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Platform Chats
Platform Chats
What are the AREMA Functional Groups?
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What exactly are the AREMA Functional Groups? What role do they play in shaping the content we see at the Annual Conference and in our Manuals? In this episode, Walt sets out to answer those questions and others with two of the newest Functional Group leaders. Mike Atzert (Burns & McDonnell) is a Director of the Engineering Services Functional Group and has over 20 years of experience as a consultant in the rail industry. David C. Clark (CSX Transportation) is the Track Functional Group Vice President and has nearly 20 years of experience working in construction at a Class 1 railroad. Together, the trio discusses their paths to the industry, their plans for AREMA, and how they see AREMA changing in the future. It’s an episode you won’t want to miss.
Because oftentimes we'll get papers and they stay pretty open-ended. There may be like a scientific or scholarly conclusion, but really what we want to do is make sure that the papers and the presentations tie back to our track supervisors, our roadmasters, and a lot of the people who come in. Why is this important to me? All this great research, but why is it important? How can I use that in my day job? And that's been one of the things I've worked on every time I've been involved in the board of directors. Let's make sure there's a good conclusion to the whole thing that's useful for all the participants.
SPEAKER_02You may know the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, or AREMA, as the quote, keepers of the manuals. You may know them as the quote people behind the largest annual railroad conference in North America. Heck, you may not know about AREMA at all. This podcast is designed, no pun intended, to change your view of who AREMA is and how AREMA has changed the trajectory of many railway careers over its 100-plus year history. Welcome to Platform Chats with your host, Walt Blesser, where he takes a moment to discuss the impacts AREMA has had on the very people who are proud to be called members. Are you ready to roll with AREMA?
SPEAKER_03ARE Corporation is a proud supporter of AREMA and Platform Chats. If you are looking to take your railway structure's career to the next level, or simply start it down the right track, please visit us at ARECorp.com. Please see our brand new job postings on our careers page or on our LinkedIn page.
SPEAKER_04Hey everybody, and welcome back to yet another episode of Platform Chats. We are still doing it here, folks. Three years in. You never thought we'd have this much material to talk about in the railway industry, but it just keeps coming, and there's probably never been a better time to be a member of this great organization. There's just a ton going on, and we're going to talk about uh some upcoming items, if you will, or opportunities to get involved in a couple of the functional groups. So we've had some comments around what the different functional groups do. Also, what the directors do. Um the way the we are organized in Arima is we have uh a certain number of committees that report up to what is called a functional group vice president, and that vice president has two directors typically uh that assist him or her mostly in the review of papers. So let's say you are uh uh you're in the you've got a great paper to put together for the track functional group, and you submit it and uh you wonder where in the ether does it go. It is typically reviewed by a couple of directors as well as the vice president of that functional group, and they're the ones that select which papers get presented at the annual conference, which is a pretty big deal. I know we uh oftentimes uh we can type we can go from 50 to 70 submittals down to say 10 to 15 that actually make it. Um these folks are typically people that have been involved in AREMA for a very long time. Um, many of them have worked their way up from secretary, vice chair, chairman, which can be a nine plus year uh commitment to the organization of which of one of the committees within the functional group. And even there, you don't really get guaranteed a spot as a director. Uh as a director, you have to be typically nominated by your peers, and your peers have to agree, yeah, that that person is good for this community, that person is good for what we're trying to do at Arima. Um and from there, there's no guarantee you get to be vice president either of the of the functional group. Um and then if you're really interested, from there, that is where we select our next senior vice president, who then becomes uh a president of Arima. So there is quite a bit of uh, I don't want to say smoke and mirrors, but there's definitely uh there, you know, it's as you get higher and higher, if you will, in the organization, um it really does become uh a lot of your peers agreeing that you've done a lot of good things. And it's really a recognition of everything you've done as a volunteer since this is a volunteer organization. So what we're gonna try to do here is kick off a series, a mini-series, if you will, of uh the new directors that are coming in. Um we're gonna try to hit almost all the functional groups over a couple podcasts here so they can kind of give you a background on how they got to where they are, uh, what their functional group covers, um, and even upcoming committee meetings just to get people involved. And hey, if they've got something that's on their chest uh as it relates to the paper, something that they want to see, something that they're they don't want to see. Uh uh I can tell you as a director, there were several things I was tired of seeing in submittals that got rejected. So without further ado, we have engineering services represented today as well as track. So we've got two functional groups uh respectively. And we're gonna kick it off with Michael, who's representing the engineering services group. Why don't you go ahead and just give us a background, Mike, on who you are, everything about you uh for our listeners, and and we'll go from there. And and David, you'll have to wait for him to finish up.
