The Baltimore City Paper's cover story this week, "Labor and Management", covers a sterling example of what every railroad museum of any size will be up against in the future. The Baltimore Museum of Industry is struggling with management issues as the management has shifted its focus from operating like an academic group of collectors to operating like a business. The results are a mixed bag.

THIS ARTICLE IS A MUST-READ for anyone in the railroad preservation field. Ask yourself how this could apply to your operation. Could it happen to you--or has it already? If you have to ask why, then I would advise you to turn over the reins of your project to someone else.

The links will be updated in a week when it will be posted in the "Flimsies".

Balto. City Paper article (link good to 6-25)
lner4472@bcpl.net

Yields an interesting article on invasive species;

" Armed with 10,000 chilled beetles in a foam cooler, Dick Bean arrived at a marshy, wooded tract near the Anacostia River yesterday to fire the latest salvo in Maryland's war on invasive species."

I'm sure it has a meaning (TIC) some where but I missed it!


lamontdc@adelphia.net

http://www.citypaper.com/current/feature.html

Labor and Management at MOI
eledbetter@rypn.org

That's what I get for multi-tasking..........

Balto. City Paper article (link good to 6-25)
lner4472@bcpl.net

This is not a simple "us and them".

The situation at Baltimore Museum of Industry sounds like a typical transition in any organization. There is the initial stage focused on the vision of founders, then a change follows when they leave and the organization begins to mature. Sometimes this phase is easy, sometimes it is not so easy for those who affected in the transition.

The transition eventually happens in railroad museums, arts organizations, and even faith-based organizations. Sometimes it is pretty and sometimes it isn't. I've been in the middle of both. The easier change occurs when there is a clear vision for the future, accompanied by good communication from the leadership, which in the case of this article is the Board of Trustees and the Executive Director. I can't say whether they've done their job well or not at BMI.

There is a great quote in the film "Trolley by Golly": "change is inevitable; it is all around us". The successful organizations anticipate changes and move with the times. Many good organizations do not look ahead are left behind and wonder what happened.

Just my two cents.