Rick Lewis – Steering Committee Member

I have been contributing to the organization in several ways over the last two and a half years, primarily as one of the four main museum docents. During this time, I have introduced a few improvements to the visitor experience such as the creation of 4”x6” placards that describe each artifact.

For the last two VCF East events I have fielded pre- and post-event surveys to gather visitor feedback and used that data to make improvements to the show in the areas of maps, signage, and logistics. For 2024 I served as Exhibits Manager and created the floor layouts for each room, juggling everyone’s requests for space, power and placement.

My background is in international telecommunications, working for a British company that led me to live and work in several countries for many years, initially as an engineer and later in management.  In the US (in the DC area) I worked for AOL, mostly in market research in consumer technology products, and in text analytics.

Before retirement my last position was Director of Digital Analytics at Rosetta Stone, where I could say I spoke two of their offered languages – English (American) and English (British)! After retirement I spent two years as a consultant to PBS as a web analyst and, as a volunteer, provided on-site technical support to residents of a senior living facility, where I also taught a weekly technology class for seniors. Unlike the museum, where we have new people learning about vintage computers, this was vintage people learning about new computers!

If elected to the Steering Committee I’d like to continue the work of preserving the history of computing, make efforts to increase visitor attendance at the museum and to further improve the overall visitor experience.