A new organization whose Articles of Incorporation were filed this morning.

Stay tuned.

It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to get it's 501c3 application approved by IRS.

Six months would be fast !!!

Bob H

Steamtown in a National Park. What's this organization for?

Superheater- If this is an official "Friends of" group formed to support the Park Service's enterprise in Scranton, then I wish you and your colleagues the best of luck.

Legend has it that the original group was pushed out, with insinuations that a volunteer had damaged something (with a forklift, I think) being the last straw.

I discussed the need for such an organization with Kip Hagen a while back. At the time, his take was that the Director's Orders regarding partnership organizations required such an extensive amount of oversight by Park Service staff that he did not have the resources to support anything unless it could be started with the organization bringing in about $1M upfront. We came up with an "under-the-radar" approach that we hoped to build on but it all went with his untimely passing.

Kip used Volunteer Agreements when, in many cases, Partnership Agreements would have been more appropriate. This is why Debbie Conway brought in Dawn, from the regional office, back in November to redo many of the existing Volunteer Agreements into Partnership Agreements.

A Non-Profit regional/national group supporting the Scranton site is something that has been sorely needed for a long time but the Park Service culture in Scranton was not conducive and the locals were overly possessive of "their" National Park. Hopefully, that has changed.

If this is true, I'm in to support it!!

I can assure you that this is very much a real effort and the result of several months of discussions with Superintendent Conway.

The individuals involved are very much aware of the issues involving the Steamtown Volunteer Association and its successor, the Steamtown Museum Association.

While the SVA was something of a victim of one individual, it had nothing to do with a forklift or physical damage and other than that, I don't believe it will be helpful to rehash ancient history. The bigger issue was an organizational structure that restricted its board to active volunteers, and didn't allow the organization to recruit individuals outside of that group, so you had plenty of enthusiasm, but not enough business expertise.

The successor group, the Steamtown Museum Association was not comprised of active members and all we know is that its tax exempt status was terminated by the IRS for failure to file 990's.

TIHSASI is being carefully considered and designed to be the official "Friends" organization, but not to overlap or conflict with the many existing relationships, such as those with the ARHS and the Lackawanna Heritage Valley.

Prior to seeking that designation, there is still much to do even after the Certificate of Incorporation is received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of State, including registration as a Charity (PA) and filing the all-important 1023 package.

As more information becomes available, it will be posted here-the good news is that this is one of many concrete actions being taken that are focused on improving the visitor experience. Since this is the virtual gathering place of a community most likely to take an interest in the group's existence and planned activities-you are hearing it here, first.

This is awesome news

Another step along the way - a web presence:

http://theironhorsesociety.com/

A nice start, get those links working - and in my opinion, the top photo, the white on the picture background (at least the smaller non-bold text) is very hard to read...maybe bold it and fade the background photo a bit?

It is alive in the eyes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Entity Number


5832308


https://www.corporations.pa.gov/search/corpsearch

I'm sure they have plenty of good reasons, but I'm curious as to why they are being so quiet about this group.

"I'm sure they have plenty of good reasons, but I'm curious as to why they are being so quiet about this group."

The existence of the group was announced here the date the A of I were filed and there is now a Facebook group.

I'm not sure what you are seeking.

I've not seen any indication this group exists from the official Steamtown Facebook page. And gossip on the subject falls flat on the unofficial Steamtown group. And if there is a Facebook group, I've not been able to find it (I'm assuming it's got the Secret group setting). That's what I mean. The only information that is readily available is that the group exists. That's it.

"I've not seen any indication this group exists from the official Steamtown Facebook page. And gossip on the subject falls flat on the unofficial Steamtown group. And if there is a Facebook group, I've not been able to find it (I'm assuming it's got the Secret group setting). That's what I mean. The only information that is readily available is that the group exists. That's it."


https://www.facebook.com/groups/144856369183742/


Gossip is not information and should not be relied upon as such.

Here's the way this works, in exacting detail, at least in Pennsylvania:

First, there were extensive meetings over several months involving interested parties and Superintendent Conway to determine how a group could be formed that was mutually beneficial. The discussions were candid and productive and Superintendent Conway was extraordinarily helpful and accommodating throughout the process.

Superintendent Conway arranged for the interested parties to meet with LaSalle University consultant, courtesy of the fact that the National Park Service has a standing arrangement with LaSalle's non-profit center to assist partner organizations.

After these discussions, the interested parties met to file Articles of Incorporation, which was completed August 7, 2015. Several days later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania recognized the existence of the organization and assigned the entity number shown above.

Once the actual Certificate of Incorporation is received, the Incorporators will appoint an initial Board of Directors. The Directors then need to adopt by-laws and they will likely be soliciting a legal opinion on their bylaws.

Once the By-laws are adopted, the group will file a "1023 package" with the Internal Revenue Service in order to obtain an exemption from tax under Section 501(c)(3).

There will be also miscellaneous tasks such as registering as a charity in Pennsylvania and obtaining a sales tax exemption.

Once that is done, the group then applies to be the official friends group according to Directors Order 21. Until that relationship is officially established, Steamtown will not have any statement on the existence of the group, and may actually be prohibited from public discussion until such time-but such a prohibition is "enlightened speculation" on my part.

As of right now, RYPN and the Iron Horse Society's Facebook/Web pages will be the principal outlets for news of the group's continuing steps.

As was stated in the initial post, "Stay tuned"- these are the first steps on a long walk.

Thank you for the information.