Well, summer wends its way onward and as usual I'm scrambling to fill up the last fraction of a page before I print and mail the originals off to our Great Helmsman, President and Publisher (Zong, long life to him! Stormy applausefor the next 5 minutes.). Apart from a perennial need for little tiny bits to fill up the corners, I continue to be well supplied with excellent original material from SGS members to publish in Strategist. I'm just bowled over by the quality of the submissions and the thought that went into them, and am very grateful. While I may have given the zine an idiosyncratic look during my time as editor so far, the content is not so - merciful for you, for what if I had had to write the whole issue as well as edit it?

This issue we see a piece from a new member, Mark Wegierski, who comments on one of the "near future history" games published by SPI in the mid to late 1970s Minuteman, the Second American Revolution. Mark has also written pieces on After the Holocaust, Invasion: America, and a "far future history" article that weaves together the projected futures contained in most of SPI's science fiction games. I will be running these over the remainder of the year. We also have something new: an interview with a game designer! Erik Arneson interviewed the designer of OCTI, winner of the 2000 "Best Abstract Strateg Game" from Games magazine. Erik is a member of the SGS and runs the About Board Games site at http://boardgames.about.com/, where he regularly features interviews with game designers. I may also be running more interviews in future.

Finally, I advertise the URL for the SGS website at the bottom of each page of Strategist, but how many of you know that there is an SGS-related discussion area at Consimworld.com, hub of activity with over 7,400 registered users? Go to http://talk.consimworld.com/, then go to the "Consim Cafe" area, then to the "Clubs and Organizations" area. So far only I and two other members (go there to find out who they are) have been using it; it's kind of like huddling in the corner of a Big White Room, scratching secret pictures into your leg and crooning an endless tune to yourself while waiting for the noon medication, except that you can do it from the office (unless that's what you already do at the office). So join us in Ward S!