My volunteer experience is with railroads, but on a smaller scale. I've been involved with the Medford (OR) Railroad Park for 17 years now; first with the Southern Oregon Chapter, NRHS, and later on also with the Southern Oregon Live Steamers. We've been at the Railroad Park for thrity years now, we have five railroad clubs there, and and have been an all-volunteer operation since the beginning. I guess what makes us somewhat unique is that we don't charge for rides, tours, etc.

Some of our volunteers also travel many miles to help out. They do it because they love sharing the railroad hobby and seeing families have a great time. Sometimes a visitor will be offended by the actions of a volunteer, but it's been my experience that most of the time it's the visitor who is the problem. However, I try to make sure our volunteers keep a positive attitude at all times and not lose their cool. If there is a problem, I want to know about it immediately.

An earier post mentioned how he tried to volunteer with several groups, but was either rebuffed, ignored, the cost of volunteering was too much, and so on. When I first joined our Live Steamers I was told by others that you have to "be around a while" (which I took to mean "several years") before they would open up to you. I didn't care since I'm always willing to see for myself. In a small way it was somewhat what I was told, but it certainly wasn't an "old boys club" either. I'm very outgoing and perhaps that had something with me being accepted pretty quickly.

When I became the president I've made an effort to thank everyone who volunteers with our group. It shows that I acknowledge and appreciate their time and talents. Quite often some will say "There's no need to thank me", but I just tell them "I want to do it anyway. I always appreciate it when others thank me. It's common courtesy.

There will always be those times when things just don't go well. Those are the times to try your best to correct the situation at the moment, and then later on talk with others and see if anything could have been done to prevent a similiar situation from happening again. You have to face the fact that sometimes "crap happens" and recognize it for that. It has happened to me, and I'm sure it will happen to me again. Learn and try to grow from bad situations.