WE HAD A DREAM!* 20 years ago this October, several concerned historical miniature wargamers met in the basement of Wally Simon’s house near Washington, DC to explore what could be done to improve the lot of Historical Miniature Wargaming at the nation’s wargame conventions. Many of us had been supporting conventions like Gen Con and the GAMA show over the past years. We had noticed the (very) short shrift that was given to historical gamers to make room for board gamers and role players at these conventions. On occasion we had even been shipped out of a room in mid-game to make room for a role player game overflow and, once, had to make do in a class room with side table seats to play a miniatures game! The final blow had been when GAMA’s Best New Historical Figure Line Award was won by a set of cardboard counters designed to be used with a set of miniature rules - System 7. This later event was what prompted me and Leo Cronin to contact Wally Simon, Pat Condray and Ed Mohrman to set up a meeting of East Coast clubs to see what could be done ( to see a complete listing of those who attended “the Meeting in Wally’s Basement”, see the Historical Miniature Timeline at The Courier’s Web Site - http://www.thecouriermagazine.com -and click on ‘1980’. From these small beginnings HMGS was born (a detailed history of the first years of HMGS is available from Pat Condray for $5 - He advertises under Historical Products Co. on page 2 of this issue - ED). Our goals were to promote and promulgate the hobby. A historical only convention was proposed to have our own venue where we would not be regulated to small classrooms and as a way to raise money to fund the main goal of promoting the hobby. Membership was to extend to gamers who wanted to support the hobby in these goals. It was believed that members would recognize that the Society existed to push the hobby and be it protagonist and that service was provided by making the hobby bigger, more well known, and more acceptable thus increasing the market for manufacturers and thus generating more toys for the gamers. Dues were for the support of that service and NOT to provide services to its members - similar to what the American Rifle Association does for its members. In 20 years we have been successful beyond our wildest dreams in the area of having conventions where we need not worry about being pushed into small table-less classrooms. We have had boardgame conventions who once would not give us the time of day come to us for advice and Gama and Gen-Con roll out the red carpet when we provide historical miniature games for them. In 20 years we have raised plenty of money through these conventions to the point that HMGS carries a $60,000 + bank balance and has the cash flow to spend over $100,000/year to put on these conventions. In 20 years we have protected the hobby - particularly in the infamous New York State Court case attempting to ban lead figures and toys from the US - we joined GAMA, our earlier nemesis, in this effort. In 20 years however, we HAVE NOT met the original goal, the “dream”, - to promote the hobby to the general public in an attempt to get more people interested, - to promote the hobby to the general public to improve its image. In 20 years we have not convinced the members that HMGS is here NOT to service THEM, but to service the HOBBY. There are too many who feel that the conventions are the only purpose of HMGS and that their $10/year should get them $100/year of palpable benefit. The benefit is in growing the hobby - a rising tide that raises all ships - I hope that we can meet that goal in the next 20 years! * With apologies to Dr. King Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #82 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com