What The Heck Happened LHSA?

[d30gaijin]

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I have been an LHSA member for maybe 20 or more years and I'd like to know what the heck happened to the LHSA web site?  There is no place/link I can find on the site to ask a question anymore.  And what happened to the Classifieds section?  Is accountability to the members gone with recent changes?

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[d30gaijin]

On top of that, several years ago I donated some valuable Leica historical documents to LHSA, price sheets and products listing from the 1920's and now it seems they have simply disappeared.  There is no link on the LHSA site to search for items intended to be made available to all members.  It appears no members would even know they exist? A couple years ago I was going to donate a brand new in the box Leica R3 MOT camera with motor... but something didn't seem right when I was badgered several times where said donation was.  I now wonder if that would simply have disappeared too?

Someone please enlighten me as to what is going on?  Is there a LHSA library of donated items all members can access?

[Richard Rejino]

Hello and thank you for your message. 

To your first point regarding contacting us on the LHSA website, thank you for letting us know that there is no obvious way to do that! We will ask our webmaster to add a Contact Us option in the menu. There is a information on how to contact us in the "About" page, but I completely agree that it should be easier and more obvious. We are constantly tweaking the website to improve it and sometimes the most obvious things are overlooked. So, again, thank you.

Regarding the classified section, it was not carried over from the old website to the new one since it had little to no use in the last few years by our members. 

Regarding the documents you donated to LHSA, please let me know when you made the donation and I will investigate to see what happened. You may email me at info@lhsa.org.

You are probably aware that on our website we have a new Archive library (https://www.lhsa.org/lhsa-document-archive) where all issues of the Viewfinder are kept as well as 16 other categories that include camera manuals, accessories, catalogues and much more. LHSA has hundreds/thousands of historical documents in archive storage that are being scanned and added to the Archive Library on a regular basis. This is a member only section.

I hope this answers your questions. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you

Richard Rejino, Executive Director

LHSA - The International Leica Society

[davidmknoble]

@d30gaijin, first, thank you for being a member for 20 years!  Also, thank you for donating documents over time to help keep some history of Lecias availble that can sometimes become lost for good.  I wanted you to also know that while we all liked the old website for LHSA, security patches and other software changes made the template and hosting of our site in the old form unworkable.  

As Richard pointed out, your idea of easier access to contacting LHSA is spot on.  It's only through suggestions like this that we can improve the LHSA website.  

@rrejino, thank you for your note as well. 

[davidmknoble]

@d30gaijin, I also realized we have a second link to historical documents:  https://www.lhsa.org/historical-leica-literature

However, they all point to the same place.  So regardless of how you get there, as a member, you have access to this information.  Catalogs is also a section in the archives.  Hope this helps!

 

[d30gaijin]

5 hours ago, davidmknoble said:

@d30gaijin, I also realized we have a second link to historical documents:  https://www.lhsa.org/historical-leica-literature

However, they all point to the same place.  So regardless of how you get there, as a member, you have access to this information.  Catalogs is also a section in the archives.  Hope this helps!

 

Thank you.  As I feared the documents I donated from my personal collection are nowhere to be found on the web site.  Kind of thinking they disappeared into an LHSA members personal collection.  I realize that is a terrible accusation but what am I to think?  The documents were a complete catalog listing of all Leica/Leitz products for 1929 (I think, might have been earlier, but was definitely not later).  The thought that documents I found and felt needed to be in the LHSA archive have disappeared makes me sick.

 

Don 

[d30gaijin]

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7 hours ago, Richard Rejino said:

Hello and thank you for your message. 

To your first point regarding contacting us on the LHSA website, thank you for letting us know that there is no obvious way to do that! We will ask our webmaster to add a Contact Us option in the menu. There is a information on how to contact us in the "About" page, but I completely agree that it should be easier and more obvious. We are constantly tweaking the website to improve it and sometimes the most obvious things are overlooked. So, again, thank you.

Regarding the classified section, it was not carried over from the old website to the new one since it had little to no use in the last few years by our members. 

Regarding the documents you donated to LHSA, please let me know when you made the donation and I will investigate to see what happened. You may email me at info@lhsa.org.

