My 2 cents and a caveat

I think the Friends organization is the best volunteer organization in the U.S. dedicated to rail preservation .The scope of their preservation efforts is ever-widening . I dropped out of the Friends two years ago when ,at the request of the then-superintendent , I was disqualified by the Friends BOD from painting a locomotive , for free . Never mind a quarter of a century of r.r. experience ,including painting and lettering equipment . That kind of bad treatment of a Friends member ,who was not connected politically ,is disgraceful and inexcusable . Unfortunately ,I found out from former Friends members that this treatment was typical . One well-known New Mexico historian was summarily kicked out of the Friends for him simply asking for a tax number so he could write off a donated historical text ! What the hell is going on here? Would a Friends board member like to explain their actions ? I know at least a couple of you are familiar with these incidents .
I strongly dislike the "politburo" mechanism that controls who is elected to the Friends Board .Having said that ,here comes the caveat . The reason for doing so is obvious .It is to promote stability in the leadership of the organization . Squabbles in the leadership of such a volunteer organization will quickly tear it apart .Volunteer organizations are very fragile .We do not have to look far for an example . A few years back a bitter political squabble nearly wrecked the FEBT . The FEBT had to work very hard to keep the organization together and members on board .They succeeded ,fortunately ,and a better organization emerged from the crisis . I don't want that the happen to the Friends .I will take a leadership I have had problems with over no orgainization at all ,or one in chaos . Of course as a friend I wish you good luck as Ifeel your imput could be valuable to the Friends. I just don't want to see a board that is ineffective due to infighting .That could spell and end to the Friends .
Again ,I invite a Friends board member to respond .