Personal ACMS Board 2023-2024 recommendations of Adrian Franulovich.
To all concerned, I have received expressions of interest and have also sought support from various industry experts for their support, opinions and willingness to help at the ACMS.
I am putting forward the following recommendations I believe will build a stronger, more pro-active organisation moving into the 2024 and the organisations 30th year. Although I recommend these individuals, there is no guarantee they will accept a nomination for a role and you should make your own informed decision based on your own conscious vote based on your beliefs of both past and believed future performance from individuals.
I provide the following data based on my personal beliefs, best efforts and I apologise if I have made any mistakes or omitted any detail, however it is devised on he data available to me at the time of writing this and is my personal opinion and not that of the organisation.
On that note;
I am recommending Craig Baty as Vice President
After the vacation of our prior VP, I have been seeking an industry personality who has both experience and is willing to bridge the gap between the new guard and old guard in the industry.
Craig started out in 1979 on IBM Mainframes. He has a strong commitment to the development of the Australian ICT industry. Until January he was on the Executive Committee and Federal Board of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and various other roles since 2001. He was Chair of the Australian Computer Society in NSW (2020- 2022), and currently a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Management, and member of the AICD. He continues to run a small export focused ICT Research and Advisory firm focusing on understanding and communicating ICT trends, drivers, challenges, and issues to the broader industry, locally and globally.
Based on his rich and varied history and support of the organisation, I believe Craig will provide mentorship and support to move the organisation towards short and long term goal achievement including greater visibility and funding opportunities.
I am recommending Murray Irwin as Secretary
Murray is a former Telecom Australia/Telstra technician with a passion for electronics, IT and vintage cars.
Murray’s dedication to the ACMS and driving the early operations of the new board in 2020, providing support financially and through mentorship has allowed the ACMS to thrive since 2020.
Murray currently serves as our treasurer and membership officer and runs the ACMS Charity store on ebay. This continued work is yielding up to $500 a month in donations from the sale of of items he owns and items that do not fit the ACMS collection policy that would otherwise be classed as waste.
I am recommending Madeleine McAndrews as Treasurer
Madeleine joined the organisation in January 2023 to help with the 40th Anniversary of Apple Lisa event. Although Madeleine lives in rural northern NSW, I believe her passion and history in IT and peripheral industries would be a vast help to guide the organisation, and the treasury position is perfect due to its ability to be carried out remotely and the opportunity to assist between NSW and QLD.
In 1979 whilst in primary school, Madeleine wrote a version of Space Invaders for the Ohio Scientific Challenger 1P, first in Microsoft Basic, then in 6502 Assembly Language. The latter 6502 version was spurred by the fact the basic version, after firing at the Aliens, you could wander off to make a cup of tea before returning to see if they had hit anything. She completed this all in aid of not being given the 20c to play it in the arcade!
In 1981 she purchased her first machine, an Apple ///. She would go on to install Apple Equipment in various companies where she developed software in Business Basic, Pascal, COBOL and 6502 Assembly Language. By 1987, her development background ensured a good fit with Design firm MetaGraphics, one of the country’s first digital design organisations.
Madeleine was approached by Microsoft advertising agency The Frontline Agency in 1992 to work on the organisation’s advertising in Australia, and went on to work in Australia and the US on Apple Computer Inc, Gatorade, PepsiCo, and Arthur Anderson accounts. In 1996 she established Sinclair/Lee, a design, advertising and public relations firm based in Queensland, Australia. Sinclair/Lee’s clients included The Queensland Government, Energex, Suncorp-Metway, PWC, Morgan Stanley and the ASX. The business employed 19 people and was populated entirely by Apple equipment.
She sold Sinclair/Lee in 2002, and accepted a Creative Director position with Rowland in 2004, specialising in Financial Communications for ASX listed companies. In 2006, while at Rowland, she accepted a part-time lecturing position at QUT, the Queensland University of Technology, where she lectured Masters students in Advertising, Copywriting and Art Direction subjects.
Madeleine semi-retired in 2011, and today she drives Heavy Combination trucks, a far cry from the 100 hour weeks working in Financial Communications.
Today, she maintains a collection of between one and two hundred Apple machines, her favourites including Apple ///s, Lisas, most Macintosh models between 1984 and 1999, and a few NeXT machines.
I am recommending Sebastien Boell as a Committee Member and head of cataloguing.
Sebastian has been an anchor for the ACMS with the new board since 2020, driving myself and others to be their best selves and being the driving force behind the establishment of the ACMS’s current storage structure, development of the storage space, sorting and major cataloguing effort undertaken, along with deriving and establishing a collection policy, training and nomenclature for our museum. His discipline and want to ensure the history of Australian IT is documented was recognised with our own Graeme Philipson award in 2022 which he was the inaugural recipient.
Sebastian is interested in how ICT was used, how use changed over time and how this transformed organisations, users and the future trajectory of ICT. Sebastian is part of the Business and Labor History Group at the University of Sydney and has a PhD in Information Systems. Sebastian is also involved with the Pearcey foundation and has supported projects between the ACMS and multiple tertiary education institutions.
