President’s Column     by Dave Goss

 I am honored to have the privilege to serve as the Club President again.  The year 2025 may be challenging, but the good news is we have a group of Officers and Directors who are very willing to take on the work.  As Andy told you in his letter in October, we have had a number of initial discussions with the Colorado Railroad Museum about working together.  Jim Ehernberger, 
Dave Schaaf, and I will be meeting with the Museum’s Executive Director, Paul Hammond, and his staff on January 14.  We are planning to present to Paul our draft “Integration Plan” that outlines our ideas as to how we might join with the museum in the future.  We know that the museum will have a similar set of ideas that we look forward to receiving.  As you all may know, our relationship with the Museum dates back to 1958 and has continued for more than six decades.  Our mutual goals are the preservation of and sharing Colorado railroad history, and we are both known for being successful in our work.  As this process continues, we will update you each month.  Although we are not holding an in-person meeting in January, we are working to arrange for meetings in Barnes Hall in February, March and April.  We may hold our May meeting at the Colorado Railroad Museum like we did last year, but this is not firm yet.  Please read the Rail Report each month for an update on our plans this year. 
Lastly, we thank each of you who have renewed your membership this year, despite the uncertainty of the Club’s future.  We will be closing out our 
membership seniority numbers on January 31.  If you plan to renew, please send in your dues well before the end of January.  We are also planning to issue one more Membership Directory in 2025.  All members whose dues are current as of January 31, will be listed. 
The Board recognizes the 86-year heritage of this organization must be well managed and our pledge is to do our very best in 2025 to maintain the Club’s reputation with careful planning and thoughtful decision making.