No, this is not another thread about the content of RyPN. No more of those, please. The subject of this thread is responsible care of museum artifacts.

Anyone who has watched the show, Air Crash Investigation, is familiar with the practice of airline pilots "declaring emergency". Essentially, it's a declaration made by the pilot to air traffic control of a potentially life-threatening emergency on board, such as loss of an important on-board system, smoke in the cabin, fuel leak, etc. The declaration is usually made early (key word) -- as soon as the problem is detected. That way, everyone in the air and on the ground can work together toward a safe outcome.

With that as an analogy, what I would like to consider is, why don't rail museums "declare emergency" at the first sign of an imminent threat to their existence? Specifically, if the entire collection is on a path to decay to dust in 10 years due to lack of care, why doesn't the museum acknowledge this threat to it's very existence as soon as it becomes evident? Why do rail museums seemingly sit on their hands, say nothing, do nothing, while their world falls apart around them, and then only declare emergency after the ship is already sunk? An airline pilot doesn't declare emergency after the aircraft has hit the ground -- duh. The point is, a fatal problem needs to be acknowledged early, and a solution found early.

I think a responsible museum needs to be self aware enough to identify an imminent threat to its existence well before all is lost. If 90% of the museum's collection is going to rot and fall apart in 10 years, and there are no plans to prevent it, that to me is an emergency situation. It is an imminent threat to the entire enterprise. I bet there are a lot of museums facing an emergency right now and they are not even aware of it, or refuse to acknowledge it.

What good does "declaring emergency" do in that situation? Well, a lot. The emergency mindset will direct every decision thenceforward. It will be at the top of the agenda of every board meeting. It will (or should be) made known to membership via the newsletter. The only way to win in an emergency situation is to first acknowledge the problem. Second is to rally people behind a solution. Business as usual is not going to work.

It's important to differentiate between "this airplane is going to crash in the next five minutes unless we do something different" and "this museum will be out of business in ten years unless we do something different." Too many emergencies not only make people think you're crying wolf, but also lead to a crisis mentality in which everything is a disaster and volunteers (and potential donors) assume the place is going under.

If you're really going to think long-term, it might be better to organize needs and state them plainly, without hysterics, maybe thus:
Long-Term Needs:
Before Winter: Seek donation of shelter or pole building for #1 and #1337. If none materializes by 1 October, need suitable tarp for this winter and written agreement to keep #1337 in Some Guy's Garage again.
By Next Year: Need permanent shelter for #1. Need paint and volunteers to repaint #1337. Need suggestions for better number so nerds don't snicker. Need to finalize property acquisition by June 1, if not sooner, in order to get engines under permanent cover.
Five Years: All engines and rolling stock need to be under permanent cover. #99 will run out of flue time in July 2017. Estimated cost for repairs in today's dollars will be $eleventybillion. Current balance of her restoration fund, $1.92.
Ten Years: Most volunteers will be over 65 if recruitment does not pick up between now and then. Consider agreement with hotel and attraction management and historic preservation programs at local college in order to get front desk/yard help.
Station roof will need maintenance or replacement. Brick work will need inspection.
Parking lot will need to be sealed and/or paved (liability issues due to pothole which is now big enough to be subject to wetlands remediation and require lifejackets for passers-by.)
Long-term funding strategies: hit up single multimillionaire with one foot in grave, one on banana peel; buy weekly lottery tickets for Supermegabazillions.

I like Appalachian Outreach's policy of listing specific needs in their quarterly newsletters--we need X amount in money, cards or gas to fund one delivery trip, $30 for a basic basket of supplies for a newborn, etc.

When we belonged to a local non-rail organization, I could never explain to them that even for your own membership, it's much better to know that "we need 10 gallons of paint, four rollers and a dropcloth to paint this, we'll need to plan on $1000 to have the inspector come in and look at this issue and tell us what to do, and the property insurance will be $1500 this quarter" than to have a monthy scream from the treasurer: "WE'RE BROKE! WE'RE GOING TO BE THROWN OUT AT ANY SECOND!" they had more than adequate money for what they did, but their membership was dying off and new people who visited were scared off by the gloom and doom. Who would want to pay annual dues for something that might not be there in a month?

