Younger members

Wed Jun 6 12:04:10 EDT 2018

Jim,

You and Ken are doing a fine selling job as to utilizing the archives.
Since my wife is a Saltville gal ( her father was the Mayor when Olin
called it quits) perhaps I might dig into those records and come up with
something regarding the Saltville Branch. Thanks for the push.

Mike Pierry, Mr.

On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 11:23 AM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> Mike: People without first hand knowledge can do research. We have many
> members who never knew the old N&W. One of them builds great models. He
> gets his information from research. BTW: I do research myself, and I am
> almost 84 years old. I didn't see (or remember) everything from my youth,
> so I can go online to the archives to learn more. No reason I couldn't
> submit an article about what I learn.
>
> Jim Nichols
>
>
> On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 7:44 AM, NW Mailing List <
> nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
>
> Mike
>
> Many thanks for the kind words, I hope everyone will find the new Arrow
> entertaining and interesting.
>
> However, I will take exception to you comments on writing for the Arrow.
> While I understand your comments, I beg to differ.
>
> I did not work for the N&W, nor am I old enough (at times I feel like it
> though!) to truly remember much of the steam era, my exposure to the N&W
> was only via my father, a Radford Division conductor hired in 1947. As you
> will see in a future Arrow article or column, my background and exposure
> was far less than most folks. Yet, even though I was not born until after
> diesels had begun to arrive, anyone can still write on events from years
> before their time, it happens all the time. It takes some effort, research,
> study, reading and finally writing a story. Books are published constantly
> on history that folks the writers could not possibly have participated in.
> Civil War, early Presidential history, etc. etc. These folks get interested
> in a subject, research it and study it and share it with others. There will
> be an article in the near future of how the Archives can help you. This
> resulted in some small scrap of a note I read, probably for the 10th time,
> that suddenly registered in my mind that this was something I did not know,
> so I quickly researched it in our Archives on line, and found an answer on
> a 126 year old subject!
>
> Please don’t think there is nothing new, remember, folks who may be
> readers might not know about history, or even today. You will see in my
> editor’s column in the issue that is in the mail right now, a request for
> folks to consider a photographic article on a then and now image, what was
> once there in a vintage image, and revisit (without trespassing, of course)
> a location and record the scene today. This is something any of our
> photographers can do.
>
> Best
> Ken Miller
>
> On Jun 6, 2018, at 6:30 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
>
> Ken,
>
> I have only words of appreciation for the Arrow and the insights of the
> N&W era that each issue contains. But, as a writer who has had numerous
> articles published in the Bristol Herald Courier including several railroad
> related pieces, I am at a loss to offer any positive response to your plea
> for more material for the magazine. I did not have any involvement with or
> was I employed by the N&W so cannot come forward with any articles.
> Unfortunately that is also the case for many current members and will be
> even more evident with any younger members enlisted. Sadly, it has to be
> acknowledged that the sources for N&W material are all in the senior
> citizen —- really senior, such as myself —- group. Sorry for the gloom and
> doom but that is the reality of the situation.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Mike Pierry, Jr.
>
> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 8:53 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
>
> Jeff
>
> Let me address several factors here, as the new editor of the Arrow. By
> the way, due to the change over with the magazine, the April-May-June issue
> was delayed, but should be in the mail. Those of you who were at Spencer
> saw the proof of the new format. The next issue is being assembled as we
> speak, and is hoped to go to the printer by the first of July, and the plan
> is to be back on schedule before the end of the year. There was almost no
> ready to go material available when I took over the magazine. You will be
> able to read more when they arrive.
>
> To address your comments, the Arrow actually began as a bi-monthly
> magazine. In those early days, that first issue was 10 pages, the second
> was 14 and the third was 12. Five years later, the first issue of 1990 was
> 16 pages. In 1996, the first issue was 24 pages. By 2007, the magazine had
> gone quarterly, and normally was a 32 page issue.
>
> The magazine has changed for a wide variety of reasons, but unfortunately,
> the two main reasons are simple, cost of printing and mailing, and a lack
> of contributions from members. A look back at those early issues finds many
> of the same names involved as we see today, but some others have passed
> away. Not many new names have appeared over time. Unfortunately, one story
> that I have heard over time is “I submitted an article for the Arrow and
> never heard anything” yet, we find no evidence of such articles. So,
> please, if you submitted an article in the past and never saw it, never
> heard from it, please send it on again. Mail it to the Society’s P.O. Box
> in Roanoke, or email me at:
> thearrow at nwhs.org.
>
> That being said, we do have a great photo essay of Clare Yard in the
> winter, which is being saved for a winter issue obviously. We have several
> lengthy pieces on the Virginian, an outstanding history piece from Tom
> Salmon on the early beginnings of the VGN, and a piece on the author’s 1978
> strike experience, which is coming soon.
>
> I’m not trying to make excuses on this, but if we do not have material, we
> cannot produce magazines, what I’d love to see is that we have enough new
