We held our seventh annual flag ship convention, Advance the Colors 2002, Sept. 13-15, at the Holiday Inn Convention Center Springfield, OH. As in past years, the convention was a very enjoyable experience for all XXX attendees who spent the weekend enjoying the 56 events during 55 hours of Historical Miniature gaming. One of the highlights of the convention was receiving a HMGS Great Lakes ruler at check in, and then getting a chance to role a D100 for some very special door prizes from our sponsors.

We had historical events from 14 different periods put on by some of the best game masters in HMGS, from as far away as the West Coast of the U.S. All of the game masters who support ATC and our other conventions are very special people. Every one of us should thank them for all the time and effort that they put into to their events so that we can have a few hours of enjoyment.

The convention was supported by nine historical miniature vendors and sponsored by five others with door and event prizes and raffle items. If you missed this convention, you missed out on a lot of very nice free prizes. So, a word to the wise: Start making your plans for next year, now. Also from the looks on the faces of the garners carrying out boxes and bags of hobby supplies, I would say that everyone truly enjoyed all the shopping opportunities DPC, Imperialist Enterprise, Iron Wind Metals, Outland Games, RLBPS, The Soldiery Inc., Star Books and Games and Tin Soldier Co. gave us this year.

As you can see from the following convention financial report, ATC was again very successful for the chapter. The report also details the projected budget for ATC 2003.

Item	ATC 2002	ATC 2002	ATC 2003
Expenditure	Budget	Actual	Budget
Convention Center	$4,010.00	$3,150.00	$4,000.00
Post Card Reminder	$300.00	$364.42	$400.00
Convention Programs	$200.00	$138.40	$200.00
U.S. Flag Pins	$20.00	$20.00	$20.00
Convention Supplies	$100.00	$ 133.33	$200.00
Receipts	Budget	Actual	Budget
Dealer Tables	$1,500.00	$1,620.00	$2,100.00
Flea Market Tables	$100.00	$130.00	$100.00
Entrance Fees	$2,160.00	$2,391.00	$2,610.00
Raffle	$810.00	$580.00	$550.00
Program Ads	$60.00	$140.00	$200.00
Net Profit	$0.00	$1,019.51	$500.00

Before I close with information about ATC 2003,1 would like to request that all game masters who hosted events this year write an after action report and submit it to the Herald (Editor's Note: Of course, if I receive 52 AARs, we'll still be publishing them in 2004! I do welcome any battle reports, though, I know I enjoy reading them). Lastly, I have upload a number of pictures taken at the convention to our photo section in the HMGS Great Lakes mail list.

Now that all the fun is over, the work must begin on next year's convention. ATC 2003 will be held the weekend of Sept. 12-14, 2003, at the Holiday Inn in Springfield (same place). As always, you can expect the same high quality program, events, dealers, door prizes and raffle items at a great location. You can count on the ATC staff to continually seek ways to make our convention the best all-historical miniatures convention in the Midwest.

For further information about next year's convention, or to volunteer, contact: David K. van Hoose, ATC 03 Convention Director: ATC@hmgsgl.com.