Review and Outlook

We finally got around to publishing the second half of the Camposanto article that began in Volume IX Issue No. 1 last year, and I hope that you will agree that it was worth the wait. First of all, I want to thank Paul Dangel for stepping forward and volunteering to produce the maps that accompany the Camposanto article. These are done in a manner similar in style to the maps that Christopher Duffy uses, i.e. they identify individual units and regiments. The

bottom line is that maps are essential to telling the story of any battle or campaign, and I am pleased to announce that Paul Dangel will be joining the Journal staff as the Official Cartographer of the SYWA Journal.

I also want to thank Jim Mitchell for helping me track down information in his capacity as Assistant Editor. It is my hope that with the assistance of Jim, Paul and many other members, we can keep up the quality of the Journal (if not improve on it) and get back to publishing on a more timely schedule. I have also enlisted the aid of a local letter shop to handle the stuffing, sorting, bundling and mailing of the Journal.

Finally, I plan to take some of the members up on their offers to type articles and/or purchase a document scanner. It occurred to me that typing a 12 page article is not the most fun thing to do after a long day at the office, particularly when the technology exists to automate the process to some degree. Along the same line, if prospective authors can send me their articles on a 3.5" disc (along with a printed copy, of course) then this will facilitate the production end of the Journal, saving me a lot of time and grunt work, and resulting in everyone getting their copy of the Journal on time.

Collectively, these efforts will take some of the burden of producing the Journal off of my shoulders and ward off a recurrence of the "burn-out" that I was feeling over the past year. I want to see how the production process goes over these next two issues before making any final decisions on the frequency of publication.

Wish List

It would be my wish to publish at least three or possbily four issues per year and hopefully the delegation of some of the work will allow me to maintain such a schedule. I do want to say that my energy level has been restored after slowing down the frequency of issues this past year.

For now I look forward to pumping out the next two issues of this Journal. Meanwhile, please note that Volume IX Issue No. 4 (the next issue) is set to be mailed in June 1997. One of the things that has renewed my sense of excitement is the upcoming convention scene, and as discussed below and elsewere in this issue, it now appears that we will have two major 18th Century military history conventions each year: Tricon on the east coast and the SYWA convention in the midwest.

Wargame Conventions

It appears that Byron Champlin's Tricon Convention was a great success, so much so that Byron and his team are set to host another convention in October 1997. After reading Byron's convention report, I got so excited that I made up my mind to attend Tricon 97 this fall. For a long time I have felt that the SYWA needed to have another convention on the east coast, and I am sure that the 100 plus attendees of Tricon would agree that Byron has come up with a winner! I hope to see many of you there in October.

Annual SYWA Convention

It is time to start preparing for a weekend of fun, good fellowship and history at the annual Seven Years War Association Convention in South Bend, Indiana. This year's convention will be held on Friday April 11 and Saturday April 12 at the Holiday Inn Downtown in South Bend. The address is 213 Washington Street. A block of rooms have been reserved for the SYWA at a cost of $65.00 per night per room. Reservations can be made by calling the Holiday Inn at (219) 232-3941. You can also call the Holiday Inn's toll-free national reservations number [1-800 HOLIDAY] to make reservations. Note Well: Please make sure that you tell the reservation office or toll-frce clerk that you are with the SYWA if you want to get the Associations room rate discount, otherwise the price will be higher:

This year we will open the doors at 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning and have wargames available all day Friday in addition to the traditional Saturday gaming and evening banquet. This is a departure from the past when we opened the doors late Friday afternoon. Henceforth, the convention will commence on Friday morning, so do try to come early and join in the fun as we start a new tradition.

As usual, there will be a dinner banquet on Saturday night. Let me stress the importance of pre-registering for the banquet if you expect to join us for dinner. Last year, 50 people signed up for the banquet and another 50 walked in at the last minute. This put a tremendous logistical strain on the hotel, which initially did not have enough staff on hand to handle the extra people.

Fortunately the hotel was able to handle the last minute changes, but don't expect them to be so accomodating in the future. So please help our convention planners by pre-registering for the banquet ahead of time. Little things like that can make a big difference in the overall success of the convention.

The convention cost for members is a reasonable $30.00 for a weekend of gaming plus the banquet. Non-members will pay $35.00 Or you can attend the convention and skip the banquet for $15.00 for the weekend or pay $10.00 for a single day's admission.

This year we are honored to have Christopher Duffy as our special convention guest. Professor Duffy will deliver a lecture on Friday evening relating to the effectiveness or lack thereof of the Croats on the SYW battlefield.

On Saturday night, Duffy's theme shall shift from the "Bad Guys Win Show" of past years to "The Good Guys Finally Win One"; and how! The topic for Saturday will be that unfortunate little affair known as the Battle of Maxen, wherein Finck's isolated Prussian corps is on the receiving end of the new Austrian tactic of converging columns.

I hope that everyone will take advantage of the opportunity to meet Christopher Duffy and to participate in a large number of quality wargames covering nearly every aspect of mid-18th Century warfare. Last year we had a record attendance of 120 people from all corners of the US. Let's see if we can top last year's attendance mark. Individuals interested in running a convention game or purchasing dealer tables should contact Paul Petri is at e-mail Ziethen@aol.com. Brian Vizek is handling banquet reservations and game registrations, so send your check for $30.00 payable to "Brian Vizek" as soon as possible (so that he can pay the hotel for the rent and banquet).

New Recruits Needed!

Every organization needs to grow, if for no other reason than to inject new blood and enthusiasm into the group. Think about your first exposure to the SYWA -- perhaps it was through one of our unique wargame conventions, or one of our members got you hooked on wargaming the period and recruited you into the Association.

If you enjoy the SYWA activities and publications, then why not share your enthusiasm for the period with your fellow historians and wargamers and invite them to join the Association. Membership dues support the publication of the Journal, speakers' fees, translation services, archieval research and convention activities. So I would like to ask everyone to try to recruit another wargamer into the SYWA so that we can continue to grow and expand our group activities.

The British Are Coming?

For the past year I have been giving some thought to publishing a companion jounal dedicated to the American Revolution, or as they say in Merry Olde England, the American War of independence. A majority of readers expressed an interest in this idea on the survey that I included with the subscription renewal form for the current year's volume. Obviously, I do not want to go ahead with this project if it is going to interfere with the SYWA Journal, since that will always get my priodty. However, given some of the changes mentioned earlier in this editorial, I now think it is possible to do both publications.

My plan would be to publish the American Revolution Journal twice a year (spring and fall) with a volume covering a two-year period of time. If there is sufficient interest in the project, then I can revisit the idea two years hence. Subscriptions would be $25.00/$30.00 (domestic/international) for four issues published over two years. I hope to have the first issue of this publication available in time for the Seven Years War Association convention, so that members can have a look-see before signing up.

One final note: we would like to include more French & Indian War content in the lournal, but to date, Jim Mitchell has received only one article for publication. Several readers were very vocal in what they perceived as a lack of attention to this period. I would suggest that the lack of articles received speaks volumes for the type of content that most interests the members.

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