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

[David Gesswein]

Its a subject of interest. Hopefully I have a while left before it gets
critical.

For your 1) below I'm not sure how practical that is. From what I have seen
of storage units it can be hopeless to evaluate contents without a huge
effort. For better organized collections may be possible but having person
with knowlege of collection area and time to visit may be tough for
having as a general service. I know I have started on a proper inventory
a couple times and never completed for my own stuff.

For 2) seems to be where to start. Provide people with information on
how they should prepare for the eventual transition of a collection. Would
be a good VCF talk also.

On Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 05:18:09PM +0000, Bob Roswell via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> 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."
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> 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.
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> There is a mature industry for estate planning, but they usually don't include the collections of stuff.  Some general articles exist like https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/estate-planning-for-memorabilia-collectors
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> I could imagine the following results off the top of my head:
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> 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.
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> 2) Publish a document on disposition of the stuff
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>                 *  Donation to museum (with tax write-off)
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>                * Gift to other individuals
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>                * Consignment or Swap Meets
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>               * Ebay/Craigslist
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>                 * High end Auction houses (RR Auction Etc)
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>               * Electronics Recyclers
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> The document would provide contacts as well as a brief overview of the process.
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> Anyone interest?
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> Bob Roswell
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> Curator, Computer Museum @ System Source
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> https://museum.syssrc.com
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> broswell at syssrc.com
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> 410-771-5544 ext 4336
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