In this issue we have both bad news and good news and bad news. First the bad news. The hobby has lost George Jeffrey of VLB fame at the young age of 58. See the story of his wargame accomplishments in the Courier Dispatch. This make 3 issues in a row that we have had to print obituaries of leaders in the hobby - Tony Bath, Charley Sweet and now George. A sad time! The good news is the addition of two new editors to our staff. I have long felt that we have to do more in the Colonial area and have brought on board Steve Winter who has a great deal of editorial experience and has his own very well done Colonial Web site. Our new Napoleonic Editor is Rob Hamper who started out with a bang in bringing us our first article with color photos - Prussian Cavalry Flags. Welcome to both - there is detailed wargame biography of each in The Courier Dispatch. In addition we have a new Advertising Manager, Pete English. I have known Pete since he was a teenager, just getting into the hobby, now a Massachusetts State Policeman he has been heavily involved in making the local convention, Havoc, the success that it is. He has worked very hard over the years at all the HMGS conventions, where you can find him putting on some great Western Gunfight or WWII games or toiling behind the registration booth. Pete is a hard worker and will greatly enhance our interface with advertisers. A SURVEY From time to time we run a survey of the needs and wargame spending habits of our readers. This is important on two counts. The spending habits help our advertisers better determine how to bring their message to you and, hopefully to bring more and new advertisers to our pages. The second is that the survey gives us a much better view of what you are looking for in the magazine. Our new napoleonic editor had a few questions too so that he can provide the articles that you want. Please take the time to answer these few questions. Use the dummy wrap that is used to send in renewals, etc if you are a subscriber. If you are not then just send in a postcard with the information on it. By the way, non-subscribers can always use the latter method to send in their Volley Fire responses if they want to be counted. CONVENTION SEASON We are now coming into the major convention season. Cold Wars, Historicon, Fall In, Little Wars, and more. Every gamer should make the attempt to get to a large convention once in a while. Every new period that I got into was as a result of playing in a game at a convention of because of a new line of figures sold there. There is no better venue for seeing the great terrain ideas that your fellow gamers are coming up with. Some really gorgeous stuff! I hope to be at Cold Wars and for sure will be at Historicon (The Courier will sponsor some 60 games in the Paradise Room at the Lancaster Host), Look for me and say hello! LATENESS OF THIS ISSUE I never thought I’d see the day that a bankruptcy of a large American cooperation would affect a small entity like The Courier but that day has arrived, and in spades! This issue has been finished and ready for the printer for almost a month but without the photos for the Reviewing Stand. The bankruptcy of Polaroid Corporation held up the special film that Bill Keyser uses for the review shots. Why not go to another system, you ask...well we were promised the film each and every day and each and every day there was further delay! Don’t worry, a new system is in place for next issue in the form of a digital camera. - there will be no more delays because we can’t get pictures! Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #84 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 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