Becky,

Thank you for the input.

You comment that using the word "emergency" will just make things worse. Well, that's another viewpoint, and it has merit in some situations. But I stand by my original thought, and I think that if there is an imminent threat to existence (an emergency), that museum leadership should not mince words about it. They should call it what it is: an emergency.

Some key phrases no doubt heard in the past at museums that are now teetering on the brink of oblivion:

"It'll be centuries before all that farmland around us becomes suburbs."

"Ties last forever, don't they?"

"We can always count on our political friends for funding."

"We can touch up that paint at less cost."

"Who needs a planning committee, they just make unreasonable demands."

"This is no place for women and kids."

"Toilets are for sissies."


You get the concept: Tomorrow comes much sooner than you expected if you did not plan for it.

Cheers,
DH

Excuse me, but.....

.... can anyone identify ANY rail museum, or perhaps even any museum itself, that can't properly declare "emergency" right now?

Even the fine, state-run rail museums are in crisis. California and Pennsylvania are, as I understand it, both running on skeletal staffs because of budget problems. North Carolina's has a big shop building or two to stabilize.

I could find an "emergency" of some fiscal, legal, and/or logistical type at just about any rail or trolley operation I can think of right now, with the possible exceptions of the larger "for-profit" operations such as Strasburg and Grand Canyon.

I would say you're better off identifying the most critical challenge that confronts your group and focusing on it as a priority mission. Might you lose your professional administration? Is it possible that you may be forced to move or acquire the land or building you're currently leasing from the city or county or railroad? Are you in a flood zone? Are families no longer coming to your neck of the woods? Do developers covet the land adjacent so they can bring in NIMBYs?

Unfortunately, at least for the museum whose problems I have chronicled here in RYPN, you have to be aware that there is an emergency in order to declare it. In the case of KRM in New Haven, those in charge, who ran the museum into the ground don't see it as an "emergency" and see only themselves as the ones who can save the place.

Such delusion does not allow for an honest evaluation, the kinds the lead to the declaration of an emergency.

Part of being a good pilot (or engineer, or manager) is knowing when not to take off in the first place, or when to ask to divert around something that might not be a good idea. That's why I argue that calling everything an emergency isn't helpful. If we use that word for everything, all of the problems look as if they're the same urgency and magnitude.

There's still a difference between "We have no money to keep the doors open next month" and "We're going to need rebuild money for #99 in four or five years." Head in the sand managers tend not to be able to differentiate between the two. They're the real emergency.

Air Emergency Analogy....Air France Crash 447

The pilot had gone to take a nap.....who is at controls....a junior co-pilot overseen by a veteran co-pilot but neither had flown on anything but instruments. The auto pilot disengages. The pilot returns....instead of manually taking control of the aircraft, he spends time working to diagnose the problem. The investigation uncovered "profound loss of understanding" in the cockpit The aircraft crashed with the engines still running, and no announcement made about danger. WOW! Talk about an analogy.

"Declaring an Emergency", saying publicly that your museum is in trouble could seal it's demise. You might hope that when you reveal the problems, others would try to help. You can equally inspire, "Well it's dead anyway, why bother to do anything." And if anyone is actively trying to end your museum, you may just hand them more ammunition.

-Mark

Oddly enough, yesterday's "Dilbert" cartoon seems to cover this subject:

http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/clie ... 012/07/15/

As I first read the original post I did not see anything about creating a crisis where there was none or crying wolf. What I did read was that there are times to use a management style that is used in the event of an emergency. A few years ago I attended a leadership summit where there was vignette of an operating room where different members of the OR staff got up and took breaks, refused to do anything that was not in their job descriptions. There was total disregard for the patent on the operation table. The point was to show how preposterous that behavior would be in that situation. The lesson was that in an emergency situation teamwork comes first.

