A couple weeks in......

and look at how much ground we've covered. Thanks to everybody who has contributed ideas and information....

The flow is about as I expected - going far off center than gradually working back towards what seems most practical. I do wish more of you would offer more ideas and opinions based on information. I think a wider range of content would allow us to find some avenues to explore we may be missing now.

Hugh is working on some front end drawings based on information he was sent by contributors here, and we hope to see them posted soon.

The big event weekeend of the dedication of 110 is now done - before the rains came in - and I hope to have some reports on it, maybe a photo or two to round it out.

Thanks again everybody, and please keep the information flowing. I think we're on our way to designing something at the top end of practical.

Dave

We are starting to fragment the updates and reports of events.  It's already difficult to figure out what's happened and what results occurred.

We need one thread that is clearly a progress report for actual planning and work on the locomotive/tender, another thread that covers strategic alliances and incentives, etc. etc. etc.

Dave, this is something for you to decide (or to put up in its own thread for comments and suggestions) -- but it DOES need to be decided... and soon.

OK, I'll put it to the brain trust here.......just what we want to cover on this forum?

I'm not at all opposed to using it as a place to talk about ways and means to make things happen in other than technical venues. I have been posting updates from time to time as sort of unofficial progress reports with the expectaton that if anybody wants to throw an idea out there.....they are welcome to do so.

Dave Dick recently mentioned the idea of a separate forum for fund raising and on site project updates to me, but we haven't developed that idea. We could certainly do that here without starting something new.

Many of those who post here are engineering people rather then development people. I specifically asked a few people who were not engineering people to join so we'd have a less specialized perspective in terms of making the conversation accessable to other lay steam guys from volunteer ranks. Most lurk....so I don't really know how well we're doing on that perspective. They don't ask questions so i don't know if they're understanding the discussions or just like to stay under the radar.

Our BOD - as I understand it - and the president as I'm certainly more understood about - is entirely behind the 110 project but is tied up with day to day, keeping the place going business and to the best of my knowledge, none have nonprofiit management, marketing or development backgrounds in any case. We're heavy on engineering, popular volunteer leaders, and comfortable known entities who have been at it for 20 years.

Dave Dick and I have been given a lot of rope to hang ourselves with in terms of exploration and direction, with a goal of trying to get 110 to run and pull our train eventually, but preferably before 17 dies on the calendar. Our ambition wants to do more - and because we have the luxury of taking a longer and broader perspective than the day to day. My mind is 7 years down the line, with a robust, reliable and efficient 110 running the train and 17 getting overhauled in a bulding made for the work so we don't have to do things stupidly any more. I also see us as vibrant partners in the community rather than guys who run trains a weekend a month.

The BOD will be happy with anything we can pull off and if we can do more than a patch job to pass inspection so much the better. I think some understand the complexity of the project - some understand the need to become better more sophisticated and long term oriented fund raisers - and some don't think much about it if it's even crossed their mind.

So, I think as we start to build victories large and small, the general perspective among the BOD and membership will become more and more interested and supportive of that way of doing things, and less unsure of our ability to carry it off. Nobody has tried to show any new way of doing things before, so starting to think about development like the Symphony or Art Museum or fund raising like NPR or PBS........there's a connection that needs to be made.

So, if our members think they have expertise to contribute in development and fund raising, I'll work with Dave D on structuring that on this forum. If we're more comfortable limiting our discussion here to engineering and nuts and bolts....that's fine too. If Dave wants to start that discussion on this forum and widen the membership....we'll make a new section for just that, and our members can simply contribute to the part that interests them and ignore the other.

So, please let me know, each of you, what you want to take part in and I'll know what to recommend accordingly.

Dave

I didn't mean the whole forum!  Just the part that dealt with informational updates and actual progress reporting/status!

It's already difficult to figure out exactly what posts have new content in them, and if there are a great number of threads that originate with specific events ... but which have to be cross-related with other posts that have different initial topics ... it's going to be more painful, and increase the risk that one of us misses something important.  If this is like other forums or boards, there will also be a certain amount of thread 'drift' in some of these topics, and I see a danger of things getting 'lost in the sauce' or too confusing for some people participating, especially people who come in 'later' or who only periodically review what's happening.

I wholeheartedly agree with the current approach of covering 'every' aspect and detail in topics and subtopics, since anyone with no interest in a particular aspect can just 'skip' it.  I want to make sure, though, that within each aspect there is a reasonably clear navigation method, and a clear way to tell where posts on particular sequential or related subtopics can be found as the project progresses...

Cool. I'll ask Hugh to start an "updates" section where the topic will be the date of the update.

But given what Dave D and I were discussing this week....I still think it would be good to kow how involved in soft stuff our members want to be.

Dave