(erielack) Stop the Hostile take over

[EL3673_@_aol.com]

To all,

I've been sitting here reading all these emails about this election talk.  
One thing puzzles me.  What gives non members the right to accuse the board.  If 
you want this right PAY DUES like the rest of us.  If you don't want to pay 
dues then SHUT UP.  

I'm tired of the way this is being approached.  This hostile attack is a very 
unprofessional approach.  If you want the backing of the membership conduct 
yourselves in an appropriate manner.  If you can't do that then let those of us 
who can approach the board to make changes.  At Jamestown I spoke against the 
changes because I felt they wern't being handled properly.  However, I feel 
certain changes need to be made to this society. 

Before I continue let me say a few things about myself and explain my 
interest in the EL.
I joined the Society in 1993 when I was 13.  If you due the math that tells 
you I was born in 1980.  I never got to see the great railroad that was the 
Erie Lackawanna.  Don't pass judgment on my because of my youth.  My interest in 
the EL is just as strong if not stronger than anyone else in the society.  I 
think maybe this is so because I never knew the EL as those who saw it did.  
And that I why I treasure this society so much.  The things I know about the EL 
are because of the society.  I work as a locomotive engineer for the Wheeling 
and Lake Erie and every day when I go to work I think how great would it be to 
be an engineer for the EL.  To just once run CX-99 with the bicentennails 
over the Kent div. or work a slot freight grinding up silvercreek hill at 4 or 5 
mph.  I can honestly say that the society has done a great job in preserving 
the history of the EL and when I say the society I mean every single member.

So I say this to all members of the board,  If these accusations I've ben 
reading about are true do the right thing and let changes be made so that this 
society does not fall apart.  To all those making accusations, I hope you handle 
this in the appropreate manner and form a by laws committee to review and 
make changes properly.  Why do al this you might ask yourself.  So that members 
like myself that never saw the EL can through the society see it through your 
eyes and through your experiances so this great railroad will never be 
forgotten.

Chris Lantz
ELHS# 2590

------------------------------