It has been difficult to find volunteers for many of the jobs that need to be done for NEARA to be successful.
Partly this may be due to people not understanding what a job entails, or simply that a job seems too daunting to take on.
So it would help to make the jobs as small and simple and independent as possible, and to list the jobs with a summary of each one.
In particular, the job of the First Vice President can be more explicitly partitioned into
smaller jobs that different people can handle. The ones identified for conferences are: Local Arrangements,
Registrar, Field Trips, Program, Audio/Visual, and Publicity.
More on these roles is provided below.
Permanent and Conference Program Committees
There is a new Program Advisory Committee which is meant to help multiple jobs in NEARA --
not only for conferences but for publications as well.
The purpose of the Program Advisory Committee is to help find good presenters or good authors about topics of interest to members.
It must operate year-around in order to provide recommendations for the different publishers of content.
It should also provide some institutional memory, which will help smooth relationships in the future.
The Conference Program Committee is effectively a superset of this Program Advisory Committee,
because it would include people interested in local features and/or the conference theme.
However its purpose is limited to deciding the program for a particular conference and inviting and scheduling the speakers.
There might be multiple Conference Program Committees operating at the same time for different conferences.
It would be good practice for publication editors and conference programmers to consult with the Program Advisory Committee
and the Board of Directors before inviting someone not already known to everyone to write in a publication or speak at a conference.
Similarly, it would be good practice for publication editors and conference programmers to run their near-final drafts
by the Program Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors (with a short response time limit) to increase chances of catching errors.
Member Communications Committee
It would also be desirable for NEARA members to have more frequent and different kinds of interactions with the organization.
There is more to NEARA than just the Journal, the Transit, and the conferences.
We need to move NEARA into the 21st century by fully embracing the use of the internet.
That applies to all roles, but many of the new possibilities are grouped under the new Member Communications Committee,
sometimes abbreviated as "MemComm".
Some of the media that the Member Communications Committee could oversee are:
The NEARA Forum is a private moderated mailing list for discussions amongst NEARA members.
The NEARA Calendar notifies people about potential events of interest.
Its use is not limited to NEARA members and should help increase awareness of NEARA.
The NEARA YouTube Channel
lists videos that we have recorded. Some day we might include ones recorded from decades ago.
Our web site can not only provide a public repository of what NEARA has been involved with,
but also provide news and member contributions.
Additional opportunities exist via the internet -- time will tell which ones pan out.
The MemComm committee is interested in hearing how you want to interact with NEARA.
Zoom Presentations
Other groups could also use the internet more. For example, conferences need not be in-person.
In fact, we did run a virtual conference during the pandemic in the fall of 2021.
Besides a bunch of presentations via Zoom, we also had 7 field trips scheduled the next day all around the northeast.
There were even book sales online.
The major down-side of having a virtual conference is that people cannot meet in a personal manner.
But having a lot of field trips on the same day helps alleviate that need -- people can travel to
whichever field trip they prefer.
And virtual conferences save everyone a lot of money -- they have no hotel or meeting costs.
Still, it seems most people would prefer in-person conferences.
Individual Zoom presentations could happen at any time of the year.
Whenever the Webinar Manager, in cooperation with the Program Advisory Committee and the Member Communications Committee,
decides there is a good presentation to be made, it can be done with relatively little effort.
Presentations need not be PowerPoint slide decks and talking heads -- they could include pre-edited videos.
Videos could include site tours, demonstrations, tutorials, or anything else of interest.
Each should have question-and-answer time.
Interactions between members and NEARA roles
The diagram below shows some of the interactions that can be expected, focusing on a NEARA member,
with a deemphasis of some roles played by people on the Board of Directors.
Click on a node to see a list of some of the job's roles.
NEARA Roles
NEARA Member
Must subscribe to the objectives of NEARA and be a member in good standing
Board of Directors
Approves President's appointments
Approves budget and any specific transactions
Determines policies
Treasurer
Tracks all funds, executes all transactions, and keeps records of all transactions
Records all donations/gifts/grants
Files Form 990* with IRS
Files annual report with NH AG Office's Charitable Trusts Unit
Develops the budget
Works with the Finance Committee
President
Appoints the Treasurer, standing Committee Chairs, Chapter Coordinators, and Nominating Committee; all with approval of the Board
Keeps all NEARA members, but especially those particularly interested in their chapter, aware of what's going on,
including reports twice a year at conferences/webinars and in the Transit
Arranges field trips throughout the areas where NEARA members live
Encourages new membership and looks for leaders to help you with field trips and other activities
Nominating Committee
Finds good candidates for election to the Board
Sends the slate to the Secretary for the ballot, or to the President for appointment to be approved by the Board
Video Editor
Edits videos to improve viewing and remove undesirable materials
Video Publisher
Manages the editing and review of videos in conjunction with the presenters
Publishes videos to our YouTube channel for NEARA members or the public to view
Conference Publicity Subcommittee
Publicizes NEARA events at local historical societies, conservation groups,
and any other means of contacting people who might be interested
Field Trip Leader
Leads a field trip at a site, speaking about its history and land use