Bryan, as Mike mentioned, this was announced at Festivus, and the formal announcements were planned on being sent out around the new year some three weeks later. We all wanted to enjoy our holiday and announce the details once they were all complete (by-laws, etc.) Evan was a part of this process, he and Corey were the ones who announced it at Festivus to the ~50 members that were in attendance. Evan was one of five votes on the new steering committee, and as Executive Director, his dealings with things outside of the mid-Atlantic were separate from the Steering Committee. (Other VCFs etc.) As of Tuesday we had spoken personally and during the monthly video conference and Evan was all about VCF East and the museum etc. Then the next day......this. Leaving was Evans choice (he and I spoke several times about him wanting to possibly step back after VCF East, something at the time he asked to keep between us.) Perhaps speaking with those involved and some of the over 4 dozen people that were at Festivus where this was discussed with Evan and Corey for over an hour would help before you pass judgement on the how’s and what’s of it. Tony Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 20, 2019, at 11:44 PM, Michael Brutman via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Using words like "steamroll" assumes we are operating in bad faith. Quite frankly, we've bent over backwards to both try to make Evan stick around (and feel good about it) while also providing room for more people to step up, have a say, and have a stake in what is going on. Evan agreed to the new structure and then decided after a very short period of trying it that he didn't want to continue on. Maybe it has more to do with burn-out than anything else.
Please reserve judgement until you hear from all sides, including the ones who were in the room at the time. Evan's departure leaves a big gap for us, but there are a lot of other people working together (and not making a fuss about it) and I think that overall that's a good thing.
Communication could be better. I understand the new structure was rolled out at Festivus, or at least the intention of moving to it. Written communication would have been preferable, but as Corey said they are working on the charter, mission statement, and ground rules. Some people view this as overhead, but we need this to happen to scale the group and take it to the next level. The new structure should help with communication.
Mike
On Fri, Dec 20, 2019 at 8:26 PM Bryan Pope via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
By the tone of the email as you say "we move VCFed to this new management structure" makes it sound like he was forced out because of his disagreement with said "new management structure".. And you ask "for your understanding" as you steamroll this whole new structure in..
Both of these emails are out of the blue, without any prior notification to us plebes..
*sigh*
Bryan
On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 2:41 PM corey cohen via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
In my earlier email I mentioned the creation of a new VCFed steering committee managing the museum and the collection at InfoAge. Some of you have asked about Evan’s role in this transition. Evan has chosen to leave his official role at the Vintage Computer Federation.
As a founder of our group we had hoped that Evan would continue in his role as Executive Director of the VCFed organization and as a member of the steering committee. Evan has chosen to not be a part of this new organization.
We all recognize that, without Evan, there would likely not have been a VCF East. He was also responsible for so many of the artifacts in our collection that might have gone to the scrapper instead of being saved for future generations to appreciate and understand. Evan has been critical in getting out the word on our community and has been the “social media” face of VCFed. Evan has contributed so much more to our group and our hobby that it would be impossible to list it all. It is my hope that Evan will finally be able to enjoy attending VCF East instead of running it and that he will be able to exhibit his Lego robots there for us all to enjoy.
We will miss Evan as we move VCFed to this new management structure and thank him for his years of service. We also would like to thank you, the members, as well for your understanding as we move forward with our commitment to being the world’s best grass roots forum for computer collectors and enthusiasts from around the world.
Thank you, Cheers, Corey
corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ Vintage Computer Federation, a federal 501c3 designated charity 917-747-1408 mobile corey@vcfed.org www.vcfed.org