> material to print six issues a year. Most of the material in the
> March-April-May issue are things that will work and trying to get a broader
> scope of coverage. Over the past number of years, Kevin EuDaly had created
> the Arrow with basically nothing in hand, using reprints of technical
> articles on electrification. Some folks did not like it, but those same
> folks did not provide us with other material. If he had not produced the
> magazine in this way, there would have not been a magazine.
>
> It is a Catch-22, we need more material to print more magazines, but we
> cannot print more magazines to encourage more folks to contribute.
>
> Now, on that aspect. Folks have grown quite used to the Arrow being all
> color and a really slick magazine. Our single biggest expense as an
> organization is the mailing and printing of the Arrow each year. To print a
> magazine of the quality and style you see requires us to use large 4 color
> presses at a printer established to do such work. For those of you who are
> not used to the print world, magazines like ours are printed on large
> sheets of paper, with 8 pages on each side of the sheet, creating a 16 page
> “signature”, magazine size is dictated by those 16 page signatures, so you
> have either a 16 page magazine, a 32 page, 48 page or 64 page magazine. You
> cannot easily do a 24 page magazine, it is not how the printers are readily
> set up.
>
> If we drop back and do a 16 page magazine every two months, it becomes the
> same thing as a 32 page magazine every four months, but now we have
> increased our mailing costs not quite by double, but close. Printing costs
> mainly come in the set up for print. So, while we do not actually double
> the printing costs, it will definitely increase the costs there as well.
> Can we save money by going to a black and white magazine? Yes, a bit, but
> the committee the board appointed to study this came up with a lengthy
> report with alternative pricing and ways of doing the magazine. Ultimately,
> we managed to still reduce the costs and retain a color magazine at only a
> slightly higher cost than a black and white version.
>
> Some folks have asked “can’t you do a print on demand?” Generally
> speaking, our magazine is a heavily photographic magazine. Photographs,
> particularly color, do not do nearly as well in the print on demand mode,
> at least at a reasonable cost. Print on demand is usually for copies that
> are not aimed for quantities over 100 or 200. The price is hard to do. The
> converse of that is, we do not have a large enough membership to make the
> magazine larger and cheaper to print. This is part of the why we are
> pushing to increase our membership, so we can afford to do more for the
> members, or more value for your membership dollar. We do appreciate your
> membership and we can do more with more members.
>
> Why people do not contribute, I do not know. Perhaps they feel like they
> don’t know as much, perhaps they are afraid of the critics who, upon
> occasion, have taken an article or item to task on this or another list.
> Perhaps it is that they did indeed submit something, never heard back, or
> never saw anything in print. I’ve tried to be in touch with most of our
> regular contributors, but a few emails have bounced back on me, so if you
> have contributed but not heard from me, please contact me at the address
> listed above. I apologize for any miscommunication that might have occurred
> but we truly are interested and want materials. We are looking for a wide
> variety of things, not just steam. Do not get me wrong, steam is my
> favorite, but we do need to cover a lot of other things as well. There is a
> huge batch of material out there and subjects to cover. Don’t know how to
> do it, or have materials for illustration? Not a problem, please get in
> touch, we have a great archive of materials and knowledge of more out here,
> our Archives volunteers can be amazingly helpful.
>
> If you are afraid of writing an article because of making mistakes, that
> is the least of your concern. All the material is closely reviewed by our
> review board and believe me, they are are not afraid to make changes! But
> the best thing is they are made before it goes to print. Now that being
> said, even the best of the committees do not know everything, but we are
> pretty broadly covered with knowledge, so most material will be finely
> checked.
>
> To kind of sum this up, your board has studied the Magazine, quite in
> depth and while we want to go to more frequent publication, we need two
> things for that: more members and more contributors. It is that simple.
>
> We need contributions from everyone. Please be sure to send them to
> thearrow at nwhs.org, or mail your material to the P.O. Box in Roanoke, the
> Arrow is now done in house. Please do not assume that we have everything
> that was previously submitted, things get lost or misplaced.
>
> Ken Miller
>
> > On Jun 4, 2018, at 1:57 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > When I first joined the society, the ARROW was a monthly magazine, that
> I waited in great anticipation for.
> > Over the years it has been cut back to 4 times a year.
> > Although a bigger magazine, it seems like I was getting less for the
> cost of my membership.
> > Perhaps bringing it back to 6 times a year would get more articles out
> from more people.
> > If this is member driven, and I understand there has to be a boss in any
> business, then why not have more members submit articles for the ARROW.
> > I did get mine submitted in the Jan-Feb- Mar issue 2017. I had written
> that story many years ago, and submitted it some years ago to the society,
> to the point I had forgotten about it. There is still so much more we can
> learn about the N&W and VGN.
> > I just want to see the society carry on and grow. I have used all of my
> pixy dust many years ago, so it's going to take more than magic to keep
> this and other societies alive.
> >
> > Jeff Wood
> > ________________________________________
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>
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