The sweetest words I've ever heard are "welcome new members." And I can happily say that I've been using those words more and more lately. We've all seen our Chapter membership list ebb and flow over the years as gamers move and leave the area, quit the hobby, or quit a dying inactive Chapter. Our lowest ebb was last October. We were down to about 50 active members. Our Miniwars (The Fall Campaigns) convention had an abysmal turn out, with maybe 35 people showing up. There was grumbling among the old veterans that it might finally be time to fold up our tents and call it quits. But we didn't quit. We got to work. PSW officers and members rolled up our sleeves and worked to revive the hobby and the Chapter. Robert Runnels and Marc Canu took over our newsletter "The Messenger" and turned it into a proud display not only of our Chapter, but of our hobby as a whole. We had a professional web company build us our own HMGS/PSW website that other chapters would drool over (and is starting to bring in new members). The officers started to publish the "Mini-Messenger" in between issues of our regular newsletter just to keep members informed on the latest gossip, local conventions, and game info. Robert and Marc just ran a great NASAMW sanctioned DBA tournament which was a hit. You can expect a lot more of that type of activity in the future! My membership list as I write this, is a little over 120 members now. My immediate goal is to make our Miniwars (The Fall Campaigns) October convention the biggest it's been in years. And by this time next year I want our membership list to top 160 people! Speaking of great success, I attended Robert's DBA tournament on August 3rd. I haven't played ancients in some time and I was concerned that no one would show up. I was completely wrong. Every table that was set up for the tourney was filled with a game going on it. Hobbytown USA was a great forum with plenty of lighting, tables, room, and most importantly air conditioning! Although the tourney was advertised as an ancients competition, I was surprised at the number of Medieval armies that were in the running (editor's note: In DBA, medieval armies are included in the army lists. Some purists only play historically matched opponents, but it is fun and challenging to play ahistorical match-ups as well!). And boy were they tough! Believe me, there is nothing that ruins your summer afternoon more than watching your beloved Late Roman legionaries cut to pieces by French Gendarmes d'Ordnance. Through it all everyone remained in good spirits, good humor, and good sportsmanship. Not a single argument was heard over any ruling by the referees Robert and Marc. I was pleasantly surprised at the exceptional turnout from San Diego! Those guys had to drive for hours to get up to Santa Clarita to attend. We also had attendees from Bakersfield and Orange County. Bravo! Back to Table of Contents The Messenger August 2002 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com