"HMGS East 2009 Election Outcome" Topic

I have only a handful of "requirements" for a convention that I would like H-Con to meet.

#1 Not too far away (less than 3 hour drive would be nice).

#2 Low Cost (Free parking, cheap food, and cheap hotels).

#3 Easy access. I can carry my gaming stuff myself, in fact, I prefer it that way.

#4 Lots of Vendors

#5 Flea Market

#6 Other non-gaming special events (speakers, painting demos, and the like).

#7 Pig on a platter

Leave the politics to politicians. I attended one membership meeting way back when I was a principal with the NOVAG club because of what HMGS-E was doing (Fall-In in particular) was going to affect our conventions. I'm out of that world now, so never again -- I have games to run!

Someone mentioned parks being defunded and museums etc going to waste. We really should be into preserving some of the underfunded parks and battlefields because ladies and gentlemen in a about twenty years time, what's not preserved will be gone. It will be developed or strip mined or a pathway of utilities, or be a theme park and lost to posterity. We could have a fund that once or twice a year donates to a regular preservation group or pick a crumbling museum or failing state park. It doesn't have to be a lot. Because of matching funds in some states dollars donated are increased ten fold. Let's consider doing that with a small portion of the dues or an account that our treasurer could send a check from.

I am amazed but not surprised by the paranoia of the posters on this site. Every member was sent a ballot. I received mine and voted entirely for loosing candidates.

NEVERTHELESS, I CONGRATULATE THE NEW BOARD. I am confident the members will give their best effort and always work for the best interests of the corporation and the hobby. I wish them the courage of their convictions regardless of the hectoring of the chattering class who refuse to put their names forward for election, much less be members.

Having been on the board and having won more elections than anyone else (there were no term limits during my first tenure on the board)and having lost, no matter what you do no one is satisfied.

Good luck to the new board,

Bob Coggins

I got my ballot. I voted. I mailed it in.

Hopefully it got counted!

I have no idea who I voted for…

Someone mentioned parks being defunded and museums etc going to waste. We really should be into preserving some of the underfunded parks and battlefields because ladies and gentlemen in a about twenty years time, what's not preserved will be gone. It will be developed or strip mined or a pathway of utilities, or be a theme park and lost to posterity. We could have a fund that once or twice a year donates to a regular preservation group or pick a crumbling museum or failing state park. It doesn't have to be a lot. Because of matching funds in some states dollars donated are increased ten fold. Let's consider doing that with a small portion of the dues or an account that our treasurer could send a check from

Excellent idea. Perhaps they could ask people at Historicon if they would like to donate (maybe a dollar per person?) it could help?

Well Pat, I think its time to put this discussion to bed, since after 100+ posts we're probably the only two paying attention…

"Dave, one feature of the FORUM which made it both a worthwhile HMGS Educational project and valuable for the publish or perish crowd was genuine peer review by qualified academics."

Oh really, as far as "qualified academics" are concerned, I distinctly remember one of the editors trolling a convention with a stack of books asking his aquaintences and anyone else who might be interested if they'd like to review a book for the Forum…so much academic integrity.

"Having the material reviewed and edited by a group of infantile and demented, not to mention incompetent witch finders would have made a bad joke out of it."

As usual, when you have nothing substantive to say you revert to namecalling…I'll match my ability to edit and write with your's anytime. How many books you got published?

"As I understood things, the BOD had told you to pay the man what he called for, and you lowered it unilaterally. But to be honest, contrary to Mr. Barrett's claim, I didn't and still don't have the details on the inner workings of the dysfunctional CYA BOD."

No, you don't have any of the details, just a story that fits your narrative…as Treasurer I never took an action, paid a bill, entered into an agreement, that wasn't endorsed by the BoD. If you have evidence to the contrary I'd love to see it. And as I now remember the episode, I think the demise of the Forum occured while Scott Holder was Treasurer so I had nothing to do with checks anyways.

"From 1995 until 1997 the CONSENSUS BOD pursued a feel good program which had nothing to do with promoting the hobby or the study of military history. It was a scholarship program budgeted at $6,000 a year which provided money for a member or dependant of a member to study any thing-basket weaving, rocket science, whatever."

The scholarship program was an inherited program that we tried to make better but in the end failed to find a happy medium between awarding scholarships to individuals studying history, who had no connection to HMGS or to individuals who were sons/daughters or member of HMGS but studying anything.

"The FORUM, on the other hand, provided a respecatable scholarly program which could, when properly distributed, represent HMGS goals in libraries and on campuses all over the country. It was originally done annually at COLDWARS. At some point it was being done at both CW and HISTORICON. It cost from 10% to 20% of the bill for the CBOD's randomized member benefit."

You understand very little about academic scholarship or libraries for that matter…with limited space no librarian with an ounce of sense would have put that publication on a shelf.

"Killing the MILITARY FORUM because the convention program had lost a couple and the scholarship was a misconcieved boondoggle is typical of the "Drunken Sailor" school of financial management followed by "the sky is falling."

The Forum was killed because a sober evaluation of its worth suggested it had none.

"By HISTORICON 97 the problem was over. I asked Dick Sossi a few questions about costs, and based on my knowledge of the finances of conventions, I told Dick Sossi that we should clear between $7,000 and $8,000. At the SCRUBY banquet (for Phil Barker) I asked Dick "are we out of the red ink?" to which he replied in the affirmative. At the NOVAG convention the following month J.T. told me I was right on the money (he must have heard my estimate from Sossi) we had cleared $7,900." In short, the financial crisis had been solved before you nut cases went into the panic mode.