SPEAKER_00Uh thanks, Walt. So uh Mike Atert. Uh currently work at uh Burns and McDonald. Uh recently made a uh career, uh I say career, but uh changed uh consultant. So I um I have a wife, three kids, live uh south of St. Louis about an hour. Um interesting fact of mine is we uh we purchased property and built our dream home on 23 acres, and I have a small hobby farm. So in addition to railroading, I guess you say I'm a small farmer. Um but when I have a little bit of uh extra time outside of work, uh kids are very active, um keep going, and um but I started my railroad career actually in college. Uh I used to work at Design Nine, where I was um started a co-op slash intern position. My brother actually uh went to a wedding of one of his friends, which happened to be uh the owner, it was his son of Design Nine, one of the five owners. And my brother, probably a little intoxicated, uh, was talking about how I was going to engineering school and was looking for a you know a part-time job doing civil engineering just right across the uh street in Illinois. And uh I started to do a co-op position uh my sophomore year in college, and I worked, uh continue to work through them all through college. So I basically did a co-op slash interim position, working full-time in the summer, part-time uh during the school year, um, all rail-related projects, uh surveying, construction staking, uh helping the design engineers on drawings, drafting, anything I could. Um, and as we know the railroad, you uh it does not sleep, so I was working evenings, weekends, um, especially from the construction aspect. And once I graduated, I I knew I was hooked, so I wanted to stay in the railroad career where I kept going. So I ended up shortly after graduating, I joined Arima in 2004. And uh at that time I was doing a lot of yards and terminals work uh large back when they still had hump yards, um, before persistent scheduled railroading. Um we were doing uh some hump yard modifications, um, and I I was like, oh, yards and terminals, I'm you know, this that sounds like it's a good fit for me. I do a lot of industrial work, a lot of yard works, bulk facilities, bulk transfer. So um I joined uh committee 14 yards and terminals, and it wasn't shortly after that the secretary position came up, and being the young guy, uh I was like, oh, I can do that. I can I can see what that's about. And that started my nine-year career um in Arima leadership at the committee level. Um and that was a great for me as a young person coming on board. Um met a lot of people, a lot of old heads as we like to call them, but uh learned a ton from them, and I was just hooked between Arima and the uh you know the whole railroad engineering behind the principles and seeing the construction on site. Um I got to see a lot of construction, a lot of project management, and I just knew that was the career for me. So I took off with that, and I spent uh over 20 years with Design 9, um traveling across the nation, doing various industrial and some class one and a lot of shortline railroad work. Um got to be assigned to a couple railroad bridge projects, which were even more fascinating. Um and the whole the whole everything about railroading, it just it just tickled me, it motivated me, it kept me energized. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep with this career path. Um I was lucky enough to be nominated to be a director uh with engineering services, and that role uh is very uh flattered by that. Um that that's basically my backstory.
SPEAKER_04That's fantastic. And we're gonna go ahead and hold on um getting a little bit more into engineering services functional group uh while we get David's background. David, thank you for being patient. Uh why don't you wow the crowd with your career?
