Happy New Year everyone. I hope Santa was good to all of you. Now that it's 2002, it is time to look ahead at the jobs facing us. I've recently cleared out my workspace in the basement. It's actually beginning to look like an area where I can get more productive work done than I have in the past.

We also have more conventions getting ready to roll. Spartacon will have taken place on the Jan. 12. The ever popular and wonderfully run Drums Along the Maumee 3 will be held in late May in Toledo and it looks like it is shaping up nicely. We are starting planning on Advance the Colors, as well.

It is a time to get ready for spring and summer. That means prepping and planning for conventions. I have recently joined a mail list on historical minis GMs, and it has opened my eyes. For starters, seeing some of the complaints and arguments about the difficulties of the East's conventions-- from doing security for minis and terrain, to having a loading/unloading area for GMs has made me appreciate what we have here in the Great Lakes area. I tip my hat to ATC Coordinator David van Hoose, the ATC staff, Rich Smethurst and his Basement Gang, and the Colby Street Irregulars for the excellent job they do at our events. I haven't seen any complaints coming about how we've done things in either of these areas on our mail list or on the GM list. You guys are the greatest and I'm glad we have you.

I'm also glad to have the membership (you dear reader) for your support and input at the conventions and here in the Herald. My thanks to Mike Demana for the wonderful job he does editing this publication and my thanks go out to you for the FABULOUS articles you send in each issue. I can't wait to read The Herald each month, like many of you. The Herald is one of the highlights of my trips to the mailbox. It makes all those bills and junk mail almost worth it.

It's also nice to see interest from local college groups for historical miniatures events at their conventions. In mid November, I attended U-Con at the University of Michigan. It was a typical college gaming convention with a lot of role playing games, Games Workshop events and collectibles card games. There were also some board game events going on, both historical and sci-fi and fantasy as well. What was nice to see were the historical minis events. There were four listed on this year's program, of which I had a chance to see a neat 1/72 scale armor battle on a conference room floor. Refighting a Russian front tank battle in that environment was definitely different and neat to see.

What was also very neat was the response I got while I was there. In talking to some of the folks there I managed to get one new member, one renewal and five folks interested in possibly joining. Things like this make it worthwhile to examine events like this. It is also a confirmation that people who play those "other" miniatures games may be interested in what we do. Until next time, good luck and good gaming.