Good morning Gentlemen, Well, our first one day summer mini-con has come and gone. Looking back on it now I must say that it was a nice success. It wasn't as big as our January mini-con, but it was far bigger than any Game Day we've held and that is the whole purpose of the mini-cons. I began whimpering around the end of June when con manager Steve Verdoliva still didn't have any games confirmed yet. But as the date grew close a few games started to trickle in. By the week of the con we had a nice roster of a half dozen or so games lined up, plus our annual HMGS/PSW summer DBA tournament. But a few days before the con the 25mm Zulu game and the Victorian SciFi game canceled. I went back to crying on Steve's shoulder. Steve just patted me on the head and said "If you build it, they will come." On the Saturday of the mini-con they came. And they came. Slowly the tide of members got stronger. I was especially happy to see some dear Les Grognards return to the ranks and even new people joined the Chapter that morning. By the early afternoon we had a good crowd. Considering that this mini-con was held smack in the middle of vacation season, and at a time when members are really too busy to game, it turned out pretty damn good. I talked to the dealers later and they all said that while they didn't do fantastic, they didn't do too bad either. They all left happy and said they would do it again. Again I was surprised at the growing might of Naval games. Steve Verdoliva's Ancient Galley game was always full. Mike Verity and the Northridge Napoleonic Club hosted their usual magnificent epic. Robert Runnels and his War of the Roses English army won our DBA tournament (My late Swiss vow revenge!). Everyone had a good time that day. Believe me, with 100 degree weather outside, there are very few things in life more wonderful than to sit in air conditioning with a large mob of your gaming buddies and push lead all day. Life don't get any better.. The Board was approached that afternoon by representatives of GengisCon from San Francisco who are working to set up a new big gaming convention here in the Los Angeles area over next year's Labor Day weekend. They want the HMGS/PSW to run their historicals. GenCon/West also wants us to run their historicals, and we are already supporting the historical gaming at the StrategiCon conventions. We will hold a major discussion of all of this at our main convention in October and debate which venues we can and/or want to work with. It should be a really interesting meeting! Back to Table of Contents The Messenger August 2003 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com