Project 22 IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Firstly, I would like to thank you all for your support and patience. We as a group made many plans and have many aspirations relating to how we manage and progress this Project. Building a locomotive is at the best of times an enormous task. The actual process of planning the build, and raising support has been progressing better than we could have ever expected. But we have had problems managing at a committee level. As a management group, we are spread across the country and arranging regular meetings is a costly and arduous process. This has resulted in a fracture in our organisational structure resulting in several areas of the project falling by the wayside. The main difficulty has been with our relationship with you, the members.
The amount of work involved in this project goes much further than the resources available from a volunteer group. Taking on this task as a hobby, as we all are, is very difficult. It could take a team of 3 people working full time to just get through the first years of planning prior to the build.
There is a small group of us, putting in many hours of work, using a great deal of our own money to fund this project. We are very grateful for the support we get from the membership fees and those who believe in the Project enough to make monthly contributions.
We are making small amounts of income in the form of regular monthly investments, memberships and sales. 90% of this money is held in an account to go towards specific costs. This money is for the project development. Our account, and fiscal management is solid. We know we can raise a lot more money when we need it and we know there is a lot more support available as we progress.
And so, to clarify the current position, work towards building this locomotive is progressing well. The down side is that we do not have resources to run and manage a good society as well as work on the management of building the Class 22. So, I am sorry to say we have inadvertently let the society side slip. This doesn’t mean we can’t build the Class 22. What it has done is cause frustration and disappointment within the committee, because we set out to be everything to everybody, we need members to support us, but we lack the time to give the members the things we promised.
We had planned our AGM for 20th May 2017 at The Cab Yard, this has had to be postponed due to work commitments of committee members. We will reschedule in due course. You will all be invited to attend and have your say on how we go forward. perhaps some of you would like to join the committee and take a role in managing the society or getting involved in the planning process. Many members have already pledged an interest in ‘helping out’ and becoming involved in this way. I will be contacting you in the very near future to discuss this.
On a closing point I would just like to assure you we are not dreamers, this is not just a flash in the pan organisation. We are very determined, ordinary rail enthusiasts trying to make a difference. We are not a closed shop. We are the first to criticise ourselves, and we are always open to speaking to and listening to others.
We do need help, we need some strong minded and determined people to work with us, to help us move P22 forward. If we were to lose every member and every investor, Project 22 would continue as a small group constantly working to build this loco. Without support though it would take another 20 years.
We will do our utmost to resolve this situation one way or another as we progress.
Our kind regards,
Richard Benyon, Doug Parfitt, David Forster, Stacie Forster, Dave Blake and Robin Holroyd
THE PROJECT CLASS 22 SOCIETY COMMITTEE
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