Re: (erielack) Unansered Questions

[William Shultz <wshultz1_@_twcny.rr.com>]

Ken,

Just ask Tim Stuy about how the same sort of situation can happen with a 
self-sustaining Board. There are no guarantees either way and there is 
no 100% assurance it couldn't happen to the ELHS in the future with the 
next generation Board. A major difference is at least the potential to 
rectify the situation exists when such people came due for election, 
with a self-sustaining board you would have to hope that a majority of 
the Board would at some point realize the folly of their actions.

We have always advocated including revisions to the by-laws to protect 
the organization as much as possible and practical from such situations. 
There are plenty of well run organizations to use as a model to start from.

In fact, even if the ELHS retains the current model, there should be a 
provision to allow a super majority membership vote to allow overriding 
the Board. Currently, we depend on dumb luck and the personal integrity 
of the Board members to prevent disaster. Thankfully we have been 
fortunate in that respect.

As for the other part of your message...it is the same sort of feeling I 
had when I was in a record store in 1989, I had just turned thirty the 
previous December and I heard a teenage girl shriek to one of here 
compatriots: "I didn't know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings!" 
Aside from feeling incredulous, that was the first time I felt old.

Aging membership is THE most important issue the ELHS and other rail 
history organizations face. People can bury their heads in the sand and 
ignore that fact, but it is staring us in the face. How are you going to 
draw these folks in? One place to start and this goes for current 
membership too, is to get as many people actively involved as possible. 
We need to do a better job of that no matter what in my opinion. Active 
members are the best advertising we can have.

Regards,

Will Shultz

Hoboken wrote:

> An opinion or two on what I've read:
>
> I belong to a rail organization which went the route of a board 
> partially elected by the membership.  That organization now has 
> serious problems because the board members elected by the membership 
> acted in such a fashion that the appointed directors, including the 
> president and minority owner of an area short-line railroad, quit.  
> The board spends most of its time nit-picking what the operating 
> staff, all volunteers, have done, and micromanaging what has not yet 
> been done.  Will this happen to ELHS if the board is member-elected?  
> Not necessarily, but it certainly is a possibility.
>
> As for younger members, keep in mind that the focus of this 
> organization is on a railroads which no longer exist.  1976 was the 
> last year of  the E-L's existence.  Anyone who is 30 years old was 
> about 2 when the E-L ceased to exist.  Considering how quickly Conrail 
> tried to eradicate any E-L identification, it's not surprising that 
> few people who are under 30 even know about the Erie, the Lackawanna, 
> or the E-L.  In 2001, I asked a Mahwah resident who was about my age 
> (mid-50's) how far the Mahwah Erie station was from the hotel.  She 
> said that she didn't know, but the NJT station was about a mile.  Even 
> those of us who are middle-aged and don't have a special interest in 
> them don't remember these railroads  any longer.
>
> Ken Bush
>

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End of EL List Daily V3 #1488
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