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RE: (erielack) Unansered Questions

For the sake of accuracy, I need to amend this post:  There were three members
of the Board who spoke at the Jamestown meeting:  Larry DeYoung, Rich Behrendt,
and Tim Costello. 

SGL

> -----Original Message-----
> From: erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net 
> [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net] On Behalf Of 
> Schuyler Larrabee
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 9:49 PM
> To: 'William Shultz'; 'Erie Lackawanna Mail List'
> Subject: RE: (erielack) Unansered Questions
> 
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net 
> > [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.railfan.net] On Behalf Of 
> William Shultz
> > Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 6:45 PM
> > To: Erie Lackawanna Mail List
> > Subject: (erielack) Unansered Questions
> > 
> > Immediately after the mid September annual meeting, I asked an 
> > appropriately place Board member, since the "Open 
> Discussion" didn't 
> > turn out quite as was planned, how could the questions that 
> were sent 
> > to me by members get answered, that were not able to be 
> asked at the 
> > meeting.
> 
> I think I might have been that "appropriately placed Board 
> member," since I was sitting right next to you.  I believe 
> also that I asked you to send me those questions.  If I'm 
> mistaken, and it was one of the others, so be it.  There were 
> MANY things discussed at that meeting during that weekend, 
> and I do not have a perfect memory.  You have also had two 
> and a half months, that's >months,< to send me or the Board, 
> or even the list here, these questions, but you didn't do 
> that.  Until now, I've never seen these questions.
> 
> Those with a long memory might remember that I asked for 
> members who had questions to forward them to me as well, so 
> that we could be prepared to answer those questions.  That 
> wasn't done, so this is the first that I, and I believe any 
> Board members, have seen these questions.
> 
> > In a nutshell, the Open Discussion ended up with two Board members 
> > speaking and presenting their take on bringing democratic 
> governance 
> > to the ELHS for 40 minutes and my diatribe an additional 10 
> minutes. 
> > As a result a grand total of three people other than the afore 
> > mentioned impromptu "speakers" added input. We never had the 
> > opportunity to get beyond peoples tendency to hold back 
> until others 
> > start the discussion to where they might feel comfortable 
> asking their 
> > questions. Again, I am not pointing fingers, it just turned 
> out that 
> > way.
> 
> Y'know, Will, I don't quite recall it that way.  There were 
> several, more than three, other prople besides the two Board 
> members, Rich and Larry, who spoke.
> Maybe you don't want to recall that their take on things was 
> that they were happy, or content, with the present 
> arrangement and management of the ELHS.
> Those were people who've volunteered to help out with things 
> the ELHS does, real workers.  I know that you're one of the 
> real workers too, all anybody has to do is look at our 
> website, which is a great piece of work.  I know it's been 
> used as an example of a 'really good railfan website.'  But I 
> digress from the point, there were people other than the 
> Board members who spoke during that time.
> 
> You were offered the chance to speak first.  I was sitting 
> right next to you, and I had talked to Mike Connor, the 
> moderator, to be sure to get you up in front of the group.  
> You demurred, and didn't want to go first.  When you did 
> speak, you were pretty short in what you had to say.  You 
> also had the opportunity to ask the questions you've listed 
> below, but didn't take that.
> Adding up the time you list above, you imply that the time we 
> spent was less than an hour.  That session went about an hour 
> and 15 or 20 minutes, because we wanted to be sure that 
> people had their chance to say what they wanted to say.
> Henry Pribe sat on your other side;  he could have had the 
> floor for the effort of raising his hand, but didn't do so.  
> At the end, there was an open question, "Does anyone else 
> want to speak?"  The opportunity was there.
> 
> > Anyway, after waiting for over two months for a reply about how the 
> > unanswered questions would be asked in a public (to ELHS members) 
> > forum, I will out of respect for those that submitted questions, 
> > present them now. By the way, part of this same discussion with the 
> > unnamed Board member, was setting up a forum were members, 
> Board, and 
> > otherwise, could interact without people having to resort to the EL 
> > mailing list to get a public answer. I'm sure the whole 
> discussion was 
> > invariably forgotten about as has happened several times in 
> the past.
> 
> Well, yep, I admit that.  There are a LOT of things that get 
> discussed during those hours there.  And you know, real life 
> goes on when we get back home.  The Board members devote a 
> lot of time to this, but it's not unlimited.  Not all of us 
> are retired, and what I've observed about retired people is, 
> for the most part, that they often wonder how they had time 
> to go to work before they retired.  And Will, this is a 
> two-way street.  If I, or whatever other Board
> member(s) you might have talked to didn't get back to you, 
> you know my email address, you know my phone number, and even 
> my snail mail address, which is in every Extra Board.  Since 
> you asked people to give you questions, you take on some 
> responsibility to get them asked, don't you?  And that 
> doesn't apply just to these questions, or just to you.  If 
> any ELHS member has a question or problem, they should 
> contact me or any other Board member and we'll respond.
> 
> There's been a question as to why the Board members haven't 
> responded to the questions raised here.  IIRC, the first 
> question in this threadlet was raised on Wednesday.  I see 
> personal email at night, and on Wednesday night the first 
> email I read was at about 11 PM.  Last night (Thursday) it 
> was at 12:15 AM. (I suppose that's this morning, isn't it?)  
> While I have a fair amount of energy, it isn't limitless.  
> Right now I have about 200+ emails I haven't read yet, but I 
> believe it's important to respond to this one.
> 
> By the way, not all the Board members are on this list.  Some 
> are, some aren't.
> It is a choice.
> 
> We will address these questions, but it will take some time.  
> That's why I wanted to have the questions before the meeting 
> in Jamestown.
> 
> SGL.  
> 
> > The questions:
> > 
> > 1A.  Average composition, layout etc., cost of the work 
> performed by 
> > Andover Jct per issue of the Diamond?
> > 
> > 1B. Average cost of printing an issue of the Diamond?
> > 
> > 1C. Quantity printed per issue?
> > 
> > 
> > 2A. Was the contract awarded to Andover Jct put out to competitive 
> > bid?
> > 
> > 2B. Was the contract awarded to the printer of the Diamond 
> put out to 
> > competitive bid? Printers for other publications?
> > 
> > 2C. Is there a formal, written contract with Andover Jct 
> that clearly 
> > spells out the business relationship and costs for publishing the 
> > Diamond? What is the contract length.
> > 
> > 
> > 3A. Is a financial statement with income and disbursements 
> available?
> > 
> > 3B. The by-laws say a financial report must be produced 
> annually. If 
> > it is, why isn't it published in the Extra Board or on the members 
> > section of the web site?
> > 
> > 
> > 4. Why doesn't the ELHS produce models in N scale?
> > 
> > 5. In other societies it seems that Board members also seem to be 
> > regular contributers to the society publication, yet if you look at 
> > how often ELHS Board members contribute, it seems to be 
> rare. Yet some 
> > produce articles for other publications for which they are paid.
> > 
> > 6. Are the dues going to be raised next year?
> > 
> > Again, these were all questions I received from others and 
> I feel an 
> > obligation to have them presented. Several submitted 
> similar questions 
> > and they have been distilled where appropriate. My biggest 
> regret is 
> > that they had to be asked here.
> > 
> > Will Shultz
> > 
> > 
> 

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