A clearly defined mission on which to focus one's energies is critical to success in any endeavor. Without a clearly defined mission there is nothing to focus on. Failure to define the mission realistically is one basic problem with many of these organizations.

What are we doing and why are we doing it is still the first question in good old fashioned TQM.....

I have found that some of these rail museums and rail organizations often have poorly defined goals and objectives, and/or unrealistic goals and objectives. Often this leads to a lack of focus, which creates confusion, and endless opportunities for internal bickering.

All of the things 5103 recommends are critical to the day to day operations of effective non profits. But without a solid consensus on the goals and clear achievable objectives it is impossible to measure "success", maintain accountability, or to clearly focus the organization's energies "externally" on the "mission".

I have found that many rails are sometimes idiosyncratic and often irascible, thus a well defined mission and strong by laws, with good checks and balances, are critical to curbing these excesses of ego and conflicting personalities.

One obvious price of the failure to find and focus on an achievable mission is alienation among members and factional conflict. This often results in a loss of membership, loss of donors and funders, and the loss of public interest, which can result in the loss of many of these museums and collections, and that is always shame.