Car News

Greetings,

A lot going on. There is far more than covered in the this email, but
here are some key points...

Just a heads up that I had a lengthy phone conversation with Paul
Cardwell's widow, Gladys, last weekend (a little over a week ago).
And she is preparing/packing things so that I can come down and pick up
his legacy to put together the beginning of the RPG Museum. We're still
working out the exact details, but the basic plan is I pick up as much
as possible, bring it to my house and have volunteers scan in
everything possible. Then we go from there. One possibility I want to
discuss with her is the possibility of incorporating it into the RPG
Museum.

I am concerned for her well-being. She is understandably _very_ sad and
alone. They still haven't been able to have a memorial for Paul due to
COVID. She said that only her daughter comes see here a few times a
month. She doesn't have enough Internet savvy to participate in
remote church, so she is severely socially isolated, even worse in the
middle of such a loss.

She said she "hasn't been to church without Paul since she was 18". My
heart breaks for her to be struggling with such a loss of a life-long
partner, and not be able to have the support she needs, and go through
the steps of grieving including the memorial.

My middle son's wife will be giving birth any day now, and I will the
officially be a grandfather, and can no longer "protest" Game to Grow
and others introducing me as "The Grandfather of Therapeutic
Gaming". :-) I'm only 49, but there it is.  :)

When that happens, I'll be driving to New Hampshire to see them and the
baby for a few days. Then I'll be driving the RPG SUV down to Texas to
meet with Gladys. While I would love to take the RPG Bus and RPG
Trailer on such a great road trip, I can't afford the gas. The SUV (if
keeping speed around 60/65 MPH) can get 19 MPG, while the bus which can
only drive around 45 MPH only gets 6.5 MPG. So I'll just be taken the
SUV, and camping in a tent much of the time to save costs. It will be a
round-trip around 7,000 miles, so that will be around $1,500 just in
gas for the SUV (would be around $3,500 using bus).

I'll spend at least a full day just being there to be supportive
by being there as someone for her to talk to.

She was up around a 12-20 boxes of materials when we spoke. I'll help
her with sorting through the rest when I'm there.

She said she was disposing of the personal correspondence and other
materials due to concerns about privacy, but I asked her to please
reconsider, in that we'll handle this like a museum and such
correspondence could be historically valuable. I don't think she was
convinced. I'll be grateful for whatever she is okay with.

The plan is that once I get there and see how much there actually is
to haul, I'll pick up an appropriately sized U-Haul trailer and load it
all up (the SUV can haul up to 10,000 lbs). Take it with me back to
Spokane. There volunteers will begin to organize, categorize, and scan
in everything possible. And prepare to add it to the RPG Museum website
as appropriate.

I have wanted for decades to setup an RPG Museum, and this is the
catalyst to finally make it happen.

We'll start with a virtual museum, but over time I hope we can get
enough donations to afford a warehouse to move RPG Research training
& streaming out of (mostly) my house, and have a section set aside as a
walk-through museum with the full history of RPGs, a large potion
potentially based on Cardwell's collection, my collection since the
1970s, and hopefully other donors to fill it out over time.

We desperately need donations to afford a facility. My house is
overflowing, the Monroe office is just a "virtual physical office"
shared with lawyers which use is heavily limited to only 1 person ata
time due to COVID, and I have an awful lot of volunteers coming and
going nearly every day for training & such to/from my house, so now the
neighbors are complaining.

Plus the RPG Bus, 2 RPG Trailers, and RPG SUV, some of the neighbors
are increasingly angry about. I bought some time by promising to find a
place by September to move operations, the Bus, and Trailers to, but we
don't raise anywhere near enough yet in monthly donations for even a
minimal 2,000 sq ft warehouse or storage space (around $800-$1600/mo).

They have to have a 12' high bay door for the trailers.

We typically only raise about $250/month so far, even though our
community programs have increased about 300% with COVID. (from 1-2 per
week, to 3-7+ per week), plus training 4 times a week for different
time zone accommodations.
 
I've been trying for a long time to find something around 2,000-4,000+
sq ft, but all of the pot grows, and micro breweries keep buying up
those smaller more affordable ones. There are plenty of warehouses over
4,000+ sq feet, but I can't afford the $2,000+/month for the those more
available spaces.

Also all the computer/server/website hosting is in my house, but
colocation hosting is too high for our current budget too, so I'm doing
the best I can with what I have to help RPG Research grow, but we're
coming to a point of being maxed out, and without administrative
volunteers and more donations, we're going to be stuck.

So, a lot to get done in very little time. Appreciate any resources to
help spread the word and help us reach our goals. Especially appreciate
suggestions for the RPG Museum as well.


RPG Research donations options include:
* Amazon Smile
* Patreon
* Paypal
* Techsoup
* Benevity
 https://www.rpgresearch.com/ donate

We also desperately need administrative volunteers. We have a ton of GM
and research related volunteers, but very few administrative. We hit
volunteer #131 last month (across 5 continents). We're getting ready
to host and run programs at WorldCon _and_ GenCon, online this year so
a lot of is riding on those working out.
We really need:
* Volunteer coordinator
* Grant writers
* Community development/outreach
* Accountant
* Lawyer
* Marketing/social media manager


https://www.rpgresearch.com/ volunteer

I'll be posting online when I begin the RPG Tour 2020, with the drive
to from Spokane, Washington to New Hampshire, then Texas, and back to
Washington.

I'll have lots of video and photos about the Cardwell collection too,
though I'll try to be careful about copyright and privacy, as we
develop a museum model for providing open access to these resources
while also protecting the legacy.

I'm going to be on GenConTV for my monthly appearance covering various
topics. If anyone wants to join that live conversation, would be great
to have you there.  This Friday 11 am to 12:30 pm PST8PDT
https://twitch.tv/gencontv

Anyone here ever worked in a museum, and able to provide some
suggestions?


Cheers!
-Hawke Robinson
Cell/text: (509) 608-7630
--
--RPG Research Staff

RPG Research is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization providing
research and community services. https://www.rpgresearch.com
in...@rpgresearch.com

1312 North Monroe, Suite #114
Spokane, Washington 99218, US.
Spokane Local Number: (509) 608-7630
Toll-free: (833) RPG-INFO (774-4636)