Dear colleagues and friends-

Thank you for your patronage and support during these unprecedented times.

This year, the New England Railroad Club planned a great annual program to promote our mission and expand on our theme of Moving People and Freight, Inspiring the Next Generation.  As you are aware many states across the Northeast including the State of Massachusetts, have declared an Emergency Status to proactively manage the protocols required to control the spread of the Coronavirus (“COVID19”). Under these terms, it is quite a monumental effort for many of us who work in the railroad industry to ensure continuity of service in a safe and reliable manner. Further, our social interactions have been impacted by requirements for safety across New England to maintain social distancing with restrictions in travel and conditioned social gatherings. It is for the safety of us all that we continue to encourage compliance with the mandates of CDC and our State jurisdictions.

At this time, we reminisce on our past gatherings truly hoping we could share a moment of respite from our daily activities provided to us with in-person fraternal conversations at the many club events. Nevertheless, we face the reality that in challenging times we renew our purpose and adapt to find new ways to continue to promote our mission as a Club. To that extent, the Executive Board has approved the development of the “virtual club” events to continue to foster and engage in diverse topics of interest to us all while we maintain safe social distancing practices.

It has been an extraordinary year and we have been working diligently to ensure we bring you continued support by structuring a temporary “new normal” to our general annual membership events. We have defined new ways to promote our membership through a series of Monthly Member Spotlights starting in January of 2021 as well other noteworthy events to be announced prior to year-end. In the coming weeks we will issue a survey to all members to align our speaker sessions in 2021. I seek your support and response to better serve the global interests of our club members.

We continue our commitment to bring you events that advance our industry objectives whilst it be via virtual gatherings.

On behalf of the Executive Board, we wish you good health.

Sincerely,
Clary Coutu
President
New England Railroad Club