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Our first annual meeting
was held at Ardenwood Historical Farm, April
19, 1997, from 11am until 5pm. Members in attendance were
Andy
Fahrenwald, Noel Kirshenbaum, Tony Meadow, Alan Langmuir,
Randy
Hees, Nate Shugars, Brian Grogan, Jay McCauley and Scott
Harrison.
Attendance was somewhat disappointing, but participation
was spirited.
As we talked before the meeting, we discovered that there
were several
other meetings going on this same day, including the annual
conference of
the American Historical Association, a joint meeting of the
Pacific
Locomotive Association with the Golden Gate Railroad Museum
and a
meeting of people interested in local lime kilns.
Andy lead a hike which lead us
to the top of a hill which overlooked some
of the ponds used for evaporation of sea water to produce
salt. A picnic
lunch followed.
Randy Hees, President of the
Society for the Preservation of Carter
Railroad Resources, talked about the Society and their
activities. The
Carter Society conducts an innovative preservation and
restoration
program and maintains a living history museum at the
Ardenwood
Historic Farm. They recently acquired a "cute" Plymouth
critter, a
gasoline powered switching locomotive, which was operating
this day.
Nate Shugars, another member of the Carter Society added
commentary
and color to Randy's remarks.
The group then adjourned and
moved to one of the buildings at the farm
so that we could ruminate and devise a structure for our
new Chapter of
the SIA. It was decided to establish standing committees
for the general
activities of the chapter and to also establish a number of task forces
to take
on focussed chapter projects. This portion of the meeting
was ably
facilitated by Alan Langmuir, who performs this function on
a professional
basis. In a little over an hour, we were able to make
considerable progress
in this direction. The results from this part of the
meeting are reported
below. Some additional time will be required at the next
meeting to cover
areas for which there was not sufficient time.
By a unanimous vote and mail
ballot approval, the bylaws as drafted by
Andy were accepted as amended by the SIA Chapter Committee
in their
letter to the Chapter.
The Chapter Committee stated that while our Chapter was
free to organize
activities in the western United States, it did not
preclude the possibility of
chartering other chapters within this area. It therefore
recommended that
our core area be defined as Northern California.
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