31/01/2025
UPDATE from the Dutch HHH Museum Committee:
HHHi Hashers, Firstly a BIG thank you to all who responded to our HHH Museum Poll. This is a quick update on:
1. Responses So far we have had 473 responses (target was 500 by Jan31st). The nice surprise is that 96% are in favour of preserving hash history with the HHH Museum, 52% in favour of various level donations and 44% in favour of raising funds via major hash events. Also lots of helpful comments and suggestions were provided.
2. Reason for the poll Neptunus has been building up the Museum since 2008, currently hosting Haberdashery from over 470 HHH groups around the World. This includes the full Interhash collection since its start in 1978 and items going back as far as the Singapore 600 event in 1973. He funded most of the costs himself, mainly building and storage rental to the tune of over EUR 35,000 over 17 years. More recently, as stated in the poll, he raised over EUR 10,000 with Eurohash 2023 as the main source. Because of the size of the collection he moved after the pandemic into a large building over four floors in Kuala Lumpur. Now being retired he can’t keep funding this project from his own pocket so needs support until moving to its final more cost-effective location (see below).
3. Future plans In recent years the Hash Heritage International committee raised funds and purchased land also in Kuala Lumpur. They are raising more funding to build additional buildings on the site and have expressed an intent (intent at this stage but I am optimistic as it makes sense to have the HHH Museum in the Hash Heritage site) when the planned building of a commercial unit is completed to place another building upstairs to house the Museum. Best estimates of how much time will be needed is circa 30 months, so the HHH Museum is seeking medium term funding to bridge the time in between and maintain the HHH Museum in its current location until it can be moved to the Hash Heritage site. Estimated cost until then is 30 monthly rents of EUR 1,000, plus EUR 5,000 to 10,000 extra for utilities and the move expected by mid to end 2027. So funding target for the HHH Museum is EUR 35,000 plus over 30 months.
4. Next steps We will send out funding request to those who expressed a willingness to donate, as a first step to solve initial cashflow difficulties, then look for hash groups to raise funds via events as a second step. We will start on February 11 which is Gispert Memorial Day, and also announce the winner of the HHH Museum Poll on the same day. MTM, a Canadian harriette with extensive experience in finance and audit, has taken on the role of independent oversight to ensure donations and fundraisers money goes where intended. She will take no prisoners in ensuring funds are properly documented and traced. Note that she is not part of the HHH Museum committee and will operate independently in the best interest of donors and funders. The committee will provide her with all requested documentation in relation to funding and spendings to ensure transparency. We are currently updating the HHH Museum website and will very soon have the questions asked by pollsters , (with answers already provided by Neptunus directly to those who asked ), and answers under FAQs, lots of pictures and videos as requested will be provided as well as other information.
Again BIG thanks to all the poll responders and On On from the HHH Museum team.
