For this year's wrap on the convention we have several reports. I will give you mine in a brief and concise way. Although several games arrived at Origins, none arrived with thunder and lightning. We did not have new product, we sold about $3,500 and spent $6,000, hmm let's look at how we do things here. The fest was a success from what I was told, although the amount of sand in the gears this year was at an all time high on several levels as far as getting the gears lined up (badges, check-in, hotel, etc.).

The booth looked better, but not good enough; the crew was much better. Sally Watson gets special credit for introducing, "Europa: The Jewelry Section", with her custom made earrings. Given the current look of the majority of the attendees, next year we will have nose rings, lip rings, etc. (scratch that, bad idea).

Special note of thanks to Kevin Fitzpatrick who is now in charge of GR/D's Headquarters Store program, our booth at Origins, and general think-tank ops for GR/D. He did a splendid job for us. Alan Tibbetts ran the Europafest room, Rich Velay answered questions, a special appearance by Rick Gayler, always welcome, Frank Watson, who edited our convention, Arthur Goodwin, soon to move to right here in Grinnell (the second week of September), Eric Pierce for his demo of MtV, Mark Royer for his demo of WoR, and anyone else who I have forgotten, (excuse me for that, Tom).

We had two elements necessary for a good party, hot food and cold beer (and sodas) with Sally running the bar. Unknown to most and revealed here for the first time, GR/D was the sole sponsor of the War College party which was a great success (except for the rather stealth-like advertising of the event).

In general, the attendance of the convention was up about 7%, but our attendance at the test was down about 17% (time and tide, perhaps). We will be doing Europafest X, next year at Origins. Planning for this event is underway at this time. Rich Velay with Frank Watson will be running (what we now call) the war room. Several comments about the fest have been made and we are acting on them.

The black and gold Europa banner will be displayed outside the room, handouts will be given at the booth to make the fest more user friendly, more info will be in the magazine, more game planning will occur, etc. etc. If you have any comments or suggestions we would like to hear them. Send them to me, please.

That is the buzz from this end of the word processor. Those that were there had a whacking good time, which is, after all, the point of the exercise.

Origins 1998

Now we begin the planning for next year. It will be held over July 2-4 next year, back to the holiday weekend. This means that about 500,000 people will be attending the "Red, White and Boom" festival held by the city. That is not a bad thing, but, you gotta move early if you want rooms. With that in mind we will be doing advertising here for the convention and may make a special mailing or two for you giving hotel numbers, etc. to help in your planning.

Europafest will hold its tenth gathering. Mr. Velay and Mr. Watson are the hosts for GR/D.

The company, GR/D wishes to extend thanks to Mr. Hanna who helped out by knowing where things are in Columbus, getting us there and back, and hauling things. Thanks.

We are asking for volunteers for next year. The benefit package is listed in this magazine. Read the ad. If you are interested, let us know. The ad will run in all issues leading up to Origins '98 or until we have the crew slots filled.

Fitzpatrick will be in charge, we are going to have a theme at the booth, we will be in a new position in the dealers room and we will do a better job in several other respects of managing and promoting the fest and GR/D activities.

There will be no more Task Force GR/D. The time and resources used for the Task Force will be directed elsewhere.

Again, thanks to those who attended, hope to see you and more next year.

UPDATE - X-Files Europa Project:

I received e-mail that the group is nearly complete in acquiring the finances necessary to connect WitD with East Africa. Here is an e- mail address of the leader of this project. For more info, email him, or write to us. His e-mail address is:

srtitus@ozemail.com.au

He responds quite quickly.

That's it, see you next issue.