@Bigjimforlife:

"Do we know when more information will be made available by the IHS about how to contribute, for what, when, etc? The Iron Horse Society Facebook "page" (separate from the Facebook "group") has been inactive since December of 2016, the website hasn't really been updated at all with anything regarding memberships - and all we seem to get, for those of us who are really interested in joining, are summaries of things the IHS would like to pursue and goals, but no further details about becoming a member, where/when to donate money to certain projects, etc. I know that the official papers were just signed on Labor Day weekend, but I was hoping to have heard more concrete information since then."


Here's where we are at:

The original, "personal" Facebook page was established by one Board Member; and has largely been maintained by that individual; the second FB page was established by another Board member as a "corporate" page because that is supposed to allow more advertising opportunities. The second Board Member is the one with more technical expertise-but is in the middle of an employment related move. The big impediment to a single page is content transfer.

All of the Board Members are active volunteers; so their free time was naturally directed to train operations. This Sunday, November 12 will be the last day of shuttle operations for 2017. With only the Holiday trains and the Carbondale train to go; their time will be freed up.

The next Board Meeting will be as follows: italized excerpt from President Norm Barrett's BoD meeting notice:

Gentlemen:

The consensus among the board members is to have our end of year meeting on Saturday, November 25.

We will have a dinner meeting at 6 PM.

Main topic of meeting will be getting our Membership Application out for potential members to sign up and we will discuss options for fund raising for a cash flow start up.[/i].

Expect decided upon details to be released shortly after Thanksgiving Weekend:


Donations happily accepted at:

The Iron Horse Society at Steamtown Incorporated
P.O. Box 20047
Scranton, PA 18502

At this point, donations are requested as "unrestricted" or for Visiting Equipment (only, at this point).

We send thank you letters with pertinent details for the IRS if you itemize.

Thank you for the informative post! Clears up quite a few things in my mind, and I look forward to hearing things after the train rides settle down.

Hey Supe - Do "options for a cash flow start up" as referred to in the meeting notice you quoted include your movie day idea? Maybe you can make it a movie day that is similar to what would have been during the target era of STEA. Start with a couple of classic Merry Melodies cartoons and use the industrial film in place of the Movietone news. An intermission with a discussion of the industrial film can follow. For the feature, maybe consider one that is a more mass market railroad themed movie, or at least one that has a lot of railroad action. If you want to make the feature educational, have a run time clock visible with the movie and encourage the audience to write down any railroad mistakes they see and the run time. You could have a discussion afterwards and the person who properly identifies the most goofs can win a prize. This way the day can maybe attract a more widespread audience and still teach them a thing or two about railroading.

I believe your new topic put the board at 1361 pages. Interesting cosmic coincidence. As to your previous inquiry, let's just say I appreciate the multiple layers of irony in the quote you referenced.

@ScrantonYard

"Do "options for a cash flow start up" as referred to in the meeting notice you quoted include your movie day idea? Maybe you can make it a movie day that is similar to what would have been during the target era of STEA. Start with a couple of classic Merry Melodies cartoons and use the industrial film in place of the Movietone news. An intermission with a discussion of the industrial film can follow. For the feature, maybe consider one that is a more mass market railroad themed movie, or at least one that has a lot of railroad action. If you want to make the feature educational, have a run time clock visible with the movie and encourage the audience to write down any railroad mistakes they see and the run time. You could have a discussion afterwards and the person who properly identifies the most goofs can win a prize. This way the day can maybe attract a more widespread audience and still teach them a thing or two about railroading."

That will be a topic of discussion. The cartoons might be a little more problematic-they tend to have successor IP rights holders. You might remember that the Congress (always focused on "the people's business") -changed copyright laws right before the original Mickey Mouse "Steamboat Willie" was about to pass into the public domain.

We might might also want to intersperse live presentations. Last Saturday, former Bethlehem Steel metallurgical engineer and Steamtown volunteer Don Young had a presentation on his former employer, delivered as a part of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Chapter of the NRHS annual day long "Sentimental Journey" slide show series-which had about 100 attendees at the Dupont VFD. I have been PM'd by a poster here about other potential presentations, but am unable to resspond back using the PM feature.

I know the proposal will be part of the Board's discussion on 11/25.

You really need to get rid of the duplicate website. It's confusing and makes it look like the IHS has been stagnant/does not deserve support.

Or at least put an announcement and link to the current site.

@6-18003

"You really need to get rid of the duplicate website. It's confusing and makes it look like the IHS has been stagnant/does not deserve support."


Are you volunteering to assist with the content migration?

@softwerkslex

Pinned post:

October 11 at 11:28pm
Hi folks, have a request. We would like to transition to the official "corporate" page as it will provide more flexibility in the future. I am told approximately 140 members here have registered at the new page-please register at the other page, so eventually we can post there exclusively.

At Bartles and James used to say "Thanks for your support",

No, I'm not.

A Facebook page or group IS NOT a "website."

It can be an effective tool for publicity and recruitment if used right, but cannot be expected to substitute for a full website. It's adequate for a small group that all use Facebook regularly to associate and share. But, frankly, it's lousy, and by design getting increasingly lousier, at substituting for a website for, say, a restaurant or small local museum or store.

Further, having myself had to deal with organizations or projects that started on FB erroneously as a "group" and then found it necessary to transition to a "page," I can say that FB essentially makes it difficult, if not impossible, to migrate members, data, content, etc. from one to the other. You're basically forced to "blow it up" and start from scratch.

May I request that the original 'statement' of status and plans be put into a separate new post and then made a 'sticky' so that future discussions of the specifics of the IHS can be easily referenced?

With, perhaps, a request that it be kept restricted to discussions of actual plans and status, and not things like detailed arguments about the mechanics of Facebook page transitions beyond a quick note that transition to a proper page and Web presence is slated.

11/25 Board Meeting Results:

1.) Installation of our newest Board Member, Jerry Dziedzic. Jerry is one of Steamtown's engine crew members-and is also involved with railroad preservation activities in Colorado. We are still looking for additional Board Members; and are interested in adding people outside Train and Engine-as well women.

2.) Migration of the content on this page to the new corporate page. Mike Rinkunas is our technical expert and will be working on this through December.

3.) Membership. We have received some informal feedback about having members/contributors/donors. We will finalize a decision by Jan 1.

4.) We have preliminary decided to pursue our first fund-raiser- a matinee day at Steamtown. Our objective is to show historic railroad films in the environment they were meant to be seen- a theater- Steamtown's. We need to ensure we obtain any necessary rights to show the films and obtain a permit (Superintendent Conway has approved of the idea, pending obtaining resolution of the legalities). With recent change that allows entry with an entry fee-we can offer this without that fee.

As an aside, the linking/merging of the new and old Facebook page has begun, now that the season is largely over.

Confused, I thought there was no entry fee now.??

I think this goes back to the earlier discussion about organizations charging for events on a Federal property that could be deemed in competition with private entities... one example being that showing any sort of first-run movies at Steamtown might compromise theater owners, perhaps politically-connected ones.

Now that there is no fixed entry fee at Steamtown NHS, the IHS would more than before have to charge a separate fee if it intends matinee day to be 'fund-raising' (unless they plan to use a donation-only model for compensation). I'm interested to hear just what the specific plan will be.

"I think this goes back to the earlier discussion about organizations charging for events on a Federal property that could be deemed in competition with private entities."

That's not the plan. We intend to show historic movies-that will be within the scope of our exemption-no Minions, no Jurassic World.

Typo: Should say withOUT.