1. Once again, I'm saving some much needed space by using the cover sheet for the News and Notes article.
2. LEAD ALERT! LEAD ALERT! I've decided to go along with those who wish to save our people, our children, our dogs and our cats, yea, our very planet, from lead poisoning.
To this effect, I've decided that, each issue, I shall publish the names of all wargamers whom I've seen playing with LEAD figures! No one shall be spared!
At HISTORICON, I saw Dick Sossi, ex-President and now member of the HMGS Board of Directors, playing in Tod Fisher's Tuileries game, and pushing LEAD soldiers around.
My first thought was to warn Mr. Sossi of the fact that continued exposure to LEAD would deaden his thinking powers, but, after some reflection, I decided that the point was moot... the warning was too late.
The only other Board member that I noted who was in close proximity to LEAD figures was Pat Condray. But, in truth, Pat wasn't really Playing with the figures, he was hosting one of his Marlburian games, leaning over the table, hands clasped behind his back, obviously afraid to touch the little devils, letting the participants do all the dirty work.
3. I'm absolutely fascinated by the things that the HMGS Board of Directors does... and doesn't do.
About a year ago, without checking with the membership, they wrote a check for $2,500 to a Preserve-An-ACW-Battlefield society, because it seemed to be the thing to do at the time. More recently, they forgot to keep the HMGS organization's Maryland incorporation status current, hence fell afoul of the IRS, and are fighting (or fought) an IRS assessment.
And even more recently, just prior to HISTORICON, they sent out a "secret" ballot, on the back of a postcard, on which HMGS members were supposed to register their dotes for the Board of Directors. Yes, they indicated, check the candidates for whom you wish to vote, and then send in the card, with your name and address pre-printed on it, so we can register your secret ballot.
At the HMGS meeting, I asked if any thought had been given to keeping the ballots truly secret. Yes, that is a problem, acknowledged one of the Board members. I immediately saw it , would be a useless gesture to remind the Board that this problem had been studied in detail since 1776, and most of the quirks ironed out.
This same postcard, in listing the people running for the Board, gave nothing more than their names. One might think that there would have been a mailing prior to the election in which the various candidates could have been mentioned and allowed to state their positions, or at the least, who they were.
But all one saw was the naked name of, say, Ivan Ivanovitch, and aside from a rough guess that Mrs. Ivanovitch's little boy, Ivan, was in the running, nothing more was known about Ivan himself.
What's interesting is that these same HMGS savants now in office keep running for office over and over again. And what's even more interesting is that the membership keeps on electing them to office over and over again.
Professor Heinrich Schmekeleh's investigations, initiated under a grant from the Centre For Provocative Wargaming Analysis, is centered on his theory that "idiocy begets idiocy".
The Professor's research efforts initially focused on the development of the WRG, the DBA, and the Napoleonic EMPIRE series of rules, but it now appears that the theory is quite applicable to HMGS functions.
4. IMPORTANT NOTICE: At the September meeting, we shall hold the annual PW flea market. No charge for tables, but PW gets 10 percent of your take.
5. At last!!
This issue is a double one, finally bringing me up-to-date. Its got all kinds of goodies in it... articles ranging from the goings-on at HISTORICON, to probabilities concerned with rolling the dice, to rules ploys, etc., etc.
Remind me never to fall behind again... Don't cancel your subscriptions... yet...
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© Copyright 1993 Wally Simon
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