Wow Bill, that was amazing. Let's correct a few things. There are plenty of user groups and clubs both in the Pacific Northwest (where I live) and in Silicon Valley (where Erik lives). For you to ask people to think about "why is there no club out west or north west?" is absurd. (For the record I was active at the local Seattle Retrocomputing Society.) Nobody tricked Evan into giving up his board position. He wanted a paid position in line with what an executive director does - day-to-day operations of the museum in NJ. While an important position, it is not a board level position. So nobody should be surprised if they give up a board position and then don't have a say on board level decisions. I wasn't on the board at the time but this is pretty obvious. What is this business of which you speak? The one where the most of us pay our own travel expenses and volunteer dozens to hundreds of hours a year? The one that we also actively hustle to get donations for? That doesn't sound like a business to me; it sounds like a labor of love. We formed the steering committee to give local people who volunteered a museum more autonomy and oversight over the things they were directly working on. Other people wanted a voice and a say in what happened there. It couldn't be bottlenecked or controlled by one person anymore. This is how you grow and scale an organization. The idea that this was some nefarious plot to have somebody else get rid of Evan is insane, and it fits with the rest of this bullshit conspiracy theory crap you are spinning. We don't control all of vintage computing, nor do we want to. I'm not sure if you've been paying attention or you just like to act like you know what is going on, but we've been freely advertising the other VCF events both in the US and Europe - go look at the website. That was actually a big change after Evan left the board - Evan was a lot more likely to demand that people shouldn't be using the VCF name, which was not a valid demand to make. We don't own the IP. The current national board has been a big believer in a rising tide lifts all boats; we actively cross promote the other groups. "The new VCF West and northwest shows were formed after Brutman and Erik Klein joined the board and they pretty much own them through the board." Fact: the VCF West event was resurrected before I joined the board. VCF PNW came after I joined in 2018. I don't own PNW in any form, through the board or otherwise. I'm just the slob volunteer who launched it and did the majority of the organization for two years. Do you really think I benefited financially or I own anything as a result of having run VCF PNW in 2018 or 2019? What exactly did I get from it? What is this ownership that you refer to? "I suppose no one cares about the breakdown of east vs west revenue, but suffice it to say it ain't even" I don't even know what to say about that, other than it demonstrates such a lack of critical thinking that it is mind boggling. Yep, East has more revenue. No question. But let's look at where the revenue goes. VCF PNW ran in 2018 and 2019 and was two weeks away from running in 2020 before COVID-19 killed it. VCF PNW made a modest amount of money both years, and *all* of the money went back to the org. So sure, East has more revenue than PNW. But not a single dime of any money has stayed in the Seattle area. It all went back to VCF to support the museum, the web hosting, the workshops, etc. It certainly isn't even .. it all goes back to the VCFed, the nexus of which is the museum in NJ. Erik's story with West is going to be similar. Heck, even in 2020 after all of the expenses for VCF PNW were mostly sunk and the event was cancelled *I still managed to hustle* and turn a profit for the org. I had 200 t-shirts made up that I couldn't sell in person. I've logged over 100 hours invoicing and mailing t-shirts, raising money that probably would have been written off because we didn't have in-person events this year. And we still managed to get most exhibitors and volunteers a free t-shirt for their efforts. The t-shirts raised awareness for VCFed and also helped keep the lights on this year when our other sources of revenue dried up. That's not bad when you consider what happened to actual functioning museums with real payrolls that had to close this year. When I launched VCF PNW in 2018 I explicitly did not charge a gate fee, and it was the first event that we ever planned to operate that way. We explicitly wanted the event to be accessible to spread the word and raise awareness. It succeeded and we did it again in 2019. Does this sound like an evil corporation trying to wrest control away from the people who built it? Moving the museum? Another conspiracy theory. The only talk about ever moving the museum happens when we are talking about the leaky warehouse roof or the viability of InfoAge as a site. Nobody has ever even thought about relocating unless we get forced out of InfoAge or have to flee because they can't maintain the site anymore. Bill, your time on the VCFed board was spent criticizing and throwing rocks, but never actually doing anything. Stop grossly mis-representing what happened and what goes on there now. I busted my ass for VCFed. Erik busted his ass for VCFed. Jeff busts his ass for VCFed. Corey busts his ass for VCFed. You didn't do crap. For the record, unrelated to this little side-show, this morning I announced to the other board members that I was going to be winding down my involvement as a board member and opening up a spot for a new person. Over four years we are going to turn two out of five board positions over. I think that is a healthy turnover rate. You are doing your thing with Kennett Classic, which is a business that you own. Don't imply that we're doing anything like that with VCFed ... we're volunteering and making a difference, and we can demonstrate it. You've just found a good way to turn a hobby into a business deduction. There is a big difference between what we do and what you do.