Fellow Goats,

As we enter a New Year, I hope that everyone has had a very joyous Holiday Season and an exciting New Year. As I have in the past, I would like to take time in this letter to ask the members to look at volunteering for the Society. Without volunteers and people who are interested in putting some of their spare time toward the Society, we would not be able to provide the services and events that all the members enjoy and have come to expect.

This year the Board of Directors will have three positions up for election. If you are interested in effecting how our Society operates and would like to have influence on future goals of the Society or if you believe that the Society should be going in a different direction, this is the time to consider running for a position on the Board. The Board will be establishing the election committee soon and will be soliciting candidates to run for office. If you have time and interest, please consider running for this office.

Would you like to work with our extensive archive collections cataloging and maintaining them for research? We have a position for you. The Jackson Street Roundhouse and the PNRA West Archives are always in need of members who can give time to work on cataloging our collections.

Would you like to serve on one of the membership recruitment teams? Bruce Goeser, our Membership Officer, would love to hear from you. We have teams in both the east and the west that visit train shows as well as historical events to show people the benefits of belonging to the Great Northern Historical Society. Bruce’s email address is listed on the website — contact him and let him know your interest.

Are you interested in more of the technical aspects that make the Society run, namely our GNRHS.org website? Ben Ringnalda, our Webmaster, is always looking for people interested in assisting him in keeping the website up to date and evolving. Again, if you would like to tackle this type of project contact Ben and let him know about your interest.

This is just a small example of the areas where our volunteers work for our members. If you would like to help please contact me or any of the other Directors or officers and let them know of your interest.

On a different note, this issue of the Goat contains the basic information of our upcoming convention this September in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This would be the first GNRHS convention ever held in South Dakota and I believe the program that has been lined up will be very interesting. If you have never attended a convention, consider this one.

Finally, just a plug for our authors, if you are not aware we have two different books that have been published recently by our members. The Rusty Dusty, an historical look at the W-O branch line which we visited last year after the convention, was written by members Mac McCulloch and John Langlot drawing on John’s experience in working the W-O. The book is available through therustydusty.com. The second book was put together by our past President Fr. Dale Peterka and is titled The Great Northern Railway Through Time, a collection of photos taken over 75 years by various photographers of the Great Northern. This book is available through the GNRHS Company Store.

Well that’s it for now; please consider volunteering and have a great spring.