SPEAKER_01All right, yeah. So, yeah, my railroad career started right out of college. I went to the esteemed university of the University of Kentucky, graduated there in both 1995 and 1996, uh, while I was working on my master's. Uh, that's when I entered a civil engineering railroad paper contest that was sponsored by the AREA. And I happened to win a stipend. I think it was about $500 to help me pay for some bills, and it came with a free, uh, free year of being in the AREA. So I kept up my membership. Um I don't I can't remember if I lost a year or two in there, but um but anyway, started working for CSX in 1996. I was not in engineering. I started out as a train master uh working around the Cincinnati area, chasing around after boxcars and train crews and locomotives and things of that nature. In 1997, I got saved out of transportation and went and worked on a WWH winner award uh up in northern Ohio and northern Indiana, double tracking the um the old B and O tracks up there so we could uh merge successfully with the Conrail uh system. About 2000, I moved down to Jacksonville and worked down there in our design and construction department. Um through some management changes, ended up over in system production, and then finally in the standards department, uh, which is where I really took off with my arema career. So that's when I joined both Committee for Rail and Committee Five Track. Committee five the the track is where I went through the leadership roles. I served uh you know on a subcommittee for a while, got to be the chairman of the subcommittee, moved up to the full committee secretary, vice chair, and chairman uh through that time frame. Also, when I was um about the time I was secretary of the full committee, I did get voted on to the board of directors uh there quite a while back, and then after I finished up my chairmanship, um was also voted back on the board of directors and then uh then back here as vice president of the track functional group. But in my career, I I'm currently um covering construction activities in our northern region. So from St. Louis to uh way up in Maine now that we've that CSX has purchased uh the Pan Am. So got a lot of work activity going on up in that country. Um so spent a lot of time out traveling around. Uh with the REMA though, continued to work uh here on the things like you were talking about earlier, Walt, with uh with the papers and and getting ready for the uh annual conference. Uh spent a couple of times working with the uh publications committee there at headquarters. Um that's when we would come in and review all the ballots uh before they went to publication, kind of be the transfer from the committees to the actual publishing side of it, making sure that everything looked right and sounded right and and everybody remembered what they were voting on so it got into the into the portfolio or into the manual correctly.
SPEAKER_04Excellent. Thank you for that, both of you for your introductions. Uh so okay, so I heard C4 rail and C5 track, and then C14, uh Michael, that's you, right? That was uh Correct.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, cars and terminals.
SPEAKER_04Can you give us a rundown, uh, Michael, on who all makes up engineering services, which committees?
SPEAKER_00Uh yes. I just have to say first of all, I gotta say, David's got a lot colorful uh history than I do. I just got one 20 years consultant, no year change or anything. I got I gotta I gotta I gotta beef that up a little bit, I guess.
SPEAKER_04You got you got time. You got plenty of time. Young guy.
SPEAKER_00They say, you know, I mean I'm I'm an oddball. The no uh position or career changes is is is an odd entity. Um so I don't know all the full names, but um right now engineering services is made up of uh committee six, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty-four, which I'm gonna go from my recollection here, and I apologize. 24 is education and training. So they're the main entity that put on most of the uh the webinars, um the uh all the design seminars, and they pretty much push that and try to kind of uh oversight of that uh process. Uh they were big and instrumental in setting up the webinars, which is I think has been a huge success, um, and try to promote that and also do a little quality control on that. Um committee six, passenger facilities. Um committee thirteen is environmental, um, which is gonna be a huge effort here, as we all know. The uh you know the industry, not just our rail industry, but uh, you know, every I guess really everywhere is trying to get promote sustainability. Um, so that's something new they're looking on. Uh committee 16 is economics, and committee 18 is uh basically represents the uh short line industries. Um so that used to come from uh ARA.
SPEAKER_04So and then 14 is yards and terminals.
SPEAKER_00That's yeah, sorry, my 14, yep, yards and terminals.