You are probably aware that on our website we have a new Archive library (https://www.lhsa.org/lhsa-document-archive) where all issues of the Viewfinder are kept as well as 16 other categories that include camera manuals, accessories, catalogues and much more. LHSA has hundreds/thousands of historical documents in archive storage that are being scanned and added to the Archive Library on a regular basis. This is a member only section.

I hope this answers your questions. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you

Richard Rejino, Executive Director

LHSA - The International Leica Society

The LHSA web site is no longer user friendly, nor seemingly intended for member use.  Can you not add a "Classified" section?  I realize it was likely dominated by high dollar collectors and their ilk, but it was a useable feature to reach out to other LHSA members if one had a few things to sell.

 

I am feeling a lot more distance from the LHSA because of the new web site.  Something is just plain off about it.  I've been a member for over 20 years and now feel further distanced from the membership and LHSA directors/Board than ever before.  Not sure I can put my finger on it other than the web site just feels non responsive to members.

Thanks for listening,
Don 

[bradhusick]

Don, I had a lot to do with the new website, so I am particularly interested in your feedback. We added a contact email at the bottom of the homepage today.

If you develop some specific website ideas, please share them directly with me. The classified section on the old site had so little traffic that I am surprised anyone ever sold anything, regardless of rarity or price. Some of the listings were up for years, and the total number of listings was most often less than 20. Since that time there have been many websites that are excellent ways to buy and sell Leica gear other than "the bay" including right here on L-Forum. 

We're featuring more member content than ever before, and our social media channels are growing very rapidly. Perhaps you can check out @leicasociety and #leicasociety on Instagram and Facebook, where member interaction is more real-time. 

I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas, and thanks for being a long-time member.

Brad Husick, President.

[bradhusick]

20 hours ago, d30gaijin said:

I have been an LHSA member for maybe 20 or more years and I'd like to know what the heck happened to the LHSA web site?  There is no place/link I can find on the site to ask a question anymore.  And what happened to the Classifieds section?  Is accountability to the members gone with recent changes?

Don, I forgot to answer your question. YES! The new place for members to ask questions is: https://www.lhsa.org/ask-the-expert

[willeica]

12 hours ago, d30gaijin said:

Thank you.  As I feared the documents I donated from my personal collection are nowhere to be found on the web site.  Kind of thinking they disappeared into an LHSA members personal collection.  I realize that is a terrible accusation but what am I to think?  The documents were a complete catalog listing of all Leica/Leitz products for 1929 (I think, might have been earlier, but was definitely not later).  The thought that documents I found and felt needed to be in the LHSA archive have disappeared makes me sick.

 

Don 

Don

I was also involved with the update of the LHSA website, which created a very substantial amount of work for a group of unpaid volunteers. As the only member of the LHSA Board from outside the US, I have started a new section showing Leica happenings (auctions, exhibitions and courses etc) in Europe, but a lot more needs to be done, including giving a more global focus to our social media as we have members all around the world. 

The website is a work in progress and you were right to point out difficulties in finding out how to communicate with LHSA. I hope that has been resolved to your satisfaction.

As a collector, I have a particular interest in old Leica literature and your 1929 document sounds very interesting. I have many historical Leica publications myself, in various languages, which I have obtained here in Europe and which are not on the LHSA website. When the historical literature system gets bedded down, I intend to upload my own material and also to put out a call for material on this site and on other relevant collector sites.

In the meantime, if you can send me a personal mail on this Forum, giving details of the documents you provided, and to whom, I will follow this up for you. If what you describe is correct, that should not have happened. Old Leica literature and documents, particularly from the very early days, are invaluable and need to be preserved and made available to the wider collector community which is, of course, what our new section on the LHSA website is intended to do.

Making material like this available involves time, effort and costs. Even Leica itself does not have all of the resources necessary to keep up with this. When I was in the Leica Archives last September I was shown a box of old Leica catalogues in various languages and I was asked what did I think they should do with them. I will be following up on this on my next visit to Wetzlar, but I am mentioning this to indicate the size of the task involved.

William

[bradhusick]

I reached out to Don and we had a good interaction.

Edited January 30, 2022 by bradhusick