Those teaching this were not advocating creating an emergency where there was none, but to use the management style that is used by emergency services. Focusing the team on the task at hand and not getting bogged down on what ifs, objections, distractions, personal agendas and outdated practices. This particular summit was aimed at churches who were experiencing growth and budget problems. Many of the issues the churches were facing were remarkably similar to those railroad museums face.

Just as was brought up in the original post many of the churches that were there were in fact in a crisis that they did not recognize. many were getting bogged down on issues like when was the next carry in dinner going to be and if a bake sale and car wash could pay the heating bill next winter and pay the preacher. They were taught how to have a well defined mission statement, rally the team and to stay focused on the end goal. Now I have attempted to over simplify what was a very intense conference over 3 days.

How many others on this forum have sat in museum or tourist like board meetings and witnessed issues like bow to keep the heat on being ignored while arguments over paint color would go on for hours. I know that not all places are this way I am sure that the many successful and healthy museums have a well defined plan. There are also many who are not keeping up with the decay and yes they do need to look at emergency management style. How many are letting the patent bleed to death while they put a perfect cast on the broken arm.

I tend to agree with the original poster that declaring an emergency earlier than later is better, waiting does not make things better. There is also the fact that most people do function better in a crisis situation. Personally I would much rather fight a fire when it is smaller than when it is larger.

I recall a rather enlightened discussion on the Yahoo IRM board, and they have a large collection, and it's pretty well understood about all the rare equipment needing protection/preservation, you might say its always in a sort of emergency mode, a constant keep it up.
There is a line of steamers there in the open, but it might be doubtful they will get undercover, but they will not go to dust in 10 years, consider the N&W 4-8-0's sitting in the scrap yard 50+ years, finally moved, one of them cosmetically done really nifty looking. And heck, with enough wrangling maybe you can restore one to steam.
Other equipment like streetcars may be more sensitive to the rust regime may need more TLC.
The one thing these museums have done is saved a lot of equipment from fully dissappearing, that there was emergency enough.
I tend to think some museums are money oriented than save the equipment oriented, I tend to think the Minnesota Museum wrangles that angle hence the 261 debacle and the model railroad that was there. Whoosh. Got a rusting hulk...take some minor steps and fix a little bit here and there, some paint, some scrap sheet metal, it does wonders, make a money drive publically and get attention, find volunteers...its all possible.

"Anyone who has watched the show, Air Crash Investigation, is familiar with the practice of airline pilots "declaring emergency". Essentially, it's a declaration made by the pilot to air traffic control of a potentially life-threatening emergency on board, such as loss of an important on-board system, smoke in the cabin, fuel leak, etc. The declaration is usually made early (key word) -- as soon as the problem is detected. That way, everyone in the air and on the ground can work together toward a safe outcome."


I think Messrs. Mitchell & Wilkins hit two important threads on the head, you have to be aware that there's an emergency, first and things are pretty dire, everywhere, right now.

That having been said, lets examine the concept. An airliner is a closed system with mechanical indicators on every critical system and component. Businesses (and your operation is either a business, or it is eventually defunct) are not closed systems and can go out of control for a variety of reasons, many often not so obvious.

To even know when a burp in ticket sales is a sign of an impending bigger long term decline, requires judgment, that quite frankly is often missing in this avocation. By judgment, I don't mean gaudy credentials.

About ten years ago I briefly worked for a manufacturer of cellphone antenna towers. The company was founded by a fellow from India, I think, and sold to Berwind (sp?) (I think the modern equivalent of the original owner of the little tank engine in Altoona). They planned on "incubating" the company to be a serious player in "lattice" (like electrical utility towers) type towers. A demo was constructed and priced using the usual formula-per pound. The problem is that while monopoles (like a flag pole) -at least then-were(are) composed of six plasma welded and galvanized sides, all the bolts and footholds on the lattice tower meant it was rather expensive per pound. After opening a new facility in Dec 2000, my term lasted from March to May-(s*cks to tell a guy who loved the title CFO-but wasn't really top caliber- his new project carried a 9% gross profit) and they let go of something like 20% of the rest of the employees a couple months later in Aug 2001. My understanding is they eventually went bankrupt and the original owner bought back the assets at a discount-but that could be wrong. In addition to the management help from Berwind Capital, this company was getting a lot of taxpayer money. They never saw it coming.