SPEAKER_04Perfect. Okay, excellent. And um any upcoming committee meetings that may or may, or did you just get through all of yours? I know in structures we almost every single structures group met in January or February, so we're we're kind of on hold until the summer. I don't know about you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so committee 14, we have our spring session in Texas, uh, Houston, Texas. It's gonna be in late April. We usually hold our spring meeting in April. And I do know Committee 13 Environmental has a meeting um May 2nd to 4th in Florida. Um the other ones I'm not I did not have enough information on, but I know the one in Texas for uh Committee 14 is gonna be a great one because we're gonna check out the new WACO uh what I would consider a mega facility, mega terminal. So um it should be uh a perfect fit for uh our yards and terminals group.
SPEAKER_04Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_00So there's an opportunity for a pretty cool field trip, is what it's oh if you're gonna go to a field trip, this would be uh I'm I'm super excited about it. So you all right, folks.
SPEAKER_04If you uh if that tickles your fancy, uh reach out to uh Michael or go onto the AREMA website and find the chair. I'm not sure who the chair is at 14 at this point. It's not you, right?
SPEAKER_00Uh no, it's Kirsten Bowman.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh cool. But yeah, so and we appreciate Rocco. They're you know, we find these people to sponsor these field trips and allow us into their uh facilities with all the you know sensitivity of matters and and cost, and it's just a huge help to Arima and our committees, the you know, trying to find these uh field trip opportunities. It's it's one of the you know super benefits, I guess, uh of being on AREMA committee.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, you get to access some pretty cool stuff. I know committee seven uh recently met in Russellville, Arkansas, and they got to tour the Sella Jones uh tri-teep uh tie treatment plant, which I thought was pretty cool. Um now before I go to David here, the only other question I had for you is I know 24 doesn't really maintain any sort of uh chapter material. I know they're doing mostly teaching and webinars, and they're they're very outwardly facing. Do the other committees have chapters that they maintain?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so all the other committees have chapters except for 24. So 24 just really pushes that educational and kind of pushes us uh more technical committees to do better in um providing material to educate people.
SPEAKER_04So fantastic. Okay, yeah, and you know, great story too. I mean, I think uh people need to understand that hey, just get just join a committee, you never know when you're gonna need help. I had a very similar story to you, uh, where I think it was my second or third year of of going to committee seven and they needed a secretary. Uh, and I just raised my hand, next thing you know, I mean, you just get thrown into the middle of of everything and learn a lot, taking all those notes uh at all those meetings. It's a it's a pretty steep learning curve, but it pays off. And it no one really cares if you got one year of experience or 25. Uh if you're willing to jump in there and just help out people appreciate it. Um all right. Well, let's go to one of the granddaddy uh functional groups here, track. Uh David, let's get an overview of that group if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've got four committees that uh that are in our functional group. Uh it's kind of the, like you said, the granddaddy. It's it's the basis of the railroad. We'll start with committee one, that's roadbed and ballast. I mean, that's everything from pipes and and how the roadbeds built. I think there's some utilities hiding in there and some other things, but that's basically everything from the ballast down. Um they just had their committee meeting. I didn't I didn't find out when their next one is, but they just had one uh as part of the ballast symposium. Then we move up in the track structure to committee four. That's rail, that's everything rail, that's rail grinding, that's the design of rail, that's the rail shape, that's that's all the things that they that they do. Uh joint bars. I mean, just everything dealing with the rail. Their next meeting is uh looks like March 7th in Virginia Beach. They're going to go on a tour through the Plaza American plant, looks like. Uh, and I bet they'll have a good time with that. Committee five is track. So this is how all those components come back together. So uh we've got special track work, uh, so that would be diamonds, uh, we've got a road crossing section, we've got a construction section, track geometry, and believe it or not, tools. So if you've got a uh uh a claw bar that's not working, look in committee five, subcommittee number two, and you'll find some stuff on claw bars. Our next meeting on committee five is in Dallas, and that is in uh mid-May the 15th to the 17th. And then, not to be outdone by all those other committees, we have committee 30, and that's cross ties. So it's not limited, though, just to wood. There's discussions in there about steel and concrete and and alternative uh material to cross ties, but that's where you get down talking about uh you know the type of wood, the treatments, um, and all the different things that go with cross ties and some of the fasting systems. So that's uh that's their their group. And their next meeting looks like it's gonna be a virtual meeting or set of series of meetings, April 25th through 27th. So a lot of meetings coming up, or we just happened. Usually these committees meet twice a year in the spring and then in the fall sometimes annual conference.
