PRESIDENT'S WIRE By John Baesch

SPRING 2012

At its heart, RABO is all about fellowship.  Getting together on a regular basis for a lunch or other activity strengthens body and mind.  We all know that the business end of a railroad runs on connections, contacts, coordination and a lot of conversation to achieve a consensus.  In the operating side of the railroad, obedience to a well-learned body of rules insures that everybody performs the same operations the same way. You trust your life to the uniform application of the rules which impose an artificial order on an operation which would otherwise be totally chaotic.  (We still have some chaos creep in despite ourselves!)

Top this off with the fact that we often have no control over who we work with and work for in an organization where life, safety and corporate financial success depend on careful coordination and communication.

Now, here’s where the miracle happens.  Despite the fact that so many of us came to the business in many different ways and from many different backgrounds, like the great draftee armies of the greatest generation 70 years ago who won the world war, we, and the company we worked for, enjoyed a measure of success and profitability.

And then there was a second miracle:  thrown together or force assigned as we might have been (railroads and moving companies seem to have a mutually symbiotic relationship) we got along.  More than that:  We found that for the most part, we actually liked one another.

So it is that in Baltimore and Jacksonville, a core group of RABO members, spouses and guests meet regularly for the sustenance that comes from food and fellowship.  To all of you in the Baltimore and Jacksonville areas, I would urge to keep coming to meetings.  And more than that:  Would each one of you think of some eligible coworker or friend who doesn’t come -or can’t?  Maybe it is a transportation issue.  Can you give a person a ride?  Maybe it is serious money problem.  Can you take the person to lunch? Maybe the RABO person is a heroic care giver?  Might there might be an opportunity to arrange for a respite?

Would every RABO member in the Baltimore and Jacksonville area make a commitment to recruit or bring back one eligible member to attendance at a meeting?

To those beyond the General Office territories:  those of you in Pittsburgh and Atlanta, in Chicago and Cincinnati, in Detroit and Valdosta, in Miami and Akron-Willard, in Huntington and Cumberland, why not do your own local version (a Sub-division) of RABO?  Small is good.  Simple is good.  Breakfast at the Waffle House or Bob Evans is good.  Lunch at a diner is good.  It’s what we did when we were on the road.  The important thing is that the good that comes from our fellowship is real and it can be achieved without a large critical mass.  May I encourage you to try to get a little RABO going?  You’ll be glad you did.  And let the RABO News & Notes editor know what you did or are trying to do.  We’ll spread the word to others.

One last thing:  One of the unsung benefits of belonging to RABO is the subscription to RABO News & Notes. This publication is starting to match other periodicals devoted to company history.  Actually, N&N is better than most.  Why?  Well, others talk about equipment, motive power, bridges and structures.  N&N talks about the people. We’re authoritative. We actually made the railroad work.  We know what we are talking about. Our publication has serious historians, like Frank Wrabel and Bob Withers, whose research is as deep as the prose is clear.  We have Bill Howes, Frank Dewey and others who can write about events in which they played a part and their stories are fun to read.

We have Rails’ Tales where you can share your own experience.  And you can’t even buy this magazine unless it is obtained through a RABO membership.

We in RABO are doing a worthwhile job for a worthwhile purpose.  Let’s dedicate ourselves to spreading the joy that comes from the food and fellowship with our former colleagues. Will each one of you make it your personal goal to bring one new member to RABO this year?

You will be glad you did.