Tornado

656 is meant to be out today, so hopefully it's not too bad up there at the moment.

 

There has been massive change since the latest chairman took over including one new and two ‘resignations’ that haven’t been announced to covenantors despite occurring over 6 months ago.

 

most important is fundraising and it has no trustee with any fundraising experience and no trustee who can hold a candle to David Elliott from an engineering perspective (he was removed as a trustee several years before he sadly died).

 

Not sure a group with the financial heft of the A1 group should be relying on trustee fundraisers… you'd rather have a professional brought in on a 'raise your salary plus X multiple to justify your existence' basis wouldn't you?

It's not a church youth group (no disrespect intended), it's a multi-million pound enterprise.

Simon

 

Either would be better than the current situation. High churn and a significant wage bill are not necessarily a bad thing per-see, IF they bring in the required skills to achieve the organisation’s objectives in terms of customer service and financial propriety. Sadly this has not been the case over the last few years.

 

well solvent at the end of the financial year reported. A lot has happened since and not much positive!

 

All of its fundraising up until only a few years ago was done by a trustee with office admin support and much more effectively than the current ‘marketing director’. And if you understood its fundraising model you would know that such an approach wouldn’t work. They tried a ‘professional’ fundraiser a couple of years ago and it didn’t work.

It’s proven model of a lot of people giving a small amount of money on a regular basis relies on hard graft and effective communications. Both now absent in its paid for model.

 

@goldfish - well that’s the first of Steve Davies latest deadlines missed then. Of course there are innumerable previous offences to take into account over the course of the overhaul too.

 

Was the trustee fundraiser forced out, or did they step down without drama?

Simon

 

Fundraising was part of the previous chairman Mark Allatt’s role. I don’t know the answer to your question, though I have my suspicions.

 

It's also got more reach than most church youth groups - and has a previous track record of success using an internal fundraiser.

From experience, external fundraisers are variable in their success, and may not be well suited to a quasi-membership organisation.

The question that matters is less why X or Y solution was not adopted, and more what has happened to a formerly successful model.

 

Any updates to the steam test this week please?
When is Tornado due to leave for NVR?

thanks

 

I’m not holding my breath!

 

I’m sure you will be the first to let us know if it doesn’t!

 

Has anyone heard anything on the steam test? The fire was lit on Monday ….

 

It should have been spread around the grate by now then with pressure starting to build.....

 

Before anyone starts to get carried away, Has the engine had its stage 2 steam test yet, where the inspector signs the engine off, after it's been tested in steam, and all systems tested, and the engine move under its own steam? this will have to be done before anyone is allowed to operate it. Until it's been passed as fit to run, by the boiler examiner, I'm not holding my breath

 

I know HOPS is only as good as the information put in, but unlike the testing with 55019, there's nothing showing for 60163 test wise as yet, nor is there a road movement scheduled in the system...again relies on manual entry so not to say plans aren't in place. Haven't seen any sign of movement through the various groups/chats so far though either.

 

Sadly my sources confirm that. I’m still of the opinion that the NVR will be let down for a third time and the main line tour is in serious jeopardy.

 

NVR have removed the ticket sales from the Tornado event page. So something hasn't gone to plan. Heard a rumour it had a static steam test on Tuesday but not sure if that was true.