Ways the Federation COULD make money
I've been thinking about this quite a bit, if anyone has seen the website for the Computer History Museum in California, that place both makes me drool and kind of disgusted at the same time. It's beautiful! Utterly beautiful, the museum reminds me of places like the Franklin Institute, or other science museums. Very high tech displays displaying the history of the vintage tech. The fact that they have one of the Google Robotic Cars I was like WOAH! That's absolutely awesome! We all know that an organization like that must have gotten quite a bit in corporate funding to help setup their displays. And I honestly feel that corporate funding from companies like AT&T, Verizon, IBM, Lockheed, and others would likely be the most viable way to a high volume capable museum to appear on the east coast for the Federation. We could also have other types of fund raisers, from soliciting local businesses, apply for various grants from the government, online auctions of surplus (which personally I despise the idea of doing, I'd rather keep the surplus as property of the federation, if we want something to do with something we have 10 or more of, maybe have classes on working on them, that way we have units for spares/parts/etc), crowdfunding is also a possibility for certain projects. I'm sure there are other ways I haven't mentioned or even considered, these are a few that came off the top of my head. We have to remember, VCF is a Non-Profit CORPORATION, note the 3rd word, yes, it's an organization, but it's a corporation, a business, Which means, any "profit" goes towards furthering the primary goals of the organization, as opposed to lining the pockets of the individuals in a traditional corporation. So, there's nothing wrong with the museum and VCF trying to make money, it's just what they do with the money above the operating expenses that differs from a regular business. And I'm sure Corey can back me up on that. So, we don't have to "live" like we only have enough to rub 2 sticks together (or sit behind some big iron) to keep warm, that's why this internal only fundraiser for the stools confused the living hell out of me. I've talked to Evan about a few "BIG" idea for the future to bring up to the board, dunno if he did or not, but with a few good grants or corporate investments from some companies that we may be able to reel in, we could make this a lot more fun, as well as a lot more popular. Let's teach as many of the students of today about the computers of yesterday!!! Joseph Oprysko -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
I've been thinking about this quite a bit, if anyone has seen the website for the Computer History Museum in California, that place both makes me drool and kind of disgusted at the same time.
For the record, CHM is a good partner of VCF. :)
We all know that an organization like that must have gotten quite a bit in corporate funding to help setup their displays.
Correct, and we're absolutely working toward that. We just can't go from virtual zero to big corporate grants in an instant. Step-by-step...
We could also have other types of fund raisers, from soliciting local businesses, apply for various grants from the government, online auctions of surplus (which personally I despise the idea of doing, I'd rather keep the surplus as property of the federation, if we want something to do with something we have 10 or more of, maybe have classes on working on them, that way we have units for spares/parts/etc)
As I mentioned earlier, we're taking time to learn the IRS rules for de-accessioning. I am pretty sure we cannot just "sell" stuff in the normal fashion. Corey's doing the research.
So, we don't have to "live" like we only have enough to rub 2 sticks together (or sit behind some big iron) to keep warm, that's why this internal only fundraiser for the stools confused the living hell out of me.
Again for the record, the big fundraiser was hardly just for places to sit down. :) It was mostly for display furniture (all the non-big iron artifacts have to live somewhere, we can't keep using plastic folding tables and ugly Army surplus desks like in the current four museum rooms); for having more electrical power installed; converting the new room's single door into a double door; and so on.
I've talked to Evan about a few "BIG" idea for the future to bring up to the board, dunno if he did or not
Of course.
with a few good grants or corporate investments from some companies that we may be able to reel in, we could make this a lot more fun, as well as a lot more popular.
We (the board) completely agree. We ask for your patience; these things take time. :)
Also Evan, don't feel like you have to take everything all on by yourself either. Feel free to ask for volunteer research commissions to look into X or Y big project to see if they can come up with a way to make it work On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 4:01 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I've been thinking about this quite a bit, if anyone has seen the website
for the Computer History Museum in California, that place both makes me drool and kind of disgusted at the same time.
For the record, CHM is a good partner of VCF. :)
We all know that an organization like that must have gotten quite a bit in
corporate funding to help setup their displays.