SPEAKER_04And Michael, are you guys the same? Is it twice a year for most of you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for us it's twice a year. I know for committee 14, we actually do one spring meeting, and then our fall meetings always in conjunction with the uh annual conference. Okay. That's not the case with all committees. On average, I think a lot of committees do that same kind of uh one two year, two, two in-person meetings a year. Some people do that either in conjunction with the annual conference and some do not. So, and that changes per, you know, as people come in and out, they decide to change that.
SPEAKER_04So okay. Well, and I know uh 30, 30, I think has a little bit of overlap with committee seven. So we tend to deal more with the structural ties. Uh as soon as you get open deck bridge ties involved, I know we talk to 30. And 30's got some interesting stuff going on too, David. I know um at least the last time I went down to Pueblo, there was quite a bit of scuttle butt around just new material types for ties like glue lamb, concrete. Styrofoam. Like uh I remember there was a high-pressure styrofoam from Japan. Um so there's a lot of interesting stuff going on uh in the even in all the committees on the track side. Is there anything else you can think of?
SPEAKER_01Well, the only other thing is the the portfolio of track work plans. That comes out of committee five. I forgot about that book. That's that's often overlooked. Um and and Dad Gum and I was the the chairman of that that subcommittee on Committee Five there for a long time, but a lot of effort goes into those portfolios, and we try to publish those every couple of years, um, you know, get 10 or 15 drawings that uh that are updated and get that that book modernized. So that's another big piece of of our functional group. I forgot to mention there a second ago.
SPEAKER_04And are all of your are all the track ones full? Uh are they uh do you have waiting lists for uh membership on any of those committees or are they still pretty open?
SPEAKER_01They're they're pretty full, but if you've got uh got an interest and a resume and willing to be an active participant, they'll always make room for you. Uh they're you know all these are about 150 strong. Uh meetings will be 60 to 100 people, depending on where they're at and and what kind of tours and things that are involved. You know, you get a train trip somewhere like in Canada or something, a lot of people find their way on these tours. But but if we've got somebody who really wants to participate or experts in the industry, they'll always find room to get you on the committee.
SPEAKER_04Okay, that's fantastic news. Uh same with uh with you, Mike.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh our committee averages, I think we're uh we have a roster of about 90 for committee 14, about 40 to 60, I would say, participated at the the meetings. Um I would say that's that's fairly common. Now the environmental group, they're a little bit smaller, um, but they're rebuilding um, you know, new initiative bringing people forward. I do want to correct Walt that that committee six is uh it's passenger facilities, but they kind of reclassified it as rail facilities, utilities, and buildings. Um so that's so it was before passengers. But so committee 13 and 16 are probably a little bit one of our uh smaller committees. Um and I I think they're just you know looking for people in that, always looking for membership, always looking for input. The good thing about you know the environmental aspect is you know it kind of has to do with the sustainability these days, so it's definitely looking for members on that input. It's not just permits, it's kind of beyond permits. Um so there's a lot more. It doesn't hurt to go to the annual conference and step into these meetings or just you know get a sample of the of what they have, just reach out to the chairman and and see what they offer and what they do and what's on their current active list, and maybe you'll be interested in participating. I know one thing interesting too about committee 16 is the economics of railway engineering operations, is some of that influences what they have in their chapter actually influences our design as far as you know what's economical to do, as far as you know, depth of track ballast, depth of sub ballast, type of rail. I mean, all that has to do, and you know, there's a rate of return, and I hear that more often on the industrial side. You know, clients want to know what's the rate of return on their investment. Do I go with 136 pound or 115-pound rail? You know, what's the cost of maintenance? What's the cost of you know delays from maintenance? So that's that group actually does a lot more, I think, than what most people give it credit for, um, based on you know how they influence design or can influence design or justify the design. You know, as you were talking about the different type of timber ties, that would go in part of their