You can support the ACMS by making a monetary donation and/or by becoming a member or volunteer.

What does my monetary donation achieve?

By making a one off donation, or small monthly contributions, your contribution assists the charity in achieving its goals to collate, maintain and restore important Australian technology and stories as well as other pieces of important and critical technologies that formed the modern era of technology we currently live. >95% of every dollar donated goes into expanding and operating the museum to achieving our goals. It assists with educational workshops and grants to individuals who are trying to further this process with annual events such as the “Graeme Philipson Award” which acknowledges and support individuals carrying out the important historical documentation of IT in Australia, and, our RetroChallenge tournaments supported by RetroChallenge.org to grant hobbyists and other members of the Australian community some financial aid to further advance their unique and interesting projects that may eventually put Australian ingenuity in the spotlight.

What does my donation of time achieve through volunteering?

Volunteering is great fun and a way to get first hand experience with historical computing gear and to meet and talk to interesting and knowledgeable people. There are opportunities to volunteer on site and remotely. The easiest way to become involved is by becoming a member and joining the ACMS slack channel (provided to members) or dropping us a line on the forum, Facebook, email or a call.

For on-site volunteering join us in Croydon for our Saturday restoration workshops,  cataloging sessions. Also look out for various working-bee events run throughout the year.

Your donation of time allows us to further our catalogue effort to help rationalise the collection, prioritise restorations, learn about our collection from past members (before it is too late) and identify educational opportunities and grants to further our efforts.

Current Opportunities

Cataloguing 

Our cataloguing workflow consists of two teams working in tandem performing equally important tasks. The on-site team cleans, tests, photographs, tags and stores items. Images are then uploaded to our cataloguing system and that’s where our remote team steps in. Our remote team assesses each item and enters important information about that item into the catalogue utilising information available from the images, online research and their personal knowledge of computers, to create a catalogue entry ready to be published to the web, for viewing by the general public. Remote volunteering is great fun and you get to see some outstanding items in our collection. If you would like to try out remote cataloguing please email: cataloguing@acms.org.au

Remote Cataloguing

We are seeking remote volunteers (you can support us from anywhere at anytime). Assist with our cataloguing effort by looking closely at items in our collection that have been catalogued and photographed by local volunteers, identify them and assign data points ready for their inclusion into our public catalogue, accessible by all.

Local Cataloguing

We are seeking local volunteers (Tuesdays/Saturdays) to assist with our cataloguing effort by cleaning, testing (where safe), photographing, tagging and storing items. Images are uploaded to our cataloguing system and that’s where our remote cataloguing team steps in

Restorations 

Our vast collection needs experienced individuals at all levels of technology, engineering, electronics specialists etc to assist. You may only be able to assist with imaging drives, installing software or cleaning up devices for the cataloging team and museum, or you may be a full blown electronics whizz who has general or specific knowledge to assist. If you wish to volunteer, please reach out via our forum for restoration resources here.

Museum Operations 

We are seeking volunteers to work in the museum and assist and guide members, guests and volunteers during events, workshops and other open days. We also persistently need assistance and help with general maintenance, cleaning, painting and setup of the exhibits.