I’m a (very) local VCF member with a deep interest in the repair, restoration, and presentation of historical technologies. When I was little, My father ran an IT repair business out of our basement. As such, the basement filled up with various old PCs – 386s, 486s, Pentiums, etc. As a kid, I wasn’t allowed to touch anything – so I went and touched them anyways. Ever since, I’ve been a natural tinkerer – model trains, typewriters, cameras, pocket watches, computers – few things satisfy me more than fixing something. I believe quite strongly that nothing is truly “beyond repair”.
I’ve been visiting the VCF museum since I was 11 – back when it was still MARCH in the hotel. In fact, a picture of a train I doodled on the Macintosh 128K is still on the system disk to this day – over a decade later! I accidentally stumbled into Festivus last year while I was visiting Infoage for the holiday train show, and after listening to Jason Perkins explain as much as anyone could possibly want to know about the Apple LISA for 45 minutes, I knew right then and there that I needed to become a volunteer. And, a few weeks of pestering Doug and Jeff later, I started docenting in the first week of January, and have been at the museum weekly ever since – many weeks I’m there Wednesday, Saturday AND Sunday, often working overtime alongside Doug to improve the museum.
In August I was elected as the new VCF warehouse/collections manager, and have been steadily working to drastically improve the condition of the warehouse at Infoage. The installation of climate control, improved security, inventorying, and organization are chief among my goals. If elected to the steering committee, I can perform my duties and responsibilities at Infoage with minimal headache, as I live only 20 minutes away from Camp Evans. I’ve got my finger right on the pulse on issues regarding the museum, warehouse, and general affairs on campus – any of the other Docents can tell you that I am on the premises perhaps more frequently than anyone else. I would also hope to work alongside Doug in drastically improving the museum, accelerating the process of transitioning to a new, larger museum space, and streamlining our process for repair & restoration of artifacts.
And, for those unfamiliar with me, I’m “the guy in the suit”.