analysis, you know, of you know, do we put great timber ties in or do we put IGs or you know, what size rail? And so yeah, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_04I I did not know that, and I I'm really glad you brought that up. Uh, I know 13 has uh had a little bit of a limelight uh to your point, the sustainability resiliency symposium that's potentially coming up next year. We had a podcast on that, uh that was our last episode, actually. I believe there's a position paper now out, and uh look for some more podcasts uh later this summer, if not fall, as we get closer and closer to having that symposium. And you've got it both of you made a good point about the uh annual conference being able to come in there and dip into different uh different committee meetings as you see fit. Um that's a good way to kind of get your your feet wet, if you will. So let's take one step over. Let's uh to to David here. It sounds like you're a VP, is that right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I am. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And what what does that role entail? Did I cover that relatively well at the beginning?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think you covered it. We we help uh you know decide what papers are going to be in. We're reading the abstracts. So this this season we're we're studying the abstracts. Uh I think we've at by this point we have made a made our list of who we think we want in or to give presentations at the conference. Uh so um those authors are out writing their papers now or or getting them prepared, and then later in the year we'll start reviewing those, we'll start reviewing presentations, making sure they meet the guidelines, and and you know, that that if we get a paper in, that there's really the the hook to it. What what's what's it for? Why, you know, why? Because oftentimes we'll get papers and they stay pretty open-ended. There may be like a scientific or or scholarly conclusion, but really what we want to do is make sure that the papers and the presentations tie back to our track supervisors, our roadmasters, and a lot of the people who come in. Why is this important to me? All this great research, but why is it important? How can I use that in my day job? And and that's that's been one of the things I've worked on every time I've been involved in the board of directors. Let's make sure there's a good conclusion to the whole thing that's useful for all the participants.
SPEAKER_04I don't think I could have said that better. Thank you so much for saying that. I I was a director on the structures group for three years, and and similarly, not only do we get uh some pretty interesting paper. I mean, just statistically, David, uh how many papers or abstracts, let's say, did you guys get roughly?
SPEAKER_01I I think we got about 20 or so this cycle, and I and I think we get a similar number every year uh based on what I've seen. So, you know, we've got to fit it into the schedule. What's interesting, you know, we look to see that uh you know, sometimes we get people from from Europe or Asia, make sure that they they're able to travel and and things of that nature. I know you know closer to COVID times, we had to be careful who we selected, you know, with some of that. Uh we also look and see if if you know, do we know the people? Have we heard them before? Are they going to be good presenters and and you know really make make the show worthwhile to come to?
SPEAKER_04So yep, absolutely. And Michael, similar. I mean, I are you guys still in the process of going through abstracts or uh no, we already went through the abstracts.
SPEAKER_00We usually get on, they would tell me this is my first year, and it was so the program committee be about 30 plus abstracts we get. Um, and we truly try to do a matrix of what David was saying, but we kind of also break it down to categories of what's you know, academia, uh, and try to hit, you know, always want something new and emerging technology or something you know that hasn't been addressed before, looking at the don't want too many of the more duplicate speakers or duplicate topics. So, you know, how somebody writes their abstract is is basically you know the selling point on what makes you different than everybody else, because we we're reading basically you know a couple hundred words to figure out how you're gonna present it. And if it, you know, our ending goal is is the audience, is this have an interest to the audience, right? Are they gonna stay, are they say, you know what, I'm gonna wake up early or I'm gonna skip this to go to this presentation, you know? So you want to have it and you want to hit all different levels of mindset with people of different backgrounds. So we we go through a ranking system just on on the best guess of what we think the target audience would would want to hear and see. And as we said, you know, what do our members get the most benefit out of, you know, from a uh a large spectrum of abstracts?
