West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Andy, I wish you all success with your fund raising efforts. I also recognise and am thankful that your considerable voluntary efforts help sustain our splendid Railway.

However, whilst it is over two decades since I sat on any large Company Boards, I remember that within those organisations there were clear and unambiguous guide lines wrt communicating with the Media. It was axiomatic that as a Board Member one observed the Company Rules, but the staff were not without responsibilities. (I appreciate that 'Whistleblowers' are now accorded more time than previously but...) It was, and still is, not for nothing that successful and universally praised organisations spend considerable sums of money on Public Relations Departments.

Since 'retirement' from paid work, involvement in various roles, including School Governor, Society Trusteeships and Directorships, the Church etc I note that they all include, despite volunteers being very much in the majority, often quite Draconian, restrictions concerning access and involvement with Social Media.

I appreciate that a supporting organisation, staffed and essentially run by volunteers should possibly be less prescriptive than a Commercial Company, but the requirement to behave in a thoroughly 'professional' manner remains an imperative. It is being 'professional', presenting a unified Railway whilst actively encouraging debate that we will grow and flourish. But I am afraid the requirements of 'cabinet' responsibility amongst Trustees and Directors are paramount.

It is good that the current Chair and Vice Chair (as did their immediate predecessors) contribute to this particular website. No doubt they ensure their postings represent the agreed views of their fellow Trustees as I believe their predecessors did (certainly that was our intent.)

Michael Rowe

 

I regret that Michael’s memory is playing him false. I was indeed Company Secretary when he was on the Board. I did not become a Trustee until the 2016 AGM.

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Social media didn’t exist two decades ago.

I advise on social media policies regularly. Overly restrictive policies that do not recognise the reality of modern life quickly fall into disrepute and are not effective when it comes to employment litigation.

Old proverb say: the strongest tree is the one that bends on the wind.

Robin

 

Vincit omnia veritas!

 

To be fair I think that we respond to comments on this and other social media platforms. We don't use these platforms to make important statements, preferring more direct communication to members.
Certainly for me a response on social media is no different to answering a question while on the railway or in the pub or in response to an e-mail question.
I do agree with Robin that social media has totally changed the landscape of discussion blurring informal and formal lines of communication. A modern organisation ignores this at its peril.

Now a plea if I may in the season of goodwill, can we get back to talking about the operation of the railway?

 

Your wish:

One of those small bits of progress that moves our Railway forward.

In brilliant (if chilly) sunshine today at Stogumber, Stationmaster Bob Preston and I finished off the installation of the new downside lamp post today by digging out the rough ground around it, laying terram and then blue slate chippings. See pics.

Attention at Stogumber now turns to the cattle dock refurb.

Robin




Before

 

You raise an interesting question. This outsider, fond as he is of the WSR, knows little of the internal politics underway.

He is partly fascinated, as with any good car crash; partly curious as to the nature of the politics, and partly acutely aware that many issues are far better sorted discreetly in private rather than with the glare of publicity to cause people to dig in.

I shall let the third of these win over the other two, and trust that the WSR will first find some internal resolution over these issues and then, far more importantly, find a way for 5hose in leadership to work harmoniously together without falling out or power battles. Otherwise, I will need to take great car with the water in West Somerset for fear of the side effects.


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Without doubt a creative internal solution would be best for the WSR as a whole.

The WSRA wars cost SO MUCH in very real terms.

We do not need a re-run

I would suggest that interested parties who are not already shareholders purchase some WSRplc shares to have a say and be involved the link to the WSRplc web page is http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/shareholders

Jeff

 

Legionnaires wrote notes almost two millennia past to their loved ones at home in far off Syria on wax tablets, the same tablets that helped sustain the Legions prominent role, bemoaning their lot whilst stationed far from home on the Northern Frontier (Hadrians Wall).

Two centuries past the cheap mass printed leaflet was the outlet for chatter, discontent and organisation promotion .

Two decades ago the Newspaper, weekly journals, radio, tv etc offered far more, the fax, wire etc afforded
instant communication to some.

Now the media is almost universally available (hence Social ?) : the proactive use of this behemoth both to proselytise and to listen is paramount: But as with the Legions a 'cabinet' responsibility, 'singing from the same hymn sheet' , becomes ever more vital.

Chinese proverb "When the wind blows, some people build walls, others build windmills"

Michael Rowe

ps apologies for my poor memory re Paul (W), yes he was Company Secretary, but not a Trustee.

 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall the Roman Legions having a policy document on the acceptable use of wax tablets...

On the other hand, they did conquer and rule most of the known world for 500 years.

Robin

 

Not every other railway thinks it is a good idea. It is not compulsory for volunteers on the MHR to be members of the MHRPS and never has been. A good many (including from time to time Directors of the Ltd Co.) have not been MHRPS members. It has not contributed to any of our particular hiccups over the years, and I dont see a justification for the situation to change. I am an outsider to the WSR, but I dont think it would necessarily have stopped any of the entertainment of the last few years. I also think that there is a tendency for the Pres Soc to appear to some to be a sort of "trade union" of members. I think in the case of the WSR it may have advantages, but I see problems too, because the WSRA are not a controlling shareholder, the potential for future friction may be increased and not decreased if WSRA membership becomes compulsory.

 

How do you prove the route through the various stations? How do you operate the level crossings?

 

Interesting choice of words re shareholders and people not understanding when it is time to go - are you suggesting that a WSRA situation exists on the plc too? Is the resignation of the Chairman pertinent to your comments?

 

Very nice!

Time to crowdfund for my airfare....

 

I doubt there are many boxes in preservatìon busy enough to require a "booking boy" to fill out the train register, as used to be common on the main line. It is not exactly an onerous task.

It certainly can be wonderfully cosy and domestic, although I do find it strange how showery weather always seems to be aware of when the Signalman will need to go outside, and will synchronise itself with the train movements!

 

There was one part of the known world that the Romans failed to conquer Robin. See my avatar for a clue. I think the Romans wrote on squares of lead rather than wax. It was far harder to falsify a message that way. The word sincere is derived from sin cera or without wax.

Brian

(Not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy)

 

What is going on? can someone tell all,

 

I think the Romans took a very sensible view that some (northern) residual parts of the known world weren’t worth the candle (or rush oil lamp).

Mind you, walking Hadrian’s Wall makes a great week’s summer holiday.

Robin

 

I will start you off with £1.

 

There was a lot of the "known world" that the Romans never even visited; Australia, Japan, the Americas, were all very well known to the people who lived there. New Zealand was probably the only unknown part of the world, and it had been discovered before the fall of the Roman Empire in 1453.

If you mean "the world known to the Romans" there was a fair chunk they never conquered - Germany East of the Limes Germanicus for example; or Iran; or Scotland North of the Central Belt.

(Roman railway trivia: does anyone know which British signalbox was named after a third-century Emperor?)