ORIGINS `03 WAR COLLEGE Jack Radey I recently was loaned a copy of your excellent magazine by my friend and colleague, Gary Rhay (Lt. Col. ret, US Army) who subscribes. I happened across the article on Origins 03 by Russ Lockwood. I regret to tell you that it contains some serious inaccuracies, probably through no fault of the author's. If what follows seems a bit long, it reflects the experience of running the War College for the last dozen or more years, first with John Hill and later with Dr. Richard Muller. A little history. Origins started as a board gaming convention, period. Avalon Hill and SPI pretty much saw that it happened, and other small fry found it a great place to sell games. There were always lectures and discussions, but nothing formal. Then of course fantasy role playing came along and became the 800 lb gorilla, followed by collectable cards, which became the 8,000 lb gorilla. Miniatures sort of trucked along, in its own corner, although a bit peeved that the board gamers kept looking down their noses at their elder brethren with the little lead horsies. At some point, probably in the late 70s I think, the lecture part of the program came to be called the war college, and a senior and much beloved elder of our tribe was chosen to head it. It mostly consisted of wargame designers, and in time it was recognized that, how shall we say, because I do dearly love our uncle who ran the college, but it was felt by the Game Manufacturer's Association, who officially sponsored Origins, that said uncle was using the budget of the college to provide transportation and housing in a manner that worked remarkably well to his advantage, but not necessarily to the show's. So I was called in to run the War College. To reassure some of the faint hearted in GAMA that I would not hijack the WC and fly it to Havana, John Hill, who at the time worked for a government agency (who dares not speak its name), was named cochairman. We worked as a great team, being very much on the same wave length. Our first thoughts were too expand the college, to reach beyond the game designer fraternity and bring in more outside experts in military history. We ran into an immediate problem, one that was to recur consistently every year I was involved with the college, no matter whether Origins was being run by a company hired to put on the show (whose name I forget at the moment), then Wizards of the Coast, then Hasbro, then GAMA. Origins had a long standing policy of compensating those who participated in the show. One quarter of a hotel room and free admission to the show was provided for a certain number of hours of service. These persons were classified as game masters, and most of their service was in running role playing games, or being administrative staff (manning ticket booths etc). I told them, sorry, the people who we are inviting are not thrilled to be at Origins, nor were they there for the international championships of Magic the Gathering. They were professors, retired and active duty who expect an honorarium for coming to a show and giving four two hour lectures and maybe being on a panel as well. I made a deal with GAMA, each speaker who did at least three presentations would get travel expenses compensated, at the show, with cash, upon presenting receipts, and each participant was entitled to half a hotel room for their stay at the show. That was typically Wednesday through Saturday night. In two cases, Col. David Glantz and Col. Lester Grau, respectively the top expert on the Red Army in W WII (and a member of the Soviet and later Russian Academy of Sciences as well as the head of the US Army's Foreign Army's Study program) and the US Army's top expert on Afghanistan (was in country during the US attempt to overthrow the DRA), who asked for and received one hotel room apiece, so they could bring their wives. They were the top stars of the show, and brought in the most participants, and it seemed like a deal. In addition, we filled in the schedule with people who would be at the show anyway, mostly wargame types, with an occasional other participant who would do a presentation or two. Those in the latter category got nothing but an admission to the show. The budget for all this was $6,000, and remained so for the whole 12 or more years I ran the program. But every year we had trouble. Every year at the end of the show we would ask the following questions, 1) Did we do OK? 2) Do you want us to do it next year? 3) Did we come in on budget? 4) Want anything changed next year? 5) How many people attended? [we took our own attendance but wanted to know about ribbon sales] 6) When do you need the program put together for next year? And every year we got no answer at all, until usually some time in February, when we would get a phone call saying, "Your program has to be in by Friday to get in the pre reg booklet!!!" Usually the call came on a Thursday. One year we managed to assemble the program two months early, were the first to submit it, only to have it omitted from the pre-reg booklet, by accident. Other problems we had were increasingly the convention was taken over by hucksters, who saw spending thousands of dollars to put a balloon up over the convention center, to hire TV science fiction actresses, or Darth Vader, to advertise the show, in other words glitz with little relevance to the show and which probably brought in little or no paid attendance. But every year we would be in the hands of a new person, who was never briefed as to what we were, and who would start by telling me, "No, we only provide free admission and a quarter a hotel room for your game masters." Which is cool for 15 year old dungeon crawlers who probably have no plans to sleep during the show anyway, but doesn't cut it for retired colonels and the like who have to travel a long way to the show and really don't see it as something they can afford to underwrite. Every year I would go into my dance, sometimes, at the show the big man would tell me that no, no matter what I was told, no one would be compensated at the show, it was against corporate policy. I would sweetly explain that a contract is a contract, and breach thereof would probably be against shrewd corporate policy as well, and he had better get on his little cell phone and find someone who can explain to him that it was OK to pay or he was going to regret being born. Some years there was no mention in the pre reg. Some years we got left out of the registration book itself.  