Antique Computers - Ed Thelen (original) (raw)

From: Len Shustek mailto:lshustek@computerhistory.org
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2020 1:08 PM
To: trustees; Staff
Subject: My changing role at CHM

For those of you who weren't there, I'd like to summarize what I said at this morning's board meeting about a change in my role at CHM.

A couple of weeks after our last board meeting in October, we passed an anniversary that probably only I observed: November 12 was the date when we first established an independent board for what became the Computer History Museum. The year was 1999, and that was when I became chair of the board.

That was now 20 years ago! If you include the 3 years before, when I was unofficially chair of the west coast subsidiary of The Computer Museum in Boston, building on Gordon and Gwen Bell's work, it's been 23 years.
If you go back to the first white paper I wrote in 1995 about wanting to start a museum of computing in Silicon Valley, it's been 25 years.

Amazing. That must be some kind of record for what is now a large-scale museum. (We rank in the top 10% of US museums on any number of metrics.)

I have decided that 25 years is a good run for me, and it is enough.
This will be my last board meeting, and I won't stand for reelection at the annual meeting of the board in April.

The institution is now more mature, so it's also time to redefine the role of the board chair. It shouldn't come with membership in 12 committees and a commitment for decades of service! It should be, as it is for most non-profits, a 3-5 year rotating position. Over the next few months the Nominating Committee, chaired by Tom Friel, will help redefine the job and nominate a suitable candidate for election by the board in April.

I am immensely proud of what we have built here, and I thank you all for the roles you have played. I am very optimistic about the future of CHM.
I am enthusiastic about the expansion of our mission to include more about what is happening now, the possibilities for the future, and the impact on society. We can absolutely do that without abandoning our traditional responsibility to preserve and present history for the benefit of humanity now and in 100 years. There is no other institution in the world better positioned for this important and impactful dual mission.

As for me, I am not disappearing. I will "retire" to become a non-board volunteer, primarily for the content-oriented activities I love: collections, oral histories, source code recovery, blog articles, and the like. Heck, I like giving tours, so maybe I'll apply to be a docent.
I will continue to contribute to the museum financially, will proselytize new supporters, and be an all-around dedicated booster.

I look forward to the CHM of the future. Let's all help make it happen!

Regards,
Len Shustek

Some personal references - My naive first white paper from 1995:
https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/atchm/documents/Case_for_a_Silicon_Valley_Computer_Museum_10-16-95.pdf
- Two articles I wrote in 2014 about TCM/CHM history:
https://computerhistory.org/blog/computer-history-museum-celebrating-35-years/
and https://d1yx3ys82bpsa0.cloudfront.net/atchm/documents/Personal_Reflections_on_the_History_of_the_Computer_History_Museum_09-26-14.pdf
- My one-page essay in response to Gordon Bell's challenge last year to envision the future of CHM:
http://shustek.com/CHM/Gordon_challenge_essay.pdf

I sent to Len Shustek probably the most thankful, flattering e-mail I have ever written.
with CC to Gordon Bell (a founder of the Computer Museum in Boston and a trustee of CHM)

Gordon Bell promptly replied to both as follows:

Ed, Summarizing: CHM most likely would not have existed without Len! g

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