8 Aug
2004
8 Aug
'04
6:19 a.m.
yes, it is best to call the person back the same day...
Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC
Please check our web site at
http://www.smecc.org
to see other engineering fields, communications and computation stuff we
buy, and by all means when in Arizona drop in and see us.
address:
coury house / smecc
5802 w palmaire ave
glendale az 85301
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk>
To: "On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 3:23 AM
Subject: Re: CHM gripe (was: rarest computers)
On Wed, 2004-08-04 at 03:05, Jim Battle wrote:
I'm not so keen on the CHM. I don't know
if I aired this already or
not, but I think not.
When I left the bay area a couple months ago, I tried to give my working
wang 2200 with terminal, manuals, working floppy disk system,
fixed/removable hard disk system, and disks.
It took a LOT of work (weeks of one-sided prodding) on my part to have
them consider it. "The curator will contact you in a few days..." (a
week passes), another email, "The curator will contact you in a few
days...", more time passes, another email, "Could you describe it
again?", etc.
After more than a month of delay, I received and email with the tenor of
a form letter along these lines: Dear Jim, thank you for considering the
CHM. Unfortunately at this time we don't have an interest in obtaining
your keypunch machine. Here are the names of some other museums that
may be interested ...
Well, Bletchley's not so much different I suppose. The museum's horribly
under-staffed by volunteers who are naturally busy doing other things
most of the time. The volunteers aren't local enough to see immediately
what examples of the machine being offered we have on site and the
condition. The only time there's generally a quick response is when it's
something we know we either don't have, or something so common that we
know we have lots of them or would have no trouble finding one when we
suddenly needed one.
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.
cheers,
Jules