[vcf-midatlantic] Downsizers, Sick, Old, and Dying Collector -- Special Interest group to focus on "artifact wills"

Mon Apr 1 17:54:32 UTC 2024

Personally I'd wait until after you finish the memorial project for Bryan
and others before you start on this.  If I remember correctly he donated
everything he collected years ago and would find this whole discussion
ironic.

Bill

On Mon, Apr 1, 2024, 12:47 PM Jeff Salzman via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> This issue is valid and has been a concern for many for a very long time,
> regardless of the type of collection (computers, radios, cars, memorabilia,
> etc.) they have been preserving for their own purposes. I'm sure there are
> many existing resources, and words of advice, that can properly guide
> anyone toward creating or defining a meaningful plan to manage their
> collection(s) after their passing.
>
> The VCF Steering Committee will bring up this topic at our next meeting. It
> won't be an overnight effort, but the Vintage Computer Federation has the
> potential to become an information resource and/or advisory organization
> regarding estate planning for anyone who has questions about the
> disposition of their respective personal computing collections after their
> death. It'll be a group effort to devise sensible options, steps, and
> ideas... and public insight will be valuable.
>
> Thank you,
> Jeff Salzman
> Chairman
> VCF-MA Steering Committee
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 1, 2024 at 11:26 AM Dan FitzGerald via vcf-midatlantic <
> vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
>
> > Holy shit, that thread got _ugly_.
> >
> > Yeah, I feel that some sort of traveling estate planning series or VCF
> > SiG is well called for.  I'm young and single, so my primary concern is
> > that if something were to happen my mother coming in and deciding "its
> > all crap" and pitching it to the curb.  And what got me re-interested
> > in retrocomputing was going to a very tidy hoarder's estate sale,
> > seeing his garage of every computer he had ever purchased (with boxes),
> > and seeing the big red dumpster waiting outside to receive them.
> >
> > Its something all of us are going to have to deal with someday, and at
> > the least we should be keeping personal inventories and have plans in
> > place in our respective wills.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Dan FitzGerald
> > They/Them or She/Her
> > Classical Computing Laboratory at IBM-Poughkeepsie
> > http://www.vm.ibm.com/devpages/dfitzger
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Steve Craft via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org>
> > Reply-To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org>
> > To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org>
> > Cc: Steve Craft <craft.steve at hotmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Downsizers, Sick, Old, and Dying
> > Collector -- Special Interest group to focus on "artifact wills"
> > Date: 03/27/2024 04:17:51 PM
> >
> > I like and support the idea of "something" and would be willing to
> > help. As a long-time Apple ][ community member, I have watched a war of
> > sorts going on with the passing of Tony Diaz a few years ago
> >
> >
> https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/local-estate-find-in-san-diego.43513/
> > , as he was not an organized person in a lot of ways and ownership of
> > "stuff" and what is valuable from a historical perspective vs financial
> > is still very muddy. If there was a (sub)org that had information and a
> > practical guide to professional services, that would probably help our
> > community. By proxy/association, being into Vintage Computing puts us
> > all into a kind of narrow set of (aged) demographics, mostly not 15-
> > year-old Xbox gamers. 😊
> >
> >
> >
> > Slightly on a tangent from this, I could imagine being able to take
> > detail video of an entire collection, putting it in some long-term
> > redundant digital storage, and then letting some AI models reason over
> > the video to make an index of what it thinks is there (and put that
> > into some storage after you curate it). Even something like that would
> > be better than having your nephew pick through your things if something
> > happened to you because they "know about tech". And the video indexing
> > wouldn't care about the mess level.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: vcf-midatlantic
> > <vcf-midatlantic-bounces at lists.vcfed.org<mailto:
> > vcf-midatlantic-bounces at lists.vcfed.org
> > >> On Behalf Of Bob Roswell via vcf-midatlantic
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2024 1:18 PM
> > To: vcf-midatlantic
> > <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org<mailto:vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org
> > >>
> > Cc: Bob Roswell <broswell at syssrc.com<mailto:broswell at syssrc.com>>
> > Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Downsizers, Sick, Old, and Dying Collector -
> > - Special Interest group to focus on "artifact wills"
> >
> >
> >
> > While on the sad topic of Bryan,  I would love to start/participate in
> > a special interest group to focus on best practices for "artifact
> > wills."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > As the curator of a museum, I get calls, and emails many times a month
> > from (usually) widows and children trying to figure out how dispose of
> > their loved one's collection.
> >
> >
> >
> > There is a mature industry for estate planning, but they usually don't
> > include the collections of stuff.  Some general articles exist like
> >
> >
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kiplinger.com%2Fretirement%2Festate-planning-for-memorabilia-collectors&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cc31d905fe2984b51f48108dc4e81e68d%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638471567046344569%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=TfIyqJfZRQyKcxppJQ74dKAlsbor0DmS6gNBUzgxRnE%3D&reserved=0
> > <
> >
> https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/estate-planning-for-memorabilia-collectors
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I could imagine the following results off the top of my head:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 1)  Documentation Corps: VCFED would have a corps of volunteers who
> > could visit home/storage units while the collector is still alive.  We
> > could document what is there and capture oral histories from the
> > collector.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 2) Publish a document on disposition of the stuff
> >
> >
> >
> >                 *  Donation to museum (with tax write-off)
> >
> >
> >
> >                * Gift to other individuals
> >
> >
> >
> >                * Consignment or Swap Meets
> >
> >
> >
> >               * Ebay/Craigslist
> >
> >
> >
> >                 * High end Auction houses (RR Auction Etc)
> >
> >
> >
> >               * Electronics Recyclers
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The document would provide contacts as well as a brief overview of the
> > process.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Anyone interest?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Bob Roswell
> >
> >
> >
> > Curator, Computer Museum @ System Source
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmuseum.syssrc.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cc31d905fe2984b51f48108dc4e81e68d%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638471567046353657%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bNkbFDu0rt1hl2ic4KfURYIost%2ByAMVDNAEx7WDU378%3D&reserved=0
> > <https://museum.syssrc.com/>
> >
> >
> >
> > broswell at syssrc.com<mailto:broswell at syssrc.com>
> >
> >
> >
> > 410-771-5544 ext 4336
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>