It Takes a Federation - Redux
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
Thinking of my response. 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
Interesting tidbit about the modem sharing- however, there still isn't very much communication going around here. Did you all bother to let the docents know about this change for the modems? I was at the museum this weekend and nobody knew where the modems had gone! There is just an empty display cabinet sitting dejectedly there in the front of the museum, still brightly lit but empty. I would think that something would replace it before it was just taken. -andy
On Jul 18, 2022, at 5:44 PM, Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
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.
The announcement about the modems has been made repeatedly since February. Announcements were made to all the right people months, weeks, and days before it was moved. There is a plan to replace it with something else, however life interrupted that person's situation (not me) and it will get done when it gets done. Transportation to LSSM is also not something we can do on a whim. Please remember we're all volunteers. With that said, we would most welcome a large donation to allow us to pay a regular salary to employees who can guarantee we never have things like a temporarily empty exhibit and to shuttle things back and forth between interstate museums. On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 7:25 PM Andrew Diller <dillera@gmail.com> wrote:
Interesting tidbit about the modem sharing- however, there still isn't very much communication going around here.
Did you all bother to let the docents know about this change for the modems? I was at the museum this weekend and nobody knew where the modems had gone! There is just an empty display cabinet sitting dejectedly there in the front of the museum, still brightly lit but empty. I would think that something would replace it before it was just taken.
-andy
On Jul 18, 2022, at 5:44 PM, Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
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.
Hello All, I am new to the group and am in the Northern VA area and have recently started playing with the Amiga again. While I have sold my machines many years ago I have been playing with emulation as of late. Was wondering if anyone in the DC area still plays around with them and a possible meet up and chat about them and in general. Thank you for the join of the group. -Ryan
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
All members are confirmed 501c3 non profits (or the European equivalent). This is required by the IRS as VCF National, as a non profit, cannot even appear to be funneling donations to a for profit entity. There is no concept of first dibs and conflicts of interest are factored in by having two people with discrete biases make the necessary time dependent decisions and even more people serving as a check and balance. Factors beyond time include: Distance Ability to transport Existing collection (that is, does the museum lack the artifact) Museum scope Public documentation is a good idea, but I'm not aware of a single vintage computer organization that currently documents donations publicly (well, maybe CHM... but they have more money than all the others combined). Let me think about this and we'll see what we can do. We do document everything for IRS reasons, so there isn't much additional work to make it public. I just have to double check with the people that know more about IRS regulations than I do. And there are currently no active Steering Committee members on the committee. We do have two former SC members, myself and Dean Notarnicola (a member at large). Connor Krukosky is also a member at large. But members at large serve only in an advisory role (i.e. they have no vote). Arguably, we need to add an active SC member to vote, now that you mention it. I serve as the National Social Media Specialist and, for obvious reasons, have bias towards VCF MA, hence my asking Ryan to work in partnership to check any biases I might have or be perceived to have. And this was sanctioned by the VCF National Board. The argument I made is that all the things were going, by default, to VCF MA and we needed to get more museums involved. Afterall, it doesn't make much sense to talk about a National VCF that funnels all donations to one regional museum. National agreed and here we are. On Mon, 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
Thanks for the clarification. I never heard of somemof the list On Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 9:08 PM Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
All members are confirmed 501c3 non profits (or the European equivalent). This is required by the IRS as VCF National, as a non profit, cannot even appear to be funneling donations to a for profit entity.
There is no concept of first dibs and conflicts of interest are factored in by having two people with discrete biases make the necessary time dependent decisions and even more people serving as a check and balance. Factors beyond time include:
Distance Ability to transport Existing collection (that is, does the museum lack the artifact) Museum scope
Public documentation is a good idea, but I'm not aware of a single vintage computer organization that currently documents donations publicly (well, maybe CHM... but they have more money than all the others combined). Let me think about this and we'll see what we can do. We do document everything for IRS reasons, so there isn't much additional work to make it public. I just have to double check with the people that know more about IRS regulations than I do.
And there are currently no active Steering Committee members on the committee. We do have two former SC members, myself and Dean Notarnicola (a member at large). Connor Krukosky is also a member at large. But members at large serve only in an advisory role (i.e. they have no vote). Arguably, we need to add an active SC member to vote, now that you mention it.
I serve as the National Social Media Specialist and, for obvious reasons, have bias towards VCF MA, hence my asking Ryan to work in partnership to check any biases I might have or be perceived to have.
And this was sanctioned by the VCF National Board. The argument I made is that all the things were going, by default, to VCF MA and we needed to get more museums involved. Afterall, it doesn't make much sense to talk about a National VCF that funnels all donations to one regional museum. National agreed and here we are.
On Mon, 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
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
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
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
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
This is excellent news! Doing this could only help with the preservation of these machines, and it makes me so happy to see it :-) Regards, Dan FitzGerald They/Them/Theirs http://www.vm.ibm.com/devpages/dfitzger -----Original Message----- From: Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Reply-To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Adam Michlin <adam.michlin@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] It Takes a Federation - Redux Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 17:44:28 -0400 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
participants (7)
-
Adam Michlin -
Andrew Diller -
Bill Degnan -
Chris Fala -
Dan FitzGerald -
Jeffrey Brace -
Ryan Stapleton