Concern for the Future of Railroad Historical Groups

I find that if you tell a group that they are going to have to pay for the mileage or provide a decent hotel room in order for you to do a program for them, they actually treat you a lot better than if you pay for everything out of your own pocket. It also helps me to identify whether the groups have a real interest in hearing a serious program from an industry person or whether they are just looking for an "entertainment" presentation to giggle about and argue over.

But the disappointing part of this is the almost universal inability to generate publicity for a program showing. I have gone to events and done programs for the groups that did not list the program title or give a decent description of what would be shown. Some groups don't get the program descriptions posted on their web pages until a day or two before the meeting even though they had the speaker lined up well in advance. Some groups run conflicting activities that compete with the speakers and draw away the audience. What a sad waste of the speakers time and effort.

And most groups take their program notices down right after the event which is a big mistake, especially when they have hosted programs by well known speakers. They should keep an archive on their website and move the notices to the archive as it happens. This provides a running record of what the group has done and keeps providing search engine hits pertaining to the programs and presenters long into the future. This makes it easier for the public and the younger fans to find the group.

And the groups that have business meetings before the presentation should limit the time allowed for the business portion and for each issue. It is ridiculous to have speakers do a long drive to show a program and then ask them to shorten it because a bunch of officers who have the gift of gab ran the business meeting much too long.

If there it a recession on the way, it is likely to weed out a lot of museums and groups that can't get their acts together. People worrying about finances do not like having their time and money wasted by poorly run groups. The spending on this hobby is discretionary and is the first thing likely to get cut back when people see organizations that don't value their attendance and participation.

MX

Publicity is everything.

Twenty years ago I was involved in some "big" (to us, anyway) events, that were embarrassing as far as attendance. Why? No one knew about them.

I started doing publicity and PR back then, not knowing how to do it, borrowing books from the library, and having a friend at a local newspaper give me some tips.

Then the events became successful! (Unless it rained, then that was my fault, of course)

Publicity isn't that big of a deal, it just has to be done. And always invite the public! Don't hide from the outside world! Public interest, and a good presentation, attracts new members.

Lots of free ways to publicize your group and events out there, it doesn't need any money, just a dedicated PR guy and time to do it.

You are correct about a paid presenter usually doing a good job, but my presentations weren't all that bad for being voluntary, plus I had fun doing them and people enjoyed them.

Thankfully there are still a few people around that can organize and present programs effectively. I have gotten tired of the slide music craze where you sit around listening to songs you could play at home while you are watching slides that nobody tells you anything about.

MX