Donation policy was Re: CHM gripe

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed Aug 4 14:47:13 2004

On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 18:18, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, Jules Richardson wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> This dilemma is common amongst computer museums actually. There are
> numerous problems, the least of which is insulting the donor if you do end
> up selling of his/her prized computing possession as unworthy for your
> collection :(

Sure - it's always worth asking though. So far the only machine where
the donor explicitly wants the machine to stay at the museum is the
Marconi TAC (the UK's first transistor-based computer?). That's more to
do with the fact that the machine's from a power station and they want
to know where it is - UK newspapers could probably twist things into
some form of "old computers running critical applications blah blah
blah" story...

I've had the occasional donor who wants proceeds to go to their
favourite charity if the hardware they donate is ever sold, and
naturally I have no problem with that.

cheers,

Jules
Received on Wed Aug 04 2004 - 14:47:13 BST