Generational Differences and Historical Societies

Tue Jun 5 17:46:11 EDT 2018

Hi Eric

First I want to apologize on behalf of the various folks who may have made you feel less than welcome. While it was not right what has happened, it is not something that has only happened to your age group. I can assure you the same thing happened to me when I was a 20-something as well. 

While my experience specifically is with Roanoke Chapter NRHS, it easily can equate. I was 20-21, a graphic designer by trade, wanted to help work on full size equipment and noted that the Chapter passenger cars while painted in N&W tuscan and gold, had rather poor, non-railroad generic type lettering on them. I said it would be nice to do them like N&W if that is what we are portraying. Well, we had a gruff old man as head of mechanical who basically said I didn’t know anything and he was going to continue to hire his guy who lettered firetrucks in his spare time. Kind of ticked me off, not just a little. But I stuck it out, began attending board meetings and eventually became a board member and President multiple times and got to be one who did change the policy and ways of doing things. Sure, this one person did not want me involved, but I was not discouraged, I stuck it out ultimately to be a pain in some people’s butt (namely this guy) and got my way. I pushed for historical accuracy, painting, lettering, correct numbers on equipment, removing personal names on cars, etc.  Sure, it took perseverance, effort, and time, but I believed in my ideas, and pushed my way in and guess what? It worked. 

Many older members are going to be like this, I’m one myself now, although I’d like to think I’m not that old. However, I am open minded about a bunch of things, and have tried to encourage younger members or interested parties as much as possible. Playing amateur psychologist (no, I don’t even play one on TV) I think many folks are afraid of someone who might know more than they do and appear to be a threat to their knowledge, but I believe that the key is to be persistent. I knew nothing about a lot of subjects, but I was willing to study and learn, no matter who tried to push me away, I just continued.

Now, that being said, a lot of folks are still not as open minded as I have been. Reverend Nichols pointed out in an earlier post with a great comment. I’ll reiterate that rail fans and modelers seem to be kind of a strange group, very defensive of what they know, somewhat secretive of sharing, or mostly folks who tend to be loners or territorial. While there is no real excuse for it, it is something we have to be aware of.

So, to all those folks who think they are being snubbed, sure, that was the case, but being persistant pays off in the long run. I guess some of it is called "paying your dues” before you climb up towards the top.

It is no secret that rail groups are suffering all over the place, the focus in schools today is not about history, railroads are such a minor detail to educators. In today’s history teaching, World War II is only given a day or two at best. World War II is arguably the defining event of the 20th Century, and dramatically factors into todays world. The railroad can be considered one of the defining trends of the 19th Century, but do today’s students know that?

Now, as far as activities go, the Society is working toward more varied activities. Let’s face it, not everyone is cut out to work in the Archives or even has an interest. This is why the Society has come up with the Extra Force as a way for members who are more inclined to work on 1:1 scale things on projects that will give the Society recognition. Read more about this in the April-May-June Arrow that is in the mail right now. In addition, for modelers, we have the Free-Mo group, who can independently build modules of N&W or VGN flavor that can be displayed and operated together. 

The board recognizes that we need a broader based membership, and more of them. However, the Board is not the only idea folks out here, so we are open to suggestions. The idea of someone sponsoring a membership is a great idea, we can track the retention rate with that. I don’t think we can afford to offer free memberships, as we do have a lot of costs involved in that membership. Perhaps we can have a membership contest, with the person recruiting or sponsoring new members winning a prize. 

Ken Miller

> On Jun 4, 2018, at 8:23 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all:
> 
> I've been reading this conversation with mixed feelings. As a "lurker" on this group for some time, it strikes me that most societies (and actually business and industries too) fail to understand is that their organizations have had a very short-sighted view of their younger members could contribute.
> 
> I am a "Generation X" member, Gen-X'ers were born between 1964 and 1984, we are between the Baby Boomers and the younger Millennials and Generation Z. We've been described as a cynical group and rather self-centered. I suppose that's very true, but for a reason.
> 
> I've been a part of museum groups and historical societies since I was old enough to join, but, I quickly learned that those groups could care less about new ideas, new members, and differing points of view. Many times I heard "well this is the way it's done and we're not changing it". Growing up next to the Columbus District, I was really interested in the far western end of the N&W operations and the rich history of the Scioto Valley. It just seemed like all of my interested and inquiries fell into silence. 
> 
> Also, it felt like any opportunities to try to lead were squelched by older members who apparently felt they'd live forever, and, if you're not related to so and so, or have contributed to so and so, then well, your opinion didn't matter.
> 
> To that end, after a while, people get turned off by this approach. I lost interest in contributing, decided not to rejoin various membership and just decided to sit back behind the scenes. 
> 
> I find it ironic now that those very members that subjugated us younger folks now are desperate to have us be engaged. Yeah, call me cynical...but it is what it is...
> 
> Thanks for letting me vent...
> 
> Eric
> 
> 
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