James E. Conway’s Hopes and Dreams for NARR

(Nominee for Vice-President, DC and South)

May 30, 2004

In crucial respects, the NARR in my opinion has made more progress in the last few years than during any period in recent years. Whether that impression is supported by increased enrollment in our uniquely collegial group I can’t say. We have seen at the same time an infusion of new members and the unfortunate loss of a few good friends, which, for some of our more immortal colleagues, is a timely reminder. But...

            •          Our finances are in good shape.

            •          We appear to have a slate of involved officers, including an outgoing President who has made enormous contributions during his term in advancing the objectives of the organization.

            •          The NARR website established in the last several years is superior to any comparable site–an always a dependable source of timely information.

            •          The quality of our meetings, as reflected by attendance and feedback, is up and the 2004 Annual Meeting promises to continue that trend.

Recognizing that they are entirely “blue-sky,” I would favor considering several efforts to further strengthen the organization going forward:

1. COMMUNICATIONS

            •          Section 3 Committee: There is some degree of mystery abroad concerning the activities of the group. More frequent and more detailed input from the Section 3 Committee might be helpful.

            •          NAAR Referee Manual: Update the 1999 version of this tool as originally developed by Betsy Wesman and others.

            •          NARRator:

                        •          Outreach: Good ideas can flow uphill and sideways. Aggressively seek and publicize input from new members. Solicit guest comments from Organization officers and Rail management on issues of interest to rail referees.

                        •          Member Assistance: Professional arbitrators are by instinct sometimes reluctant to confer with colleagues. An old-fashioned “open line” feature on the web-site, closed to members, for logging questions and soliciting advice/opinions/direction from fellow members might be worth exploring an experimental basis to improve our collective work product.

                        •          Officer Assistance: A-closed-to-members “suggestion box” for NARR officers on the web-site might help the organizations’s elected officials stay in more current touch with member concerns and interests.

            •          Member Biographies: Compile a book of member biographies for distribution to members and users of referee services. This might be incorporated into the manual or be a stand-alone volume.

            •          Shop Talk: Develop a dictionary of rail technical terms and patois commonly employed in evidentiary records. (This could tamp down the disgust experienced by first encounters with the train that “stops on the frog east of switch #5,” never mind the reference to “humping cars.”)

            •          Arbitration Reporters: This is a delicate subject and requires caution given our need for strict impartiality and appearance thereof. But both the NRLC and its semi-counterpart the Airline Industrial Relations Organization (“AirCon”) maintain computerized access to rail and airline arbitration awards respectively, and the issues they address are often common to both industries. We might consider exploring a group purchase of access to these sources on-line, paid for by a member service subscriber fee to bolster our treasury.

            •          Semi-Annual Regional Meetings: One year can sometimes be a long time between meetings. Consider at least making allowance for free, informal, semi-annual, regional meetings of a day or half-day, depending on need, chaired by regional officers.

2. MEMBERSHIP

            •          Membership Committee: Establish small group of volunteers to address issues of enrolling veteran rail neutrals who do not participate and methods of attracting new people, e.g., as working with NAA Membership Committee to ensure that credit–or more credit–is given for rail awards in the NAA membership process.

            3. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

            •          NMB: Continue to develop ways of strengthening avenues of communications and relationship with National Mediation Board. And when the Board leadership throws intentional brushbacks to our members, continue to stand up publicly for our legitimate interest. This year’s NPRM issues, which remain alive, are a good example. Sometimes these matters do not well tolerate sunlight; if we cannot exercise the power of persuasion through our own resources, membership consideration might be given to special assessment and retention of independent outside representation.

            •          Partisan Parties: We too often project the appearance of “know-it-alls.” The sad fact is that our world view is narrow–through a straw–and our knowledge is no deeper than required by our last case. How many rail neutrals could explain with any precision when and where NORAC rules apply to displace carrier safety rules, if ever. An annual education meeting inviting union and company people to help us get up to speed on confusing and often partial information we get in cases, or making such a session a part of an annual meeting, might be useful and well received.

            4.         GENERAL/LONG TERM

            •          Integrity/Mutual Support: By its nature, NARR now depends utterly on the hard work and volunteer efforts of its members. The day may come when the ministerial burden on those contributing forces demands consideration of a full or part-time executive director serving at the pleasure of the Board. Or we may get there incrementally—the technical stuff is dangerously close to putting a punishing workload on Anna DuVal Smith. In the meantime, as an organization we are as strong as our collective efforts render us. So as individuals, we ought to think hard before breaking with positions taken by the group. Our President is entitled to loyal support.

And we need to support each other as well. Although our Ethics Committee efforts did not get full traction, when, as happened recently, one member contacts a partisan party to malign the motives of a fellow member in accessing and publishing information of presumed general interest to the group for his obvious selfish commercial purposes, that behavior should be condemned. It is not innocuous conduct.

            •          Benefits: a committee should be formed to explore and report back on the issue of whether the group has sufficient number of “cohort” features to qualify for group insurance coverage at rates more attractive than some of us are experiencing.

            •          Per Diems: The Board has a number of innovations under consideration or already in progress aimed at saving the NMB costs, such a teleconferencing hearings. To the extent they are dependent on our cooperation for their success, the organization should make it a paramount objective to see that any savings so realized are allocated in whole or in part to increased per diems.

            •          Anti-Trust Audit: If the NARR does involve itself in issues such as the foregoing, we might consider an inexpensive annual or semi-annual independent anti-trust audit of our activities. In an era of renewed anti-trust scrutiny, and in view of the blizzards that may occasionally be stimulated by positions the group may take, group may take, group dealings with future compensation can be anti-trust sensitive.

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