a schedule and map (and now a website). The mission was to showcase the hobby and layouts--plain and simple--and in the process I believe they got a few members and friendships as well. And it was indeed a hoot to, in one night, go from the house of an "old-style" layout in operation for fifty or so years (we joked that some cat skeletons were entangled in the dusty wiring mess underneath!) to another newly-built house with a 21st-century dispatching and radio-control system for a huge layout.

Now, of course, the best move I remember seeing was a speaker turning around with his honorarium check and offering it to the restoration fund for the group's pet project. That's certainly at the discretion of the speaker, of course, but.........

Sandy, we ARE a bunch of cantankerous curmudgeons.

PC

If membership is an issue, why not just give an honorary one year membership in the organization, part of the Thank You for doing the presentation? Are they so cheap that they can't live without the $30 dues from one person? In the words of Bill Cosby, "Has somebody snatched your brains out?!!"

I was invited last year by a literary society to speak on a subject I know very well (nothing to do with RRs at all) in another state. I was told that flight and lodging would paid for and "don't worry about a thing with expenses."
A couple of weeks out, I got a application for the group membership. I thought that was a formality, until i called the person handling all this on something else. He asked where my form was and that I could deduct the membership on my taxes... "Say what?" I asked. Yes, I was told I needed to pay for annual membership in a literary society in a city I would likely never visit again for any reason, just because they asked me to come with a presentation. It wasn't cheap, either. Their reason was that everyone who shows up for events has to be a member, to keep people from dragging friends and neighbors to high-profile events of theirs. At this point, it felt like I was being talked down to, so I politely declined the invite. They got pretty snotty and even asked who i was to turn them down (as apparently nobody ever had before). I actually hung up on the guy after a few more minutes of this.
PBS also asked once for me to do some "talking head" stuff for a show on the same (again, non-RR subject) and suggested alternatives for cheaper flights and hotels. I wasn't quite as shocked because, well, it's PBS, but I had to turn them down as I wasn't exactly dripping with swag at the time.
The funny thing was that a few months after that, History Channel invited me down to LA for a show on the same subject. They flew me on Southwest (a commuter airline) and put me up in a modest hotel. But they were so nice about everything, I didn't put in for expenses like dinner the night before or parking my ride at the airport for two days. They were so cool to me while I was on the set all that day, I decided it was something I was fine out of my pocket even though they offered to expense it out. Turns out, karma works great sometimes because the director of that show and myself have had some great dealings after that.
It's all in the approach!

The I.R.S. requires that you acknowledge gifts to your nonprofit, so that the donor has documentation of his tax deduction. This rule may get fuzzier as the donation becomes more non-cash, but if the poor fellow had to pay his own travel expenses, the least you could do is help him tax-deduct it.

A "Thank you" letter is a very traditional, and very reasonable, place to do that.

Your experience may vary.
A S.C.U.BA. diving convention I help gives honoraria (with thank you notes), but very rarely any help with presenters' expenses. A much larger convention pays for expenses at the high class host hotel, but no honoraria. Some of our speakers say that they like our method because it seems like we appreciate them better. Both conventions give the speakers all-inclusive guest passes in hopes that they will use them, and thus give the paying audience more of a chance to meet and mingle with the famous people. An especially elaborate presentation merits a lifetime all-inclusive guest pass. Of course, both of these shows are open to non-members willing to pay admission.