Hello everyone, Adam's post was meant to keep everyone informed as to the process that The Vintage Computer Federation has made for prospective donations and to be transparent. This Acquisitions subcommittee is a National VCF subcommittee and not a Steering Committee responsibility or prerogative. The national board assigned the volunteer Adam to represent VCF on this acquisitions subcommittee and he has done a great job of doing it. We appreciate everyone's thoughts, comments and questions. At this point I would agree that the conversation isn't productive, so please discontinue the public responses. If there are any further questions, comments or concerns, then you can e-mail me directly and I will answer them or have the national board answer them. Anyone is free to e-mail the national board directly: bod_group@vcfed.org for important matters. Thank you everyone and have a good day! Jeff Brace On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 10:48 AM Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Not that I feel this was unclear, but to further clarify, all Adam's actions were taken under the approval of the Steering Committee.
Let's wrap up this thread, all the questions have been answered.
Thanks, Chris Fala Steering Committee Chair
On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 9:36 AM Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hi Andy,
I must have missed where the only people who can volunteer are the elected Steering Committee members. If you want to make election a requirement for volunteering, I encourage you to take it up with the non elected National Board as literally everything I did was pre-approved by the elected Steering Committee.
This thread serves no further value and I'll let you have the last word.
Best wishes,
-Adam
On Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 8:47 AM Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Adam already explained who gets info and to decide about these
donations in his response to me:
February. Announcements were made to all the right people months,
"The right people" --Bill- the right people. You may not be right in
this case, I don't know because only the right people know!
Excellent decisioning by someone completely un-elected and un-asked to
be the decider (Adam holds no elected office in VCF).
-andy
On Jul 18, 2022, at 8:24 PM, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Steering committee members representing large semi private
collections
taking first dibs of donations, pretty sweet deal if you get it. Ethical? Conflict.of interest?
Does the vcf board sanction this? Was there a vote? Just curious as to the governance and policy of such a decision.
Will these donations and their trafficking be publically documented?
Bill
On Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 5:45 PM Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
We've been remiss in announcing a new initiative of National VCF which aims to better deal with the increasing number of rescues that are coming to us at <info@vcfed.org>.
A national subcommittee was formed consisting of several museums and a few members at large. This subcommittee is run by myself and Ryan Schiff of the System Source Museum in Maryland. Members include:
LSSM - New Kensington, PA System Source Museum - Hunt Valley, MD VCF MA - Wall, NJ San Antonio Museum Science and Technology - San Antonio, TX Homecomputermuseum - NK Helmond, Netherlands Save the Machine Technology - North Carolina
The logic is there are more and more circumstances where machines need to be rescued and no one organization is able to handle all of them.
So, what happens is we get the email, Ryan and myself make a quick decision as to who to direct the donation to (which is often necessary as time constraints can be a very serious issue), and then we report to the committee (who hold us accountable). In the case of a serious debate about where things should go, we bring the decision to the committee for a vote (if time permits). Why two people? In case of any conflict of interests.
To give you an example, a few months ago we got an email from someone who's father had passed away and the machines (from small to very large) had to be out within two weeks. The decision was made to have System Source make the pickup, they picked up the machines, and the machines were divided between System Source, VCF MA and LSSM.
Particularly exciting is that System Source picked up an Altair 8800, dropped it off in the VCF MA warehouse at VCF East, where it safely sat until VCF MA delivered the machine to LSSM just this last weekend. Next time you're at LSSM, you'll know it took three museums to safely deliver that Altair for you to use.
We also are working very hard towards sharing exhibits and artifacts and are pleased to announce the modem exhibit featured previously at the VCF MA Museum is currently being set up at LSSM.
It is absolutely thrilling to be involved with the ever growing wave of collaboration in the vintage computer world!
But, however, public service notice. Please please please, make and document arrangements for your collections in the event of an untimely demise.
Best wishes,
-Adam