Some years there were no signs, or no projectors, or the NSDM was located next to the seminar rooms and they do a LOT of shouting during their fantasy role playing games. We begged with Origins that if it publicized our program, just our list of speakers and topics, to college history departments and ROTC programs and military bases in the Midwest, as well as to the wargaming community through magazines and websites, we could double or triple attendance, and would happily provide them with contacts, they never lifted a finger. Nonetheless, even if we were looked upon as the chamber music quartet at the circus, we continued to put on a show that participants and attendees both agreed was among the very best they had ever participated in, including professional history conferences and military sponsored programs. We had a stellar line up and wide diversity, and maintained high standards, even if we did let Bill Lind come and lecture one year (my fault, I was misled by a Marine Corps colonel friend of mine - Rich Muller from the Air Force Command and Staff school at Maxwell warned me). We consistently told Origins that they were undercharging for the War College, and our own survey of attendees indicated that to continue the quality of the show, they would happily pay more, and that most of them came to Origins for the War College and nothing else. Not that some of them didn't appreciate the gal in the chainmail bikini, but they wouldn't have paid to travel to Columbus, pay for hotel, and pay to get in just to see her. So what happened in `03? Well, GAMA took over the show the previous year. I talked with GAMA and its organizers, to try to persuade them to raise the ribbon price, and to continue the program. They forgot to put us in the pre-reg program, again, and again, Dave Glantz got screwed with trying to get his travel money (third time), but other than the usual problems it all worked out pretty well, in some ways we had the best service from the convention staff ever. But at the end of the show Dave Glantz came to me and showed me what it cost him to put his aged mother, who he cared for at home, in a nursing home for most of a week while he came to Origins. In previous years his sales at his seminars of his self published materials had defrayed the expense, but sales were dropping (the same people had bought most of what he brought) and he couldn't continue to come if it was going to be several hundred dollars out of pocket for him. I contacted the new GAMA-paid person and asked that he get what he was asking for. I was told, not only was that impossible, but no one would be paid travel, and what about 1/4 a hotel room apiece? "Oh, and by the way, we need your program by Wednesday to get it in the pre-reg booklet." I went ballistic, talked to the head of GAMA, the head of program. No dice. GAMA had paid far too much for the last Origins, Wizards had misled them as to how much the convention center cost (understated it by 50%), and all the other kind of stuff you expect from folks who are fairly clueless as to what they are doing. Did they come to Rich and I after the 2002 show accounting was done and say, "Gee, guys, we can't afford to put up 6gs for the WC, how can we save some money here?" Instead they were very offhand, that you have to do it for a grand, and can't pay for travel and housing, and how about 1/4 a room each? Look at how much time the dungeon masters have to put in ... etc. When I squawked, they said, well, let's look at your numbers, you only sold so many ribbons last year, and that only brought in so much money. I pointed out that when we recommended raising ribbon price to $25, and publicizing the show as described, they CUT the ribbon price to $10, and forgot to put our program in the pre reg booklet. They changed the subject, and suggested perhaps getting corporate sponsorship, getting military publishing houses to give money in exchange for publicity and having their authors highlighted in the WC. Nice idea we said, if you had a year to organize it. They said that's the only way we will give you even half your budget, think small. We pointed out that by raising ribbon price and actually putting the word out (we'd need 80 more people, far from impossible), we could bring in our $6,000 cost and break even. We rapidly assembled an excellent program, and were ready to go. Then heard nothing for two weeks. Finally emailed again to ask, what's up? Oh, we were told, we forgot to tell you. No dice. So it was not "the organizer" who pulled out three days before the program book came out and left the mess in Pete Panzeri's lap. I helped Pete, to the extent of passing along his requests for presenters to our "faculty", although to tell the truth the idea of going and presenting for less than the deal we had before struck me as scabbing. But I did not want to sabotage Pete's efforts. I heard that there were a lot of unhappy campers who paid to come to what was in essence War College Lite last year (half the seminars we had, and some presenters who we had weeded out as really having no place in the War College). This year it is hoopla'd as BETTER THAN EVER!!! TWICE AS MANY SEMINARS AS WE HAD LAST YEAR!! David Glantz has been asked back, and offered the same deal as we had with him, he is willing to give it a whirl and see what happens, but he had previously told me that he was getting increasingly bitter at the constant difficulties he had run into getting paid. Almost every year I had to run interference for someone whose hotel reservation accidentally never got made or whose travel money was denied by some minor clerk or other factotum. To tell the truth it was getting pretty tiring. Just a warning to Pete and I'll close, just remember, no good deed goes unpunished long. And Russ might have wanted to mention in his convention review that the War College last year was the MagWeb War College, sponsored by ... none other than Russ Lockwood. Which was a nice thing for Russ to do, no argument, just might have been worth mentioning in the review. Thank you. --RL I miss the War College, and being able to do the job I did for so many years, and pulled out of it because I was expected to ask my presenters to subsidize the show, and the incompetence of its organizers. This I wouldn't do. I was also asked to water down the quality of the presentations, which I can say without fear of being accused of boasting, were of the highest quality. I was damned if I would do that. The people I had to deal with on the Origins end never understood what the war college was, or the difference between quality and glitter. When I first invited David Glantz, I warned him that he had to understand about wargamers; some were brilliant and deeply interested and knowledgeable about the subject, and some were ... well ... drooling idiots. "Sounds like the War College at Carlisle," he replied. Later, after he fell in love with the program, he said, "Its so amazing, 75 people in a room who are steeped in the subject, ask brilliant questions, and not ONE of them was ordered to be there!" I was very proud of my brethren in the wargaming community. UK ARTICLES SAFE HERE! Russell Stratton I've just received issue 128 and am pleased to see that Hal's previous high standards have been maintained. The new layout is great and I wish you and the team all the best for the future. MWAN is one of my favorite reads and I look forward to receiving each copy. As a UK subscriber I'm always interested to hear the North American perspective to my favorite periods, however I hope in your encouragement of all things North American you won't be averse to the odd article from this side of the pond! Hi Russell! I know that my Editorial in Issue #128 seemed a little America-centric, and that was partly my intent. We will continue to publish content as it comes in, regardless of where it comes from, but I'd like to avoid an issue that's dominated by UK content. We have our other wargames magazine friends to do that for us! Ed. Back to MWAN # 130 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com