Dear Member:
The ERA Board of Directors would like to express our sincere gratitude for your loyal support over the years.
Under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Jeff Erlitz, the Bulletin continues its high quality and on-time standards, now with a color e-mail edition and its the first new format refresh in decades.
We have successfully published Volume 1 of Eric Oszustowicz’s new book series, The Elevated Railways of Brooklyn, and distributed it to all members, and we’ll publish Volume 2 during 2022-2023.
We resumed publication of Headlights, our biggest issue to date, thanks to Editor/Designer Sandy Campbell, contributors Clive Foss, the late Ron Yee, and Jeff Erlitz, and Associate Editor Subutay Musluoglu.
We also have an ambitious ongoing project to scan and post PDFs of all pre-digital issues of the Bulletin, Electric Railroads and Headlights to the ERA website. This free online content advances our founding principles of educating and informing the public about electric traction. These archives are truly a wonderful trove of information spanning decades that cannot be found anywhere else.
Due to the pandemic, the Roosevelt Hotel closed in 2020 and we moved entirely to live Zoom meetings. We record these presentations and have posted most of them to our website and ERA-TV, our free YouTube channel.
Not only have these Zoom meetings been very well-attended, they have helped increase our membership base by greatly expanding access to viewers and presenters all over the world.
We have not yet returned to in-person meetings, but we are planning an annual in-person business meeting in November 2022 while continuing the Zoom meetings each month.
Thanks to our members’ unprecedented generosity in providing substantial tax-deductible contributions during 2022 and the hard work by members Noah Caplin and Jeff Erlitz in decluttering and downsizing our high-expense storage units, our financial picture, while still difficult, continues on a favorable path.
In addition, we held a successful annual convention in San Diego, our first since 2019, and an international tour to Greece in 2022. We expect the national convention program to continue in 2023 and to host another international trip in 2024. These events, besides being enjoyable and educational for our members, also enhance our bottom line.
How can you help?
First and foremost, please renew your membership, and select the e-mail option if you can. Nearly 70% of our members opt for receiving the Bulletin this way. Printing and mailing the Bulletin costs nearly $14,000 per year.
Second, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the ERA and, again, thank you for your generosity this year. Any amount is welcome and can easily be added to your membership renewal payment, or you can use our Donation Form. The ERA is a 501c3 non-profit organization.
Finally, you can remember the ERA by making a significant donation as part of your estate planning at any time. We would have been in an impossible financial situation several years ago if the late James Mattina, our long-serving office manager, hadn’t generously donated $157,000 to our organization in his will. See our website for details on donations and estate planning.
This will be our only notice requesting renewal. Please take a moment now to complete the 2023 Dues Renewal Form by January 31, 2023. We look forward to your continued support of the ERA’s long record of traction education and entertainment. Please be aware that a renewal for 2023 is necessary to be entitled to Volume 2 of The Elevated Railways of Brooklyn series.
And a note about our long-term subscription relationship with LRTA of Great Britain: They operate on a strictly calendar-year basis and set their next-year’s mailing list by December of the current year. So, if you are subscribing to either Tramways and Urban Transit or Tramway Review, you must be renewed by November 30, 2022 to avoid interruption of those publications.
Sincerely,
The Board of Directors
Electric Railroaders Association, Inc.
September 2022
2023 Dues Renewal Notice
