President Speaks

The Strategy Gaming Society is the best-kept secret in the hobby. And that has got to change.

Auction

With regards to the Auction, the following items were sold:
“Wooden Ships and Iron Men” (donated by Sam Thornton) sold for $10.
“Wavell's 30,000” (donated by George Phillies) - sold for $5.
The winning bidders will be contacted shortly.

The bid for the other item is “Line of Fire”-BSO Games Board Wargame, donated by George Phillies-seven dollars. If this bid holds through the next issue, the item will be sold. Send bids to 896 West San Fernando, San Jose, CA 95126.

To date, I have not received any recruits in the contest announced in July. Not one. The grand prize for the most new members (five or more) brought in by 31 December of this year will be mint copies of the following GMT Games: “Air Bridge to Victory”, “Silver Bayonet”, and “Lost Victory”. In addition, everyone who brings in five new members will also receive a mint copy of the XTR game “Smithereens” (last six months in World War II). Additional prizes may be added as I wheel and deal and (unlike previous recruitment contests) all of these prizes will be awarded.

But you have to recruit at least five new members to qualify, so spread the word. I honestly hope that I will have to send out one hundred prizes.

If you are sending memberships directly to George, please let him know that you should be credited with the renewal. He will pass the information on to me so that an accurate tally can be maintained.

I hope that you have all taken the time to study the proposed amendment to the Society Constitution that was in last month's issue. I support this amendment and hope that when it comes to a vote that you will all give it your due diligence and ultimately support it with your “YES” votes.

As always, if there is any matter that you feel needs to be brought to the attention of the President, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Treasurer

Counting the end-of August Member expiration, we have 113 members. New member-Herb Petro, 2006 Onota, Indian Trail NC Renewals-Graber (Canada) , Schaff, Patrick Kelley, Sheldon, Roberts (2 years), Brown Change of Address-Jason Graham, POB 196, Rocky Face, GA [This change may not actually have happened yet.] Disbursements: To Editor: $655.72 for May, June, July, and August Strategists, and printing and postage for distributing the Constitution and By-Laws. $30 to Editorial advance account (transfer via PayPal for membership(s). Counting checks now being mailed to the bank, we have over $3200 on hand.

I turn now to the Constitutional Amendment. The proposed amendment removes fundamental protections that we, the members, currently have. At present, you know what is in the Treasury, what is being spent, and (see above) who your fellow members are. You see that because your Treasurer is required to make a monthly report. If the officers make a complete mess of things, you as the members can reach each other to take corrective action. Lack of this protection finally doomed our predecessor organization, the International Federation of Wargaming. We should keep in place the protections that the Society's founders, Kevin Slimak, Mark Swanson, Rodman Burr, and I, deployed to protect us all as members. You should do this by not endorsing the proposed Constitutional Amendment.

Elections

Region Ten Regional Director: Peter DeRosa-2; Voting: DeRosa, Phillies De Rosa wins

Recalling the SGS By-Laws:

“Nominations for all officers shall be called in the September Strategist. Any member may nominate or run for National Office. Any member may nominate a Regional Director, but only persons who reside in a Region for the majority of the year may run for its Regional Directorship. A person may nominate himself.”

Elections are hereby called for all National Offices and for all 11 Regional Directorships. Please send your nominations to the Editor, George Phillies, 87-6 Park Avenue, Worcester MA 01605 by September 27, 2003. Nominees will be notified of their status, and asked to accept or decline, as soon as I receive the nominations. A first list of nominees will appear in the October issue. Please contact me if you want mailing labels for reaching your fellow members.

Constitutional Amendment

The By-Laws provide:

When the Editor received the initiative and the written support of enough sponsors, the proposal is printed in the Strategist (issue \#1). Opinions on the proposal are sent to the Editor, who is to print a fair sampling in the following issue of Strategist (issue \#2) along with a ballot. If the author of the proposal submits a statement it must be given priority for publication.

I have received supporting statements from six members (5% of the membership) for an amendment reading:

The following is a replacement for the current II.D and II.E on duties of the Treasurer and Membership Secretary:

“II. Officers
D. The duties of the Treasurer shall be:
2. to maintain the financial records of the SGS.
5. to furnish the other officers with necessary information on the finances of the SGS.
E. The duties of the Membership Secretary shall be:
1. to maintain the membership records of the SGS and to receive new members into the SGS.
2. to furnish the other officers with necessary information on the membership of the SGS”

The supporting members were Kramer, Tibbetts, York, Leviloff, Chiu, and Zollitsch. We now proceed to statements of support or opposition. Please get them to me, preferably electronically, by the due date for the next issue.

OSG News

OSG writes us: In order to keep our games before the public at a reasonable price we have ceased selling to discount mail order houses and to domestic distributors, including all the on-line stores that offer deep discounts. At the same time we have dropped about 60 traditional store-fronts from our active list of accounts. These are the stores that have placed no orders or only one in the last two years. We will be focusing on the remaining fifty accounts, and our overseas distributors.

GenCon Rocked!

We saw a lot of you at the show and hopefully you noticed the constant crowd that we had of folks registering to check us out and to get a free month of gaming. With just a ten foot booth and three people, we were able to register nearly 1,000 people for the site!

Many gaming dignitaries and representatives from larger publishers also came by to see our service first hand. It is clear, now that we have launched, that we are on the radar of the industry. The show is a great step in our effort to get the word out about our site.