Donation policy was Re: CHM gripe

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed Aug 4 06:28:23 2004

On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 10:56, Hans B PUFAL wrote:
> > Personally the first thing I usually ask of anyone offering to donate
> > something is how soon they need it gone :-) We've had people throw stuff
> > in the bin before because they haven't had a response the same day.
>
> One problem with this decision making process is that you might well
> discard valuable items without knowing.

Yep, that is always a danger. A lot of things we get offered come from
people who weren't the original user of the machine, so they don't know
anything about it other than what they've read on the label. They could
know nothing of any rare expansion options etc.

> Here at ACONIT we have a general
> policy of always taking donations but with the proviso that we might
> discard later.

I'm trying to press for that policy at Bletchley too. Sometimes if
offered something common I do ask if we may take it with the intention
of one day selling it to raise money for the museum - the donor still
makes a contribution to the museum that way, and the machine doesn't end
up in the bin.

I'm trying to figure out a way that we can take everything in order to
save it, but then offer things we're not interested in or can't
physically store long-term to other collectors (on this list, for
instance). I don't like the idea that if the museum doesn't take offered
equipment that a lot of the time it will get thrown out.

Usually people offering us stuff don't seem to mind what happens to the
hardware if it's going to a good home. The only problem is that the
museum has to deal with the Park Trust who run the rest of the site, and
they certainly wouldn't like lots of people turning up to pick equipment
up - it's also difficult when we're not around really except for
weekends, and none of us really have the space to store things at
home...

If the museum were one with the rest of the park it wouldn't be so much
of a problem - could just set aside a room for pickups, say, and just
let security know names / car registration of whoever was coming to pick
something up that day.

> Lesson learned, when someone offered us some Apple equipment we accepted
> them not really needing yet another mac or apple or whatever. Imagine my
> delight when on examining the donation at ACONIT I opened a cardboard
> box and see 2 pristine KIM-1 boards with full documentation.

Yes, we get that too. Often people think they're being sneaky by hiding
what they consider to be junk in with their dontation. We seem to get a
lot of old calculators that way!

cheers,

Jules
Received on Wed Aug 04 2004 - 06:28:23 BST