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Weekly News February 7, 2005Description
This may be the first amateurish News Letter for several of you, and another in a long series for the rest of you. All new Board members are being included, but if those of you not involved with weekly activities would like to be omitted from the list, just let me know. I'm not sure you will find reading this all that worthwhile.
We had our first Annual Meeting last Thursday with 36 in attendance. The eleven director candidates suggested by the Nominating Committee were elected, and all were in attendance except Mike May from Michigan and Bob Reilly from Colorado. They both expect to attend our Board Meeting scheduled for February 17. When the Board met to elect officers, Emil Christofano was elected vice president, Anne Cleary secretary, and Joe Mosteller treasurer. For some odd reason, I was elected president and didn't object. In a year or two, however, I'll be far too old for the job. Bill Schwoebel explained the role of the Board and that of the Management Group, which he heads. Already he has approached a number of volunteers to head up committees of this group, and plans a meeting of all volunteers on Wednesday, February 16. Bill also told of his trip a few days before, along with Butch Cannard and Bill Rule, to Ormond Beach, FL, for the centennial of the 1905 beach races there. They took our '05 Model CX Stanley, which was quite a hit. Chazz Salkin spoke about the relationship between the Division of Parks and Recreation, of which he is the Director, and the Friends of Auburn Heights Preserve. While the eventual legal arrangement will be landlord/tenant, he hopes it can work much more like a full partnership, and offered the support of his staff to make this happen from now until early 2008 when the State takes title to the property. Paul Nicholson, manager of Bellevue State Park who also has Brandywine Creek S.P. under his jurisdiction and expects to have Auburn Heights Preserve as well, was in attendance, as was Lee Jennings, Historian for the Division of Parks. Lee plans to attend our Feb. 17 Board Meeting.
There are several ongoing mechanical projects which can be continued at our work sessions this week. Two are railroad-related, the spring re-arching on Locomotive 402, and the coil springs for the trucks on our older passenger cars. On the automobiles, those who were on the Florida trip have a few things they want to do on the Model CX before it is returned to the Museum, the rear axle needs to be separated on the Model 76, flue work is continuing on the Model 87, and installation of the motor on the Rauch & Lang electric needs to be finished and hooked up. The clutch adjustment on the '32 Packard is still not quite right. There may be a number of other things that some of you know about which can be addressed if someone will lead the way.
Our membership stands at about 45, but is growing slowly. I'm not sure we should encourage a lot of new members until we know how we can serve them well. Thank you for joining and for attending our Annual Meeting, and congratulations to the newly-elected directors and officers. We hope to see you soon. Tom