I am recommending Adrian Magni as a Committee Member and in-house artist.
Adrian has been autonomous in his efforts at the ACMS pushing development of gaming platforms on the active displays and driving art works and content for the ACMS. As an active member of the museum often spending hours volunteering every week, I am keen to empower him as a committee member who can oversee and run our media & content creation as well as be named our in house artist.
Adrian started out in computers with an 8-bit Amstrad CPC and BASIC. He has always held keen interest in computers, consoles, programming and electronics.
After switching from Software Engineering, he graduated from UNSW’s College of Fine Arts with a degree in Digital Media, where his final year project was to make his own game console out of metal bowls and an interactive room installation that tracked visitors with a floor sensor and projected computer-generated plants growing wherever they walked.
A professional graphic designer and UI developer since 2004, he is skilled with web design, coding, video production and project management over that time.
He currently works part-time designing interactive TV systems for the hotel industry, which gives him a free day each week to volunteer at the ACMS.
In his free time he carried our a range of hobbies, including cosplay, game design, painting, 3d modelling, making lamps and speakers out of old computer gear, fixing and respraying his scooter (after he crashed it), designing his own t-shirts, and playing piano badly.
He is driven to have his children engaged with these activities, a major motivation for what he is trying to achieve at the ACMS. He would like to see the ACMS become a weekend destination for families, where kids can learn and play while their parents get to relive their youth.
Since joining the ACMS in 2022, he’s applied his skills wherever they are needed, whether washing dishes and dusting tables or making wall art and mixing video streams for events.
Adrian recently started making regular videos to showcase interesting machines at the ACMS, and wished to do this in an official capacity on behalf of the museum. He believes (and I agree) in an active YouTube channel that will raise our profile and encourage more people to come in and try out the hardware and get involved.
I am recommending Greg McGarry as a Committee Member and work-shop coordinator
Greg has been assisting in operations at the ACMS since the Lisa event. Every weekend he has come in to prepare the museum and leave it sparkling, mopping things down, vacuuming and making the space inviting.
Greg was a key driver in pushing forward with the DEC restorations being able to help me learn about the workings of the DEC and VAX units to the point that we could work together and now we have collectively had a PDP 11 and a Micro VAX running for the organisation.
Greg is keen to keep the space uncluttered and sorted, clean and organised and is an active member of the museum. I can foresee with his interests and drive that his volunteer efforts will be a major factor behind the short and medium term functioning of the working museum.
Originally from Queensland, Greg has been living in Surry Hills, Sydney for the last 15 years. His professional occupation is as a DSP Engineer and contributes to ISO and IEEE international and domestic groups. Over the years he’s has volunteered in different positions on organisational boards in community sport and state sporting bodies.
In his spare time he likes to dabble in obscure hardware and software platforms. A long-time contributor to the NetBSD operating system and PCC open-source projects. Greg has a collection of home-made 6502, 6802, 6809, 8085, 68k, and ARM computers.
Professionally, greg has encountered many computer systems, most of which are now considered historic and accessible within the ACMS. He originally found the ACMS to help restore the PDP-11 systems which are considerably too large to keep at home. He is a strong advocate that the computer systems in the ACMS collection should be operational and functional to fully appreciate their significance and relevance in history. Greg is keen to contribute to the technical maintenance and repair of the systems.
As a society, Greg believe’s it’s important for the ACMS to provide value to its membership and encourage broad participation from around the world. He is committed to organise regular ACMS events and provide “man-on-the-ground” support for local, regional and international access to the ACMS collection. Greg is the Senior Staff architect and Dolby Laboratories and has a range of experience with staff and IT across multiple countries.
Along with my above recommendations, I am also recommending the following
I am recommending Riley Tipton Perry as Curator of Australian and Kit computing.
Riley is a fount of information and history in regards to Australian IT, and his continued involvement with the ACMS and access to our resources will enable him to continue his fascinating research and work in interviewing and capturing/documenting Australian IT history for generations to come We are intent on giving him an audience and platform for this content to ensure his hard work is recognised both internally, domestically and internationally.
Along with the above, I outline the outcomes I have achieved in my tenure
- Instigated and sought sponsored accounting software and rebuilt accounts back to 2019
- Ensured compliance and all government reporting was up to date
- Built a brand across print, social and the physical media
- Oversaw and contributed to the restoration of many museum pieces
- Started Wednesday Workshops (and now Saturday workshops)
- Ran Domestic, interstate and rural events
- Built an email database, crm database and increased social engagement by 250% by numbers and several thousand percent in interaction
- Introduced the Forums
- Bought the entire collection under one roof and negotiated quality lease terms along with availing ourselves of prior poor leasing and storage conditions.
- Oversaw new communications that have lead to quality donations and hires
- Integrated and connected groups of new and former members into a growing nurturing environment
- Oversaw several major donations and sponsorships including Exetel, Billcue, Red Energy, MacMedic and more, and setup member benefits from major Australian brands.
- Navigated the organisation through covid and the loss of key members.
- Spoken at a number of events
- Increased membership numbers by 3x
- Launched the national Computer Heritage Centre in Sydney
