Good day…

Please allow me a moment to introduce myself. I am Rick Schwartz, the Development Officer for a large non-profit public garden in the Chicagoland area.

We are going to be putting in an exciting new Railway Garden project very shortly. The first phase, building the depot building to provide an entry point to the Garden, will be finished this June. The Depot alone is an $800,000 project, and the Garden Railway, to be completed over three additional phases, is budgeted at multiple millions.

This is a project that will electrify the community. Guaranteed. We do not measure the Railway Garden in square feet but in acres.

We expect to roll out the publicity beginning this June so please be looking for it.

However, right at this moment we have a real need that I would like to lay before you. We are depending upon volunteers to do much of the work, and we have a need for a very special type of volunteer.

We are going to create an official “TGR” Special Interest Group (SIG) with a volunteer as head.

The primary purpose of this volunteer would be to:

• Develop interest and attraction amoung hobbyists across the country as we build the first phase of the actual Garden
• Keep a steady drumbeat of excitement as Opening Day 2010 comes closer.

This effort would take place virtually 100% in the digital world with the SIG Head using the following tools to communicate with the community.

• A TGR Website

• Facebook account

• A Blog giving a daily/weekly update about the work, and inviting comments.

• You Tube

• TGR Email List

• Net crawling

This is a major commitment of time and effort on the part of the SIG Head, and ensuring the right person gets into the position is critical. We are looking at a “need by” date mind no later than mid-Spring 2009.

Obviously we need someone who is familiar with both the Garden Train community and the ‘net. They must also have a strong ability to write well, and to follow thru with projects.

A sense of integrity and honesty is at the top of the list.

The closer they are to South Chicagoland/Northwest Indiana the better.

If anyone is interested they can reach me at TRG.Valpo at gmail.com

Thank you for your time and consideration, and we look forward to being regular participants here on the list.