It's almost time for another great convention. By the time many of you read this, Drums Along the Maumee 3 will be written into the history books. It will be excellent (as usual) and everyone attending will have had a wonderful time. I would like to thank the Colby Street Irregulars for putting a fine show, again. Great work guys! This event, along with Warparty and Advance the Colors, as well as all of the games days and demo events we all put on help show the hobby to the public. It's gratifying to see and hear about all the great things going on in gaming in our chapter.

Loss of Arena

The hardest part in all of this is, of course, organizing and maintaining a gaming group locally. I've been finding out just how hard it is. It hasn't gotten any easier with the loss of our only gaming store in Muskegon, The Arena (more of that later in this issue). Still, we didn't completely lose the venue. The good folks that own the Arena, Russ and Doug, are doing monthly mini-cons up here in Muskegon in the banquet hall at Northway Lanes. They have offered us a place to showcase our events and the one held on May 4 seemed to be a success for both the Arena and us. We had one bystander sit in and play Battleground World War II with us. The next one on June 1 will have even more to offer. Those of you who want to come up and join in the fun, please stop by, we would be happy to have you attend.

I've enjoyed gaming at the Arena and was sorry to see it become a "Non-corporeal" entity. I cannot blame the guys. This was a hobby to them, a second job and one that they didn't make much (if any) money at and had a lot of headaches. I sympathize with them and I wish that I could have done more to help them out. Still I was grateful for the opportunity and place to play. I also managed to recruit more folks in historicals. The one thing both Russ and Doug have told me is that they do plan at some point in the future to reopen as a traditional brick and mortar store

In the past couple of months, I've seen the highs of bringing new faces into the hobby, and the lows of losing a storefront venue that I have known as a friendly and open place close down. We've gotten some new people interested in playing historicals here, and also have gathered more interested looks from folks walking by during the gaming sessions. Still, without a venue, it makes it all that much harder to play. If I can give all of you one word of advice it is this: frequent and BUY at your local gaming shops where you browse and play at, lest they close down as well.