Friends of Nevada Southern Railway, Inc.

 

Membership Meeting

 

1 March 2012

 

According to Article V, Section 1, of the By-Laws a quorum was present to conduct FNSR business.

 

Chuck Brandt called the meeting to order at 11:00 AM.

 

Motion to approve the minutes of the February meeting was made by Jack Corrick and seconded by Everett Bartlett; unanimously approved.

 

New members Dennis Miller, Bob Morgan, and Chuck Jarvi introduced themselves at the meeting.

 

Treasurer report:

 

Bob Freedman announced that our February income was $18,388.39 and expenses were $19,653.93 for a net income (loss) for the month of ($1348.20). Ending bank balance was $22,125.57 plus $11,722.31 in a Money Market account. The majority of income and expenses are for the DOWT event.

 

Standing Committee reports

 

Training – Tony Bond announced that Ed Townes has completed his training and is now certified as Engineer. Congratulations to Ed.

 

Restoration – Jack Corrick discussed work ongoing to get equipment ready for the upcoming Train Robbery and DOWT events. As various cars are moved to the shop for modifications and required FRA repairs, the configuration of the train may change each weekend. Since cars are being cut in or out of the train each week, train crews must use extra diligence in their walk by inspections prior to run days to check all air and electrical connections. The 101 caboose will probably not be available for the train the first weekend in March, depending on completion of needed repairs.

 

The 1855 locomotive is scheduled to be power washed this Friday, Mar. 2, dependent on weather conditions that day. This will be the back up locomotive for the DOWT event.

 

Carl Friedrichs has been painting various boards for use in the DOWT games area.

 

Calendar Project – Roger West announced that sales of the 2012 calendar for February were good with $450 in sales on the train. Total sales have exceeded $2000 in profits. Roger expressed his thanks to Greg "Choo Choo" Tombaugh for taking over the sales task while he is unable to participate on the trains.

 

FNSR Steamers Project – Bill Megill discussed the progress in the live steam area. A functional scale water tower has been installed. The siding and passenger loading area has been completed and a new turntable is under construction. The steamers hope to be certified for operation and ready to haul public passengers by the Train Robbery weekend.

 

Day Out with Thomas Event – Tony Bond reminded us that “Thomas is coming!” He provided daily schedules of the tasks to be accomplished prior to the event. There are still lots of tasks to be completed and if enough volunteers are not available we will need to hire people to finish some of the tasks. In particular, we need volunteers to distribute brochures to numerous places where parents and children might see them and wish to attend.

 

Tony Bond and Chuck Brandt met with Tracy Poe of HIT Entertainment during the week to review event plans and the facilities plans. Tracy suggested the need for more kids’ activities areas. An inflated “bouncy” jump area will be added to satisfy this need.

 

A decision was made to use commercial hot food trucks rather than vendors and a food court, eliminating the need for a separate health permit.

 

Tony indicated that we still need to select a D.J. entertainer and persons to act as Sir Topham Hatt.

 

Chuck Brandt announced the remaining marketing plans which include notices in Parents Magazine, Kidsville News, and surrounding area newspapers as far away as Kingman, AZ, Bullhead City/Laughlin, and Needles, CA. Another front page sticker will come out in the R-J later in March. Five sets of 4 each complimentary tickets have been printed and supplied to KCYE 102.7FM for a call-in promotion. HIT Entertainment’s New York P.R. firm will be supplying press releases to several local media outlets.

 

Membership – There was no membership report this month.

 

Old Business

 

Board Position Open – The Board appointed Bill Dukes to fill the remaining term vacated by the resignation of Ed Townes last December.

 

New Business

 

There was no New Business this month.

 

Greg Corbin Comments

 

The Volunteer Appreciation Dinner was very successful with a large attendance due to the many new volunteer members joining Friends in the last year.

 

Construction on Dan Markoff’s railcar in the shop may continue for a while longer. A new agreement is in progress to allow the work to continue until it canbe safely moved to another location.

 

Peter Barton visited from Carson City to attend the Volunteer Dinner and tour the museum the next morning. He was impressed by the activity and energy level of the volunteers working in the shop. He was also impressed with the conditions in the display pavilion and with the live steamers’ progress.

 

An FRA inspection this last week logged a number of deficiencies with the 502/503 open air cars and the HEP car. An FRA rule regarding the use of freight cars older than 50 years will require an exemption to allow their continued use. Curiously, no such rule exists concerning the 100 year old passenger cars.

 

Open Discussion - none

 

There being no further discussions, the meeting was adjourned at 11:26 AM.

 

The next meeting will be Apr. 5, 2012 at 11:00 AM.