I second Les, I'd also like to hear how some of the hosts feels about the ROI and any appreciable differences that they make in marketing, publicity, etc that impacts 1) the specific visit 2) the public's view on the general operation or history

For example, does it draw a different crowd, a bigger crowd, do they get requests for when the next visit will be? etc.

It is when you start paying the bills, that may be the first time you really appreciate all the costs. Do not forget promotion and publicity, extra parking facilities (maybe) and extra amenities like porta john rental, trash and waste pickup and disposal, etc etc.

Much, if not most operations at our brother non profit preservation sites include a significant element of volunteer labor. I would suggest, especially for a stand alone special event, that labor be costed in at some factor, maybe a blended cost of 12 bucks an hour. If you cannot break even or turn even a modest profit that way, I would not do it. With the volunteer labor, then any profit can demonstrate the value of the volunteers and be the icing on the cake.

I think we often kid ourselves that we have a positive return on operations, when without volunteer labor, our business would not be in business.

Bob Kutella

Thanks Bob, and yes, i do agree (and think I said so about 29 posts ago).

FWIW, I have only been able to actually pull off sharing materials for exhibits and tooling for work (and packed up a couple gallons of donated steam oil for NHVRR) a few times, and largely managed to do so because I didn't share the information I was doing it with anybody in authority. Deaccessioning stuff can be easier!

That said, it doesn't mean we shouldn't work on it.

I would have loved to bring in a Women in Railroading exhibit I saw in California to Savannah when I worked there - couldn't generate interest. Jim Crow is a sadly neglected and somewhat ugly part of railroad history - a very good exhibit talking about it could open dialogs with civil rights organizations and bring an entirely new audience into our museums.

Just a couple examples - going the professional quality route on these is way beyond the budgets of small museums alone, but if several could get together - the possibilities are staggering, especially exhibits that can be sold as events, with community tie-ins.

About equipment sharing - why not? Using small steam as the popular example, it seems that any smaller group actually managing to have an operating, reliable, FRA certified steam locomotive that doesn't get much use has more to gain by making it available to other small groups that can't do it themselves, but can pay what it costs for a couple events per year, provided costs are based on reality.

Whether those leasing the stuff can then actually do a decent job of selling those events is another story, but that is another subject. I'd venture to suggest a group having no marketing ability is doomed whether they use leased event-makers or not.

Doodlebugs that can travel to non railroad museums - town celebrations with friendly shortlines comes to mind - present another possibility.

Self-propelled trolley replicas that can be used as demonstrators for cities considering converting abandoned downtown trackage into transit - another possibility.

Howcome we have no problem discussing doing this when the subject is Thomas, but raise red flags otherwise? Is it the mentality of MY STUFF that makes the difference? If so, we have a lot of maturing to do.

dave

Mr. Kutella:

HEAR! HEAR!

Les

But to be fair, the value of the donated volunteer labor must be considered as income also on the other side of the balance sheet, thus cancelling out its expedenture on a dollar for dollar basis in final reckoning. If it has value as a cost, it must also have value as a resource.

Of course, if grantors match volunteer contributions, there is another payoff.......but that's another situation.

dave

Already have done it --- and are doing it again on September 22-24th!

TJ

I take it the first experience didn't dissuade you from doing it again?

Please share with us how it worked for you.

dave

Was pretty simple --- #75 came on a trailer, went out the same way, operated for demonstration purposes. I think between the trip to Ohio
Central for Trainfest and the trip to us, it was #75's first trips out of the Grambling's home in Indiana and/ or Owosso.

Thanks,

TJ

I'll give you a better sense when were done, but last time was basically a break-even venture financially, but very doable. Impact? People still stop me and ask about it, and with better advertising this time, should go pretty well.

Tj

We have another point of agreement here, Dave, and one where I think there is a great deal of fertile ground to work. There are many, many subjects available for general museum exhibits, and if the big art and natural history museums can do it, we do we railroad museums do it on such a limited basis?

Sure... There are financial issues here too, but in this case, they are surmountable by just about all of us. We might not all be able to toss locomotives around willy-nilly, but even the most modest museum here could manage some sort of traveling exhibit, even just a collection of good historical photographs (not just the stuff someone took last week next to the tracks *grin*) of their local area.

The good news is some of us are now actually talking about mounting some of these travling shows. I had a great telephone conversation with Jim Lundquist about it a little over a week ago, and while the project will take a bit (but just a bit) more development, we should be able to come up with some exhibits to offer for loan to other museums for a fixed period of time. I am told there are a few other railroad museums interested in participating in this process as well.

Of course, only time will tell if this whole idea will work well enough to bring us all to our goals of providing knowledge and education on the history and heritage of railroads, but we have made a start.

You hit the core of it all there, Les, but I would modify the term "money" to "Return on Investment (ROI)." The ROI received by any of us for doing anything does indeed have a financial component, and while that is a BIG part of the calculation, there are other returns we may find valuable enough to offset the actual cost. Sometimes items like prestiege and/or marketing are worth the direct expense of what we do.