This issue marks the end of Volume VII, which means that all subscriptions expire and need to be renewed if you wish to receive the four issues comprising Volume VIII. Please take a few moments to fill out the enclosed subscription renewal form and return it to me (at my new address) with your payment. Subscription prices will increase slightly to $25.00 per year for members who reside in the USA and $30.00 (US $) for members in Canada and the rest of the world. International members should be pleased to hear that their copies of the Seven Years War Association Journal will now be delivered via first class airmail, rather than by surface mail. This should get the publication into your hands within a week of the mailing date.

New Address for SYWA Journal

In the last issue I announced my intention to move to Lexington, KY and pursue plans to operate a bed and breakfast inn for historical garners. To make a long story short, these plans did not materialize and as a result, I will remain in the Chicago area (in Evanston, IL), but I will be moving to a new address in Evanston, effective August 31, 1994. Please note the following change of address for the Journal and remit your subscriptions and future correspondences to the following

The past year has been a very tumultuous one for me what with a job search, business start-up plans, selling my house and moving back and forth between Evanston and Lexington, and as a consequence, the last two issues of Volume VII have been very late. I want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding, in what has been a trying year for me, and I will do my best to ensure that the issues in Volume VIII are published on a regular basis. The future looks much brighter and I look forward to a successful and quieter 1994-95 season.

Next Project

The next project on the publishing schedule is to prepare a new membership directory and mail it to the members this Fall. Admittedly the association membership is concentrated around Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, but increasingly, there are growing pockets of SYWA all across the United States. There appears to be a rather active group centered around Atlanta, Georgia and an Age of Reason - Sport of Kings campaign in Oklahoma has generated a number of new members to the association. The Mid-Atlantic area, stretching from New Jersey to North Carolina boasts approximately 50 members within a three or four hour drive of Washington D.C. and I've often thought that this would be an ideal place for an Eastern Regional SYWA convention. Apparently, Tim Tilson had the same idea and he took it upon himself to organize a one day miniconvention in the metro Washington DC area on June 26 of this year. Dispite little publicity, 15 members turned out for this event, which is pretty good for a first time effort. So I'd like to thank Tim for taking the reins and being the "man on horseback" who organized this event. Tim plans to try it again in February 1995 and I'd like to encourage anyone interested in hosting a game at this event to contact Tim Tilson at 3208 Traveler Street. in Fairtax . Virginia 22030.

Man on Horseback

Another "man on horseback" award should go to Dean West and Jim Mitchell, who have volunteered to organize the 1995 SYWA Convention in South Bend, Indiana . Dean reports that the convention dates have been shifted to April 7 - 8, 1995, instead of the week before as reported in the last issue of this Journal. Please refer to Dean's letter on page 70-71 for an update on next year's convention. It's not too late to mark your calendars and make plans to attend.

I would also like to take a moment to thank Jim Mitchell for his excellent article(s) on King George's War in North America. He spent a considerable amount of time researching the Louisbourg Campaign of 1745 and his article included 142 footnotes, referring to source material and/or providing additional explanation of events. A lack of space compelled me to delete, reluctantly, these footnotes from Jim's text. If anyone would like a copy of Jim's original manuscript with footnotes, then send me a note along with $4.00 (copying cost plus postage) and I will run off a copy of this work att the local print shop.

Backlog

I am excited by the growing backlog of articles that will be published in Volume VIII. Dean West is working on an article about Marshal de Saxe and Fontenoy, while Peter Lenders of The Netherlands has enough material on the Dutch Army during the War of Austrian Succession to fill a complete issue. Collectively, we seem to know very little about the Dutch army during this period, so I'm especially looking forward to the information that Peter has been able to compile on the subject. The mention of "Camposanto Fever" has elicited a response from Luigi Casali of Italy and so I anticipate an issue devoted to the campaigns in Italy from 1741 to 1748.

A number of readers have written asking for reports on Christopher Duffy's Alte Fritz tour of eastern Germany and the Czech Republic during the Spring of 1994. Mike Schundler was kind enough to submit a few of his impressions of the trip for this issue, and I'd like to invite other tour participants to submit a few thoughts and words about the trip for publication in the Journal. Hopefully we can share our tour experiences with the membership in future issues.

I am also looking for articles about Croats, Frei Korps and French Light Infantry to include in a special Kleine Kreig issue that will focus on the light infantry and skirmish warfare in Europe during the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. In a related area, has anyone tried skirmish gaming with those pesky Croats versus the Prussians or emulated the daring raids of Von Luckner versus the French on the wargame table? If so, a wargame report on the same would make for good reading in the Journal. The European theater of operations is an untapped subject for skirmish gaming in the SYW and I have always wondered why we don't see more wargames of this type at our annual convention. Imagine how much fun it would be to raid a Prussian field bakery, or dare I suggest, to attempt the kidnapping of His Royal Nibs, Alte Fritz? There is much food for thought here. See you next issue.