The Beginning of a New Era at the MADE

Effective as of this morning, I am no longer the Executive Director of The MADE (Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment) .

This is a bittersweet moment—I have poured every ounce of myself to keep this institution in Oakland. Despite the financial, physical, and emotional sacrifice, it has been worth every second.

Around 7 years ago, I swung by one of the MADE’s volunteer meetings. It was just a few blocks down from where I lived, and I was looking to get more involved in my community.

I had never seen so many people from such different backgrounds. All of them knew more about video games than I did. One of the long-time volunteers, Sean Barber-Crane , swung by every single new volunteer, fist-bumping along the way even if he didn’t know them. The meeting started with an ice-breaker about video games where old and new volunteers alike were acknowledged for their opinions.

I could feel it immediately, this museum was a community space for everyone, and the connective tissue was video games.

So I started teaching Scratch programming on Saturday mornings to children. Every night before, I would hack out a game that I could build in 15 to 30 minutes. Then, the next morning, I would walk through building the game with the students over the next hour and a half.

The students in our classes were just as diverse as the volunteers. Kids from the Oakland hills sat next to kids from the flats. Sometimes, international visitors would bring their children; they all shared knowledge and helped each other out. Sometimes parents would stay and learn as well. And when class was out, they all got free access to the museum, bonding over what they learned and over video games from the past.

I would be lying if I told you that my experience here has been only full of heart-warming moments. There are the break-ins, the wear and tear on facilities, and the housing issues within our community that have created situations at the museum that needed to be addressed. Juggling a day job and using those financial resources to address the museum’s financial gaps has also been particularly challenging.

And there are times where spite was the only fuel left, the need to prove that this mission must continue to exist regardless of whether people say that it’s time to fold.

This is what I’ve personally learned about leadership. It is to lose oneself to a grand vision, to become a vessel for change in the world and the last wall of defense against its demise. Particularly in the nonprofit space, the glory in leadership is a giant facade, a necessary fabrication to message feasibility, and a tool to move a community to improve itself.

None of the vanity of leadership mattered to me. While I may not have been perfect, I know that all my contributions and decisions have never been about myself. I accepted from the beginning that my personal fulfillment was not what this position would afford me, but the opportunity to serve the next generation of digital creators, the residents of the city of Oakland, and the digital preservation community as a whole.

Fortunately, the museum has fostered leaders who demonstrate the same attitude. Rob Curl and Anders Sajbel have been by my side at the beginning. Two years ago, Rob helped with the giant move of our museum to our current location, served as our first operations manager, worked to develop important relationships with other institutions, and helped us develop a grant submission cadence. I called Anders up to help me bring our collection out to the Game Developers Conference; since then, he’s trained every staff member and served as the perfect example of reliability and consistency. With so many family-friendly and educational spaces leaving Oakland, we are all in their debt.

And finally, I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Mason Young , our current operations manager who I have nominated to our Board of Directors as Interim Executive Director. Should they have him, he brings a wealth of life experience as a software engineer, as a non-profit organizer, and as a manager in the services industry. Leading the museum forced me to grapple with my own inherent weaknesses; Mason works on operations down to the gory details, can devote himself full-time to the mission, and believes in the impact a video game collection can make in the community.

He will be a much better Executive Director than I ever was. Most importantly, he is one of the most humble people that I have ever met, and has it in his core to focus on making an impact above all.

His leadership comes at a critical moment in time. In our line of work, even a strong financial foundation is not enough to maintain an institution. Just this week, the LIVING COMPUTER MUSEUM announced its closure and the liquidation of its assets. In our increasingly digital world, where will children go to connect to their technological heritage? As inequality skyrockets and rapidly changes the nature and economics of cities, where will the spaces be that non-tech and tech communities can overlap?

Mason, your work is cut out for you, it is a long journey ahead. You have both my support...and my sympathies.

So, what’s next? At tonight’s board meeting, I will be running to become the President of the Board of Directors of the MADE. Should I be elected, I will work to transform the museum by focusing on product at the board level, ensuring that our strategy points us in the right direction, develop the key branding and communication workflow within the museum, and standardize gathering, interpreting, and reporting metrics related to our key programs. Given our financial situation, we will work with the Executive Director to expand revenue while moving the metrics in key programs in the right direction.

On a final note, I want to thank our Board of Directors and our Advisory Board. In particular, Alex Handy , thank you for entrusting me with your life’s work. Neil H. , you were the textbook for leadership and communication skills while I attended the "School of Hard Knocks". And Van Ha is the invisible operational machine behind the museum. Without her foundation, none of our work would be possible. I could not thank her enough for her contributions to the museum and to the entire field.

To everyone who I’ve reached out to about joining the Board of Directors, expect to hear from me around the end of Q3.

It’s been a wild ride, thank you for letting me be a part of it!