After recognizing the problem,before acting, one has to be able to determine whether there are feasible remedies. Sometimes, you have to know when to fold 'em. This very situation was just faced by the "Second Mile" charity in State College PA. They realized that circumstances of having been founded by a serial molester simply made it impossible to go on and dissolved. It isn't always that clear, in fact it rarely is that clear.

For this "industry" standard responses are of limited value. Dissolutions are difficult if your principle asset is archaic, relatively immobile, thinly traded, specialized-you know steam locomotives. Mergers and consolidations are almost impossible due to geography (its not like EBT can be absorbed by the D&S) Cutting back can hurt because your operation is your advertising.

The laws of physics, while unforgiving, limit the responses of the crew. In business, anything can work and anything can be a giant flop. Remember when John Scully was going to bring professional management to Apple? (After a decade out of it, Steve Jobs came back to make Apple the king), how "New Coke" was supposed to be a hit? Yet there are businesses that are in permanent decline, such as typewriters, copper telephony, chemical photography. Unlike the phone company, you can't embrace some new technology. Well you can, if you have the DERA grant for that new genset and you don't think it detracts from historicity.

In short, the analogy to airlines really doesn't translate, but that having been said, it would be useful to consider the possibility of a catastrophic business failure, to consider that if the excrement hits the rotating blades-what becomes of the assets of the business-or do they just become abandoned relics-like the little Whitcomb that sits rusting along Route 309, near McAdoo PA.

Okay, lets start with a list - catastrophic failures, for whatever reason:
Rail City
Wolfeboro
Trolleyville U.S.A.
McGee Transportation Museum
Trolley Valhalla
Philadelphia Waterfront Trolley
Oregon Pacific and Eastern
Vernonia South Park & Sunset
Toledo Waterfront Trolley
Grand Rapids Electric Railway
Sundown and Southern
TWERHS (old East Troy Trolley Museum)
A few of the NRHS collections
Thompson Winery
Kalamazoo, Lake Shore, and Chicago
McCloud River
Narragansett Pier
Cape Cod and Hyannisport
Edaville (original version)
Jim Thorpe Rail Tours
Belfast and Moosehead Lake (original version)
Queen Anne's Railroad
Graham County / Bear Creek Scenic Railroad
Westside and Cherry Valley
Camino Cable and Northern
Morris County Central
Central City Narrow Gauge Railway
Marquette and Huron Mountain
Cadillac and Lake City
Keweenaw Central
Kettle Moraine Railway
Everett Railroad (first version)
Reader Railroad
Eureka Southern Railroad
Copper King Express

And I am sure there are a few others. It might not be so nice to talk about the ones who are admitting (or should be admitting) that they need to declare an emergency right now.

Wow........... that one brings back alot of memories.

I first met the caretaker of "Rail City", Nelson Husted, in 1983. I was driving the Montreal/ Buffalo run and had a couple of hours to kill and had ended up on the road Rail city was on. Comming to a screeching halt after seeing what I had seen, Nelson and I became great friends. I spent countless hours wandering the grounds, Amazed at what was there........... Nelson had the "Rail City Volunteer Fire Co." and loved to show off his Fire trucks to me. I allways asked what was to become of everything there..?? Nelson would allways say, "Doc will let it rot till he dies"
I had contacted Docs son about some of the equipment, but he was just as bad as the old man, wanted way more than scrap for what was there... They burned all those old wood flat cars and box cars and that old wood coach, where they stood, for the scrap.

I drove by there a few years ago, Nelsons house is falling in comepletely, the building where the fire trucks are, is in even worse condition.......... Makes an old man pretty sad to see what has happened to a "Once Great Rail City"...........