Preservation Industry Network
What is PIN?

Mission Statement: "Networking to encompass all participants in the
preservation industry, to involve the business sector, design
professionals, and property owners in a closer and more informed
dialogue, and to improve the climate of doing business."

PIN is a virtual organization, there are no badges, no dues, and there
are no membership cards. Anyone who wants to be a member of PIN becomes
so by the power of personal self-identification. Membership in PIN
implies a desire to network within the preservation industry, as
intended by the mission statement. By this definition PIN is either very
small, or very large. PIN has no geographic or psychological boundaries.

PIN in one sense has a very low threshold for entry. In another sense,
people have enough difficulty with figuring out if they are members of
PIN that the threshold is very high. I find it interesting how many
people do understand a virtual organization, find it comfortable, and
pride themselves on being Pinheads. PIN is an organization for those who
would commonly reject membership in any formal organization. PIN is what
each one of us imagines it to be, and particularly so if we talk with
each other, as it does not exist, being a network, if we do not attempt
to define ourselves as a group throught he act of networking.

By virtue of reading this text you become a member of PIN insofar as you
desire to be a Pinhead. The next step is for you to tell someone about
it. Voila! Network! PIN?

Networking… the willingness to share, the willingness to reach over and
make contact with the “other” person nearby.
There are a few basic concepts of social interaction that form the
backbone of PIN. Decent people will naturally communicate with decent
people. Shared information is only of competitive value to those who
understand what it is to share. People, like fish, will congregate where
they see structure. Decent people will make appropriate survival
decisions when confronted with the need to maintain a common space.
Ultimate survival of an organism, and of the preservation industry, is
dependent upon existing within a compatible environment. If we are not
moving then we must be losing mass. The landlord always knows when to
increase the rent.

The initial inspiration that I had to form PIN was from Tom Peters
describing the virtual organization of the future being based on the
rotation of the Rolodex. My addition to his metaphor is a realization
that rotating the Rolodex can be done either very slowly, or very fast.
My conception of the competitive organization of the future is based on
an acceleration, and increased efficiency, in the rate of rotation of
the Rolodex. The highest rate of rotation can be achieved by parallel
processing, therefore networked processing, therefore I promote the
Preservation Industry Network by constantly exploring new ways to
increase the efficiency of rotation.

Suggested reading for a clearer understanding of PIN is Stephen Covey’s,
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I am also reluctantly required,
in the spirit of honesty, to credit a small book that Newt Gingrich and
Alvin Toffler co-wrote on the topic of virtual organizations.

I confess that PIN, in my imagination, is modeled on the framework of
the Free Pissers Union, which has been in existence for 27 years. If you
want to get down to the basic identification of our mutual human
reality, cutting out all the formal garbage, there is no greater union
of freedom than that of the free pissers. Even the beer swillers cannot
boast of such an inclusive organization. But this is my subjective
perspective that I describe to define PIN, and not the perspective of
other esteemed and honorable members of PIN, who may find my Rabelaisian
world-view unworthy.

PIN has been active since January 1996. The formation of PIN consisted
of seven individuals meeting together during a winter blizzard and
deciding to network together. The first activity was a consensus
decision to have monthly breakfast meetings. It seems natural that if
you have a group of people that like to talk together that you would
elect to at least do it again. The idea was to give us an opportunity to
relate to each other outside of the “doing business” mode.

For the first year we had these breakfast meetings, usually held at a
different historically interesting location each time, then finally we
settled on one location for convenience. Common attendance at the
meetings was twenty, ten regular members, ten visiting. The meetings
were lead by a facilitator, usually had a guest speaker, and always had
an agenda. At the meetings we discussed our problems in the preservation
industry. The participants included craftspeople (stonemasons, stained
glass conservators, carpenters, painters etc.), contractors, suppliers,
architects, engineers, conservators, educators, journalists, and
property owners.

Out of the meetings a few things occurred. We went looking for APT/NY
and could not find it. We discussed 501c3 status, and found ourselves
more interested in socializing than organizational maintenance. We
decided to have a holiday dinner, and the first year 35 people showed
up, the second year was as profoundly enjoyable for attendance. We
started a series of hands-on workshops, sponsored by a local supplier,
with the intent of bridging the gap between design and realization. We
had field trips to a cement plant and a brick factory. We went to
Poland, as an APT delegation, with the idea of establishing a Poland/US
conduit for exchange within the international preservation industry. We
issued a FAX newsletter, sponsored by Traditional Building, which was
distributed on a national basis to over 500 Pinheads.
Bullamanka-Pinheads was initiated as an online e-mail forum to encourage
dialogue within the preservation industry. We worked with a professional
graphic designer on a logo, which included several enlightening focus
group sessions. We organized a reception, for Polish preservationists
visiting the US, at the Polish consulate in NYC that was attended by
more than 100 people. And we decided to stop having monthly breakfast
meetings because of the rabble we were attracting. All of this we did
without a bank account.

Often we find that there are people who are uncomfortable with the
concepts presented by a virtual organization and therefore we strive to
offer solace in a more conventional approach to life. PIN is a committee
of The Association for Preservation Technology International. This gives
PIN a legal relationship with an existing preservation organization that
has a 30-year history, and that can be recognized for inclusion in it’s
membership of a diversity of people brought together by a commonly
shared appreciation of our built environment. At the first meeting of
PIN, in January 1996, the decision was made to align the networking
activities with APT. The formal alignment occurred in February 1997 when
PIN was voted by the APT board as a committee of APT. PIN most
accurately functions as an outreach activity of APT, and therefore works
with the other committees of APT to expand the sphere of influence of
historic preservation ideologies. PIN actively encourages membership in
APT. I am currently the chair of the PIN committee within APT.

][<en Follett 4/18/98