Message from Jerry L Hoover, Executive Director

It is my great pleasure to serve you as Executive Director of the Rosenberg Railroad Museum. We have many things to be proud of this year.

Accreditation

One of the major goals for the Rosenberg Railroad Museum over the next two to three years is accreditation by the American Association of Museums. Like schools and hospitals, museum accreditation requires certain professional standards to be met. To gain this distinction, the museum must excel in areas of governance, staff, community support, care of artifacts, exhibits, educational programs, and planning for the future.

When we achieve this goal, the Rosenberg Railroad Museum will join a group of less than 40 accredited museum throughout Texas, and just under 800 in the nation. In addition, we will be the ONLY AAM accredited railroad museum in America! That puts the seriousness of accreditation in perspective… but it is a goal that I believe we CAN accomplish! Being an AAM accredited museum will help us to raise money from donors, grants and foundations, and will put us on the same level as places like the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Railspur

The Museum is currently spearheading an effort to bring a railspur to downtown Rosenberg. A spur will allow us to bring in historic locomotives, passenger rail cars, and perhaps even the annual Santa Clause train! In addition, its potential to contribute to the economic development of dowtopwn Rosenberg is beyond measure. And a booming downtown means more visitors and more programs for the Museum.

Downtown Visitors Information Center

In order to help coordinate the effort to bring more tourists into the downtown area, in 2011, the Museum will create a downtown visitor information center which will help direct tourists and shoppers to great locations in and around downtown Rosenberg. It is clear that we cannot wait for some other group to begin promoting our location and bringing in new visitors to the Museum. It is something we must do ourselves. The Visitor Information Center will put us on the leading edge of tourism promotion in Rosenberg, and all of Fort Bend County.