SPEAKER_04And that's a great point you bring up, is there is competition, right? So on Tuesday, uh all the different functional groups have basically their own room, right? They each have an individual room, and uh some of the topics could get someone excited from track who might come running over to you and uh vice versa, right? Or uh structures or whatever it may be. So that's that's a great point. You're trying to to broaden uh the interest level um to draw quote unquote spectators um to the presentations. Interesting. All right, cool. Um and so then David, how long is your uh tenure gonna be here as the VP?
SPEAKER_01So as a VP, I just started uh in this cycle, so I've got you can look for me for about another two and a half years uh before I'm I put in my three-year term.
SPEAKER_04Cool. And is there anything you're any uh did you run on any sort of platform? Is there anything you wish you would like to see different in the by the time you're done?
SPEAKER_01Uh the biggest thing that I guess in addition to to what we talked about with the papers, just to make sure that we've got good support for the committees, and we do right now. I know uh a couple of years back we we made a lot of changes to the um to the electronic um formatting and forms, and that was a big help. Uh the only other thing is as I was reviewing some ballots even today, I was a little confused by what the committee was trying to do, and I didn't get to that committee meeting. So just make sure we have ballot clarity uh for all of our committees going forward. And that, you know, if there was a platform, that would be it. Just because as you move on and you move on to the next thing, well, you kind of forgot what you were maybe trying to do when it was the heat of the battle. So we want to make sure that transfers from the volunteers through the voting and on up at headquarters and gets in the manual properly. So just good documentation in the beginning.
SPEAKER_04Michael, anything for you guys? I know this is your you're brand new as well.
SPEAKER_00Yep, I'm brand new, so I'll be on uh three years and I'm kind of sticking with my, I know me personally and my role here um as a director. Back when I came on as secretary, and you start to under you know ask questions and wonder why, and going through the bylaws and the regulations, which are all there. Uh, it's kind of the big push that Rima's doing now, is following that echo is that you know, we're here to keep all the information in the MRE current, right? Within seven years, it should be marked uh you know as either still valid or invalid. In addition to that, there's also a uh style guide, uh manual uh Ferrari Engineering style guide. Uh, you know, make sure the formatting is work is used correctly, shall, could, would, you know, certain words we want to use, certain words we don't want to use, because we are providing a technical, somewhat legal paper that's used uh if anybody's been in any kind of those lawsuits or any kind of uh uh you know questionable contractual issue, the Rima is used. So there is you know proper language to use, and there's proper language to avoid and delete. Um so as you know, I see ballots coming in from a director's role, and I see ballots coming in in general. Um, you know, we're I think I'm gonna push more and even recommend it to a Rima about starting some, you know, maybe not a mini podcast like Walt here, but definitely some mini webinars uh that we can even be pre-recorded to kind of go over that style guide. Because it would definitely make our lives as uh directors and VPs and remove reviewing ballots for final approval by the board a lot easier. Um and and there's a lot a lot in there, and there's still a lot of you know, everybody's volunteering and and and looking to you know create these ballots themselves or you know, the material to get approved for the ballots, but we kind of need to bring it back in and understand the fundamentals of the ballots, kind of like David was saying, is why why are you doing this revision and and how can we say it contractually and professionally and make it all look the same throughout all the chapters? Because as me, as a consultant, when I have subconsultants and I force them to buy the AREMA uh MRE because I'm not you know allowed to share it, and if they're gonna be performing rail engineering work for me, they need to have a copy to have that reference material. Um, I want to make sure that they're getting that value and user-friendly and formatting all looks. So that's gonna be something that I'm gonna push for and hopefully coming out this year is some mini webinar sessions.