Correct, and we're absolutely working toward that. We just can't go from virtual zero to big corporate grants in an instant. Step-by-step...
We could also have other types of fund raisers, from soliciting local
businesses, apply for various grants from the government, online auctions of surplus (which personally I despise the idea of doing, I'd rather keep the surplus as property of the federation, if we want something to do with something we have 10 or more of, maybe have classes on working on them, that way we have units for spares/parts/etc)
As I mentioned earlier, we're taking time to learn the IRS rules for de-accessioning. I am pretty sure we cannot just "sell" stuff in the normal fashion. Corey's doing the research.
So, we don't have to "live" like we only have enough to rub 2 sticks
together (or sit behind some big iron) to keep warm, that's why this internal only fundraiser for the stools confused the living hell out of me.
Again for the record, the big fundraiser was hardly just for places to sit down. :) It was mostly for display furniture (all the non-big iron artifacts have to live somewhere, we can't keep using plastic folding tables and ugly Army surplus desks like in the current four museum rooms); for having more electrical power installed; converting the new room's single door into a double door; and so on.
I've talked to Evan about a few "BIG" idea for the future to bring up
to the board, dunno if he did or not
Of course.
with a few good grants or corporate investments from some companies that
we may be able to reel in, we could make this a lot more fun, as well as a lot more popular.
We (the board) completely agree. We ask for your patience; these things take time. :)
-- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
Also Evan, don't feel like you have to take everything all on by yourself either. Feel free to ask for volunteer research commissions to look into X or Y big project to see if they can come up with a way to make it work
You're making me feel defensive now. :) We've had, and will continue to have, various committees of volunteers for specific projects. I am the public face (ha!) but there are plenty of members helping us with group business behind the scenes.
I'm sorry, I guess I haven't publicly been a member long enough to open my mouth and should shut my mouth and listen more then, or ask rather than assume. On Thursday, January 14, 2016, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Also Evan, don't feel like you have to take everything all on by yourself
either. Feel free to ask for volunteer research commissions to look into X or Y big project to see if they can come up with a way to make it work
You're making me feel defensive now. :)
We've had, and will continue to have, various committees of volunteers for specific projects. I am the public face (ha!) but there are plenty of members helping us with group business behind the scenes.
-- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
On 01/14/2016 05:02 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
should shut my mouth and listen more then, or ask rather than assume.
No worries, I do that all the time. :) LOL everyone will vouch!
Wait, ... shut my mouth and listen more ... nope can't vouch for that. ;-) Joseph, you probably came in just as the Federation just made the jump to official non-profit. The board has been busy and now is trying to absorb all the changes. I think they're still making sense of all the rules and regulations that are involved. If it's anything like my experience with gov't paperwork it would be enormous. I worked for a company that sold computer peripheral boards to NOAA. A board took a lighten strike and it needed a single chip replaced. 5 minutes of work, a solid 6 inches of paperwork. And I'm not kidding. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
Well, I was at VCFeX, But even after that, I wasn't super active on the online boards. I do want to get more involved though, and I have past non-profit experience, which I think could be helpful as well, computers and I have always had a way of working well together, ever since the 1980's, so this type of organization and I think would work together really well. Just sometimes I get too carried away. On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 5:19 PM, Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On 01/14/2016 05:02 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
should shut my mouth and listen more then, or ask rather than assume.
No worries, I do that all the time. :) LOL everyone will vouch!
Wait, ... shut my mouth and listen more ... nope can't vouch for that.
;-)
Joseph, you probably came in just as the Federation just made the jump to official non-profit. The board has been busy and now is trying to absorb all the changes. I think they're still making sense of all the rules and regulations that are involved.
If it's anything like my experience with gov't paperwork it would be enormous.
I worked for a company that sold computer peripheral boards to NOAA. A board took a lighten strike and it needed a single chip replaced. 5 minutes of work, a solid 6 inches of paperwork. And I'm not kidding.
-- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
-- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
participants (3)
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Evan Koblentz -
Joseph Oprysko -
Neil Cherry