January 2006 President’s Report

By Ira Pollack

During this season of sharing and giving, I would like to take the time to thank the volunteers of the Danbury Railway Museum for their service to the Museum this past year. Our very dedicated people, all people from different walks of life, all have the same passion, or love, of railroading. These are the people who make up the staff and life of the Museum.

Our volunteers have worked hard during the year providing educational enjoyment to our many guests. From the Front Desk personnel to the Train Crews in the yard, these are all people proud of what they do and more than willing to share their knowledge with our guests. Our staff has accumulated many thousands of hours of volunteer time to run our operation on a yearly basis and should be very proud of what they have done. We have many varied tasks at the Museum, as you well know - almost too many to mention - but it is this variety that makes us what we are.

This last season was successful for the Museum with many new exhibits, new events, and several new pieces of equipment added to our ever-growing collection in the yard. This is an on-going process of growth and enhancing our Museum as we move forward.

I would also like to thank the Connecticut Department of Transportation, Metro-North, and the City of Danbury for their continued support of the Museum's growth. I wish all of our volunteers and supporters a safe and healthy New Year and look forward to working with everyone this coming year.

I do have many plans to pursue this New Year, some of which include the following:

To start with, I firmly believe in the process of running many of the different things we do by committee. I would like to form two committees, one for events and one for new member and volunteer coordinating. These committees would be run by a small group of people instead of one person doing the complete job. Of course I need new volunteers to come forward to help put these plans together and lead these two very important tasks. I see each committee being comprised of approximately three people. The Event Committee would plan out budgets for each event and pursue whatever is necessary to make them successful. The second committee would be responsible for integrating our new volunteers into our work force and helping each volunteer find success and satisfaction within the Museum. Both committees would report monthly to me on their progress, and I in turn would relay their reports to the Board of Directors. If you have any interest in helping in these very important areas please contact me as soon as possible.

In the building, I would like us to begin a project of digitally photographing our many three dimensional artifacts. This could be used to create another electronic slide show to educate our guests on some of these unique pieces. We could additionally use this display at some of the train shows that we attend. I would like the public to be more aware of the variety of artifacts that have been received.

In the yard this spring I am looking at major track work upgrades on tracks 34 and 42 and other selected areas. At this point I am putting a budget together and planning out what kind of work and material will be needed for this project.

These are but a few of my goals for the upcoming months. In closing, once again, thank you all for your generosity and help to the Museum's growth and prosperity this year.