SPEAKER_04That is interesting. I had no idea you were thinking about doing that because I know I wish I had that about seven years ago as uh vice chair when we were doing most of the ballot work for seven, right? So uh just being consistent across the board with all these committees. And you're right, everything that goes through letter ballot makes its way, well, not everything, but assuming it makes its way through the committee up the ranks, that's how the that's how the MRE gets updated. And uh it is a consensus standard, and um it is used as a consensus standard in the industry. Anything you want to add to that, David?
SPEAKER_01No, I think we've covered it. I mean, uh, you know, full gamut. So good job.
SPEAKER_00So the one thing I was at, David, I think uh most people don't know, and maybe if I'm incorrect, so like me is my position. I am a consultant, I am not a railroad employee. So, and Walt, is that correct? Is that I feel like I always tell people this and they're surprised. But so my role in a Remo will end after my next position could be a vice president of engineering services. And then following that, um, as a consultant, a non-railroad employee, that's where my leadership would end, unless I would get nominated for the nominating committee.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I believe that's correct. And um, I can tell you uh in the last meeting I attended, there could be some changes to that on the horizon. Um we are seeing uh I'm in a similar boat as you, right? So um we are seeing for the first time ever the membership of Arima globally um has changed, it's shifted from uh for the first time ever, there are more consultants and suppliers than there are railroad employees. Um that is that is new to uh ARIMA and they are having to step back and look at how does that affect uh our organization because we still want to be able to reward the voluntary efforts regardless of who uh provides you a paycheck. And so that that is a hot topic right now, I know, with the uh board of directors and the excuse me, the board of governors is to say, okay, how is that going to affect how we look? We need to look our leadership should uh be representative of of our volunteers. And so you're not you and I are in similar boats. It sounds like we both uh have been with this organization roughly about the same time. And I've brought that up many times. And uh the times they are changing. And it's it's uh it's not because just so we're clear, it's not because the class ones and the shortline people are quitting Arima or leaving the industry. They're just they're they're following what's going on with the big corporations. Uh if uh the class ones decide to change their look or makeup of their employee base, uh that knowledge base sometimes just goes over to the other side to a consultant base, and uh they're still in the industry, right? So we don't want them punished for for any of that. So that's probably the most delicate way I can talk about that subject uh on this podcast. But it is yeah, we are changing.
SPEAKER_00So we have that same issue on the committee levels, right? So we're supposed to have only so many consultants, so many suppliers, so many contractors, and we talk about it on a regular basis well if somebody's willing to volunteer and they put the good effort, and that you know, how can you say no to a volunteer on somebody who's willing to uh you know take Arima to the next level? Um, so I know some committees have their individual bylaws, but it is something that we talk about regularly.
SPEAKER_04Well, I actually think that's a good way to end it because that's exactly what we're looking for. Is is I don't care who you work for, if you're in the industry and you want to make a difference and you want to put that hand up like you just mentioned, I I think and you want to make it better than it was before, come on board because uh that's what we need. And well, David, honestly, I'll give you the last since you've been the most patient here, I'll give you the last uh the last word, and we're gonna wrap this one up.
SPEAKER_01All right. No, you're you're right. The volunteers is what make Arima great. I mean, it's it's awesome to go to a committee meeting or to the annual conference and know that you're in with amongst the world's leaders of of railroad and and problem solving and those kinds of things. So I've been proud to to be able to join those ranks, uh, you know, uh with all those people. So thanks for the opportunity, Walt.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Very much uh appreciated to have both of you on. This is a great one. I learned something, and uh I think I'm gonna try to try to do the next podcast uh maybe with a couple more functional group uh leaders. You guys are pioneers for me. Appreciate you joining me today, and I appreciate all the information that you provided our our listeners. And uh we'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Well. Yeah, thanks, Well.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for rolling with Arima on today's episode of Platform Chats. For further information about Arima, please visit arema.org or contact us at info at arema.org.
