Happening Now

Archive -- RailNation:DC 2021 - Fall Virtual Advocacy Conference

Date

Sunday, September 19, 2021 5:00 PM Tuesday, September 21, 2021 5:00 PM

Location

Zoom Event

Hosted By

Rail Passengers Association

Event Registration

Registration now open!

Virtual Hill Meetings

Council Business Meeting Materials & Resources

Sunday, September 19

5:00-6:00pm ET

Rail Passengers Association Board Of Director's Meeting - Open To All Attendees

(The Zoom link will be emailed to attendees Sunday morning. This link is non-transferrable. Each day has its own link, so this link for Sunday will not work on any other day.)

Monday, September 20

You can find an updated agenda here
1:00pm ET

Opening Address

– Jim Mathews, President & CEO, Rail Passengers Association
1:15pm

The Infrastructure Package: What Made the Cut + What’s Next

– Jim Mathews, President & CEO, Rail Passengers Association

– Sean Jeans-Gail, Vice President of Policy + Government Affairs, Rail Passengers Association
1:55pm

Q&A

2:10pm

Break

2:15pm

Congressional Outreach - Prep Session

– Sean Jeans-Gail, Vice President of Policy + Government Affairs, Rail Passengers Association
2:45pm

Q&A

2:50pm

Break

3:00pm

Roger Harris, Executive Vice President - Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer, Amtrak

3:45pm

Laura Mason, Executive Vice President - Major Program Delivery, Amtrak

4:15pm

Rail Passengers Economic Benefits Studies and Results

– Jim Mathews, President & CEO, Rail Passengers Association
5:00pm

Amit Bose, Administrator (Nominated), Federal Railroad Administration

5:30pm

Adjourn

Tuesday, September 21

Morning

Virtual Congressional Meetings

A chance for you to highlight projects and corridors that could benefit from the new intercity passenger rail funding advocates have secured in the infrastructure bill.
12:30pm ET

Annual Council Business Meeting

1:00pm ET

For Zoom the Bell Tolls: Using Advances in Web-Conferencing to Get Off Your Advocacy Island (Workshop)

The past 18 months have been a challenging time for everyone. However, we’ve also seen many of our Council Members utilize breakthroughs in web-based conferencing to transform how they organize within their regions.

We’ll hear from Council Members & Board Directors who have found innovative new ways to organize with fellow Council Reps., local organizations and elected officials to advance regional passenger rail priorities. We’ll also identify strategies to secure buy-in from stakeholders and utilize media to generate public support.

This will be an interactive workshop, and the goal will be to help you learn best practices for interstate organizing to import to your region.

Info: railpassengers.org/zoomtolls
2:15pm

Break

2:30pm

Getting Rail Passengers’ Committee Work Back on Track (Workshop)

There is still a lot of work to do before the ambitious five-year infrastructure bill becomes law. However, it seems increasingly likely that the next five years will present a very novel challenge for passenger advocates: ensuring that tens of billions of dollars in new passenger rail funding is well spent.

Given the tremendous amount of work that needs to be done, combined with the high level of local and operational knowledge possessed by our Council Reps and supporters, it is an excellent time to revitalize the Rail Passengers’ committee structure.

This will be an interactive workshop, and the goal will be to analyze the prior committee structure, explore opportunities for restructuring and reorganizing, and outline best practices for Council-Staff collaboration to ensure that committees are advancing Association goals.

Wednesday, September 22

12:00pm ET

Rail Passengers' Staff "Office Hours"