IMPORTANT NOTICE!

Check your wallets or wherever you keep your HMGS Great Lakes membership card and make sure you have one. I received a call from George Koncar reporting that I messed up and never sent him one. If your membership ran out in '96, your card is pink and you need to renew. If your card is blue, your membership rims out some time this year. If you have just renewed or joined your card should be a white 1997/98 with black and brown printing and a Continental soldier on the right side. You need your card to get discounts from Friends of Great Lakes stores and at HMGS shows like Cold Wars. Make sure you have your card with you or the people out east won't know your a member of HMGS and will try to get you to join up which is not necessary.

MEMBERSHIP LIST

Due to a very high renewal rate and the late delivery of the last HERALD (Nov/Dec) I will not publish our annual membership list until issue sixteen. When you receive your copy please check for any mistakes and let me know about them. Thanks.

MAIL

I mailed out 173 issues of the last HERALD. This included all members, Friends of Great Lakes (shops and venders at ATC '96), the national BOD and other HMGS newsletter editors. When we reach two hundred we can start using bulk-mail rates and reduce our postal costs. The following is where it all went.

43zip-51 (22 in Columbus), 44zip-14, 45zip-48, CA-2, CO-I, CT-1, FL-2, IL-4, IN-9, :S-l, KY-4, LA-1, MA-l, MD-2, MI-15, NY-1, OK-2, PA-9, TN-I, VA-2, WA-1, WV-1

LEAFLETS:

If you were at Historicon last year you may have noticed the "Whys, Whats and How of HMGS" pamphlets published by HMGS-East, a very nice color leaflet describing our organization and informing people how to join. East printed thousands of these and offered them to all of the chapters to take home and slap our addresses on them for local recruiting. I have sent some of these to our Friends and I would like to get some more out there. So if you know a shop owner who would like to display them and/or join our Friends list let me know.

FIGURES:

I received a couple of miniatures from Guernsey Foundry, a little sister to Wargames Foundry and run by Mark Copplestone and Bryan Ansell. The scale is 28mm, not bad for the going-bald-and-blind set like myself, and are (so far) townsmen, cowhands, shootists, Apaches, Mexicans, Prussians, Swedish freikorps and Cossacks (I like the photos of the Cossacks). If you're interested you can contact them at 1549 Marview Dr, Westlake, OH 44145, 216 871 4587 or fax 829 5587 or via your local hobby shop.

INCIDENT AT INFANTRYCON:

I will be receiving a letter from Captain Pete Panzeri and it will be printed in the HERALD. From what he told me on the phone it was a typical paperwork SNAFU.

THE BRIGADE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION:

Bob Cairns just renewed his membership and sent along information on the BAR which he is the Commander of the NW Department. This organization is loaded with information on tactics, weapons and uniforms of the period. The following is a brief list of some of their events, for more information on BAR or the shows contact: Bob Carins, 1919 Yale Ave NW, Canton, OH 44709, (330) 455 9722.

May 17-18: Ohio Folk Festival, Carillon Park, Dayton, OH.

June 21-22: Ft. Laurens, Bolivar, OH. Original AWI site with a good museum.

July 12-13: Century Village, Burton, OH. This site has a wonderful collection of thousands of toy soldiers.

July 26-27: BAR Grand Encampment, Somerset City Historical Society, Somerset, PA. This event should have 300 to 400 soldiers from all over the northeast USA and Canada.

August 9-10: Joint event of BAR & North West Territorial Alliance and will be held either at Ft Meigs (a nice place to visit, FD), Perrysburg, OH or Riverbend Park, Findley, OH. This event should have 250-350 soldiers; contact Bob for the correct site.

August 13-14: Providence Plantation, Zelienople, PA. September 28: Metro Parks, Brecksville, OH.

Thanks, Bob, for the information; Brian says 'Hay'. I know that we have more reenactors out there so how about sending along you unit's information for us to share. Gary S.? Chris von F.?