Railroads are an integral part of the history of our country. The role of claim agent has been a natural outgrowth of a specialized slice of Americana, harkening back to the turn of the Twentieth Century. The first annual meeting of the "Association of Railway Claim Agents" was called to order by C. M. Foulks of the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe in St. Paul, Minn. in 1891. By the third meeting in 1893, held at the Hotel Cadillac in Detroit, forty roads were counted among its members.

In 1954, the "Association" elected to join the Association of American Railroads as the General Claims Division. Today, we are organized as a full Committee reporting to the AAR General Counsel.

The purpose of General Claims Conference was then, and is now, to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among industry claims personnel relating to the handling of personal injury and property damage claims, recommending and implementing ways to improve the process.

[The General Claims Conference does not discuss whether or on what terms to settle individual claims or specific types of claims; those decisions are within the sole discretion of the individual railroad against whom the claim is made.]

The Conference accomplishes this in several ways:

• The Conference's Executive Committee holds regular meetings where members report on a variety of subjects of interest.
• A sub-committee administers the Intra-Industry Claims Agreement. This Agreement, established in the 1970's, has been hugely successful in streamlining the litigation process involving multiple roads and injury and damage to outside parties.
• The Conference publishes "The Bulletin", a trade journal devoted to recent developments in the field along with updates on personalities, past and present.
• Annually in the fall, a rotating "host road" puts on a full General Claims Conference . The three-day Conference invites and brings together representatives of the member railroads of the AAR, as well as various law firms and other organizations that are engaged by and work on behalf of the member railroads on claims-related matters for a program mutually beneficial to all.

Our profession and the Conference have been a specialized part of the railroad industry for a long time now, but our charge has never changed. We handle claims made against our railroads with efficiency, fairness and unflagging integrity.