Origins 2002 was the most successful yet for Great Lakes and historical miniatures. The Historicals Origins Team (HOT) brought in 80 game masters running more than 300 events, many of them by Great Lakes members. With Origins pulling in 11,000 attendees, and the historical miniatures prominently located near the front of the miniatures and board game hall, a lot of potential recruits were exposed to our hobby.

This exposure, and the hard work put in by GMs and HOT staffers, translated to a windfall of our chapter. We signed up 18 new members, welcomed six "lost sheep" back into the fold and collected four renewals. In addition, we sold 19 Great Lakes T-shirts and eight of the Rules Incentive booklets (along with the ones given away to those joining). Great Lakes collected a tidy $568 and passed out numerous flyers for our upcoming shows, Warparty and Advance the Colors.

Having been involved with the Origins historicals project from nearly the beginning, I can honestly say this was the best yet. I saw numerous alternative gamers talking about and playing in historical miniatures events. We are becoming an established and major part of Origins that is eagerly looked forward to by the attendees.

Massive thanks go to Pete and Jodie Panzeri for their tireless recruiting and organizational work. Pete even convinced some of the HMGS Fast biggies to make the trip out to Columbus to run their games, this year. Noteworthy were Bob Giglio's "Prohibition Wars," Phil Viverito's "Siege of Tyre," and Pat Condray's Marlborough games. Equally impressive, though, were Great Lakes events put on by renowned Civil War gamer Scott Mingus and Jeff Love's gorgeous World War II "Ste.Mere-Eglise."

Although Origins suffers from a lack of dealers in historical miniatures, HOT 2002's owes many thanks to Outland Games owner Chris von Fahnestock's support with prizes and manning a HMGS booth and running demos in the Exhibit Hall. Chris' generosity with prizes was especially apparent in the DBM and DBA tournaments, as he provided painted armies for the grand prizes. Osprey Books was also present, providing more than two dozen of their invaluable resource books as prizes for numerous events.

I was especially heartened by the fact that four members of the Great Lakes board participated in Origins, this year. HOT at Origins is an exciting and valuable part of the Great Lakes convention schedule, and as our success this year shows, one that is a vital part of the growth of our chapter.