It seems as if the discussion of ideas for Iron Horse Society fundraising has somewhat shifted to the "Steamtown Goes "FOSS"" thread.

To build a successful and sustainable program, the Iron Horse Society should have a strategic vision of where they want to get, break that down into manageable steps, and start small with something they can build on. As to the proposed Movie Day fundraiser, I do not see how this approach will get Steamtown the funds and northeastern interest necessary for sustainable growth. I am having difficulty discerning how a small somewhat typical railfan-type event in Scranton is going to enable IHS and STEA to access a market that has not already been developed - both from a geographic and demographic standpoint. How is it a building block?



Mr. May makes some very insightful points here but I do not know if his approach will work in this situation. In the thread "The Iron Horse Society at Steamtown Incorporated", Superheater states that, "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." In the same thread, Superheater noted that the President of the new "Friends of" society is the same person that has led and is leading the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Rail Historical Society's effort to restore Boston and Maine 3713.

It appears that the Iron Horse group is limited in the types of WW&F-type projects it can pursue to raise funds and cultivate interest because any Iron Horse program can not "overlap or conflict" with other projects, most notably 3713 since it is the biggest fundraising program, both in dollars and number of years in existence, at the site. It is also unlikely that the Iron Horse group would advocate for any type of program that could in any way be perceived as challenging the 3713 restoration program for hearts, minds, or dollars, especially with the long-time leader of the 3713 restoration at the throttle of the Iron Horse group. So it is likely we will see "Movie Night" type proposals from the Iron Horse group at least until 3713 is producing steam.

Supe is doing what he can in an environment that sees similar efforts as being cannibalistic of resources, discourages healthy competition, and which often views another's success as an effort to make some one or some group "look bad". I admire his dedication and tenacity.

The rail-related industrial films can have an appeal beyond railfans, but probably not when viewed in their entirety. Honestly, they can be a bit tedious.

San Francisco is obviously a larger market than Scranton, but there is an annual presentation of historical and archival films here called "Lost Landscapes" that reliably sells out a large theater. The trick is that the films, which includes home movies, unused Hollywood B-roll, newsreel footage, and such, are edited together showing just the highlights while covering a wide variety of subjects and time-periods. I've gone a bunch of times, and it is pretty fun.

I can't find a great link for this presentation, but here are a few:

http://www.7x7.com/lost-landscapes-of-s ... 63891.html
https://archive.org/details/lostlandscapes2011

COSI in central ohio does adult science nights where its no kids allowed (actually they have babysitters for a fee as well), cash bar/apps events ranging from holiday mixers to specific topic driven themes (murder mystery where you solve a crime and learn about forensics and police work). Obviously alcohaul and heavy equipment should not be mixed, however steam town would be a pretty swanky place to have a party or say a corporate mixer event or even a selection of genuinely interesting historical, industrial and technological films can be displayed in conjunction with short talks about the subject. My fiance when we were in college would take me to some events in Kent and Akron where such movies and talks were featured (usually 2 movies and 2 talks in an industrial or even nightclub setting) on everything from vacuum tubes to the production of steel from mine to machine shop. They were mostly AV nerds (I say it with love) who put the events together to showcase their collection of vintage industrial films. Something to consider

@Scranton Yard

"the Iron Horse Society should have a strategic vision of where they want to get, break that down into manageable steps, and start small with something they can build on. As to the proposed Movie Day fundraiser, I do not see how this approach will get Steamtown the funds and northeastern interest necessary for sustainable growth. I am having difficulty discerning how a small somewhat typical railfan-type event in Scranton is going to enable IHS and STEA to access a market that has not already been developed - both from a geographic and demographic standpoint. How is it a building block?"


It's just a baby step. One of the things we want to do start with small things that are relatively simple and easy to conduct and are withing our exempt mission.

Is there going to be a time in the near future where IHS will be hands on? Helping STEA become a museum again?.

A museum (/mjuːˈziːəm/ mew-ZEE-əm; plural musea or museums) is an institution that cares for (conserves) a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance.

Such as covering up and closing up units left rotting in lines. Conservation, something that is being done to a fraction of the pieces. This should be the major priority and I understand that it takes some money to do this. But the majority of the work could be performed by volunteers.

Give them a break, they are just getting started. It's easy to find volunteers who want to take a cab ride. It's much harder to find the ones who will scrape flaking paint off a boxcar with the same level of enthusiasm. I believe the whole point of this thread was (eventually) about the IHS trying to attract volunteers?

"Give them a break" Why I'm just asking what their plan of physical action was. The website is worse than the Yellow Ribbon Express site. At least there is some information right, wrong or fictional there. It seems as if they were surprised it happened and now their scrambling for ideas. Just my opinion.

What's better, a nice website or real results? Right now they have neither, but again, they just became official, what, a month ago? I am all for rational criticism, but do not hang two decades of SNHS on these guys.

They are looking for volunteers and the website has zero information. Basically "Coming soon". They have had a couple years to have developed this. Who is IHS? I'm looked up the 501c3 and got some of the names. But why keep it a secret? Meetings? Membership? Is Russ running this?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38411&hilit=iron+horse

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=40977&p=264708&hilit=iron+horse#p264708

[EDIT]

One of the issues appears to be that they have two active facebook pages, one is updated and the other is not. I would recommend that they shut down the duplicate facebook account.

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

There's no "secrecy" here-but there is a lot of coordination with the Park Service that is required, so it slows things down. We expect to meet with the Superintendent about priorities for 2018 sometime in the next couple of months.

As for the two facebook pages-that is a problem. The first was established as a "personal page" which is more limited for commercial purposes-unfortunately, we have only been able to convince less than half of the members of the original page to migrate.

Just shut it down. If they are interested, they will find the new page. I agree that it does make the group look inactive.

So let me see if i have this correct. The focus of this group is to increase visitors and raise money. Money for what?

Will there be aiding in conserving the museum pieces? Restoration?

Just asking questions potential volunteers might ask.

Kudos for taking on this complex startup. I'm not concerned with the kind of details being obsessed about here - once up and running, and through communication with the park management, you will find your best ways to contribute. Best wishes.

I'm not trying to take anything away from their effort, I truly applaud it. I'm just trying to see where they are going. What is the focus? Is preservation a part of this? Long term goals.

I know this isn't going to happen overnight and yes i am willing to help.