The financial crisis was never over during my time on the BoD…it was a constant effort to require convention managers to develop realistic budgets and then stick to those budgets. The days of the "as long as you make money" approach to budgeting and convention management was over. We struggled with convention managers, some of whom you quote, making a habit of coming to the BoD on Sunday morning saying, "Guess what, so and so flew in from England for the convention (uninvited)…he's a great guy isn't he…by the way he'd like us to help defray his expenses, what can we give him?" Then we'd have self important GM's who showcase their games every Historicon demand that we pay for the cost of shipping their games, after the fact, and then claim we agreed to it…stuff like that happened way too often and now that no one seems to be watching probably is happening as we speak.

After Historigins fails we're just one election away from another "witch hunt" and it won't be pretty.

db

Jeez, I never thought I'd actually miss the completely inane "Or not, depending…"

I was wrong.

pancerni2 10 Jul 2009 6:45 p.m. PST
Well Pat, I think its time to put this discussion to bed, since after 100+ posts we're probably the only two paying attention…

*NJH: I'm paying attention.

I wish I'd known that before sending in dues all those years.

Dave

"Oh really, as far as "qualified academics" are concerned, I distinctly remember one of the editors trolling a convention with a stack of books asking his aquaintences and anyone else who might be interested if they'd like to review a book for the Forum…so much academic integrity."

I hope he didn't ask any members of the dysfunctional BOD to review a book. But in the main, the peer review applied to articles submitted for publication.

"As usual, when you have nothing substantive to say you revert to namecalling…I'll match my ability to edit and write with your's anytime. How many books you got published?"

As a BOD you were a dysfunctional bunch. But your ability to create literary masterpieces if you have such a talent, wouldn't necessarily count for scholarship. However, if you do have a splendid resume of published historical articles or books, perhaps you would be willing to engage in the peer review process if the MILITARY FORUM is restored. I do seem to recall an article on a Cowpens game in a short lived hobby pub. But that's the only literary masterpiece of yours I've read.

However, as for the FORUM, it didn't cost but about 10% of the Scholarship Boondoggle. Should we perhaps count on you for scholarly articles?

My publications don't count since I publish most of them. I'd like to hear about yours.

"No, you don't have any of the details,"

Ah-you have confirmed my statement that, contrary to Toby's assertion, I was not privy to the interior machinations of the Star Chamber! Thank you.

Do you perhaps recall any discussion of the MILITARY FORUM issue int he Newsletter? News groups? Or was it a deep dark secret like the Witch Hunt?

" just a story that fits your narrative…as Treasurer I never took an action, paid a bill, entered into an agreement, that wasn't endorsed by the BoD. If you have evidence to the contrary I'd love to see it."

Evidence of the machinations of the Star Chamber was scarce. Like the long promised report on evil in HMGS which never appeared (and never will appear.)

" And as I now remember the episode, I think the demise of the Forum occured while Scott Holder was Treasurer so I had nothing to do with checks anyways."

So it was left to the inventor of the $6,000 boondoggle to kill the $600 USD program for economy reasons? How appropriate in the context of the CYABOD's decision process.

"The scholarship program was an inherited program that we tried to make better but in the end failed to find a happy medium between awarding scholarships to individuals studying history, who had no connection to HMGS or to individuals who were sons/daughters or member of HMGS but studying anything."

For years the Old Guard had pondered the idea of a scholarship program. There seemed to be no way to have an affordable program (academic costs have inflation which rival those of law and medicine)which would do the recipient as much good as it would damage HMGS solvency, and could be even remotely tied to our corporate purposes. Scott Holder parted the Gordian knot by coming up with a program which was excessively expensive and had no relationship to any corporate goals. That was in the glory days of the Consensus BOD, and to his credit, my nemesis Bob Giglio was the only one with the gumption to vote against it.

"You understand very little about academic scholarship or libraries for that matter…with limited space no librarian with an ounce of sense would have put that publication on a shelf."

I certainly would appreciate you expertise on such matters. I had no idea bookshelves were in such short supply in academia (though they certainly are in my house.)I'll check on that with friends in the trade. But the big problem with resurrecting the program was that we had lost the administrative support of the original program and it is hard to put back together.

"The Forum was killed because a sober evaluation of its worth suggested it had none."

I never saw any evidence of sober evaluation from either the CBOD or the CYABOD. Only drunken sailor followed by chicken little.

"The financial crisis was never over during my time on the BoD…it was a constant effort to require convention managers to develop realistic budgets and then stick to those budgets. The days of the "as long as you make money" approach to budgeting and convention management was over. We struggled with convention managers, some of whom you quote, making a habit of coming to the BoD on Sunday morning saying, "Guess what, so and so flew in from England for the convention (uninvited)…he's a great guy isn't he…by the way he'd like us to help defray his expenses, what can we give him?" Then we'd have self important GM's who showcase their games every Historicon demand that we pay for the cost of shipping their games, after the fact, and then claim we agreed to it…stuff like that happened way too often and now that no one seems to be watching probably is happening as we speak."

I am watching.

"After Historigins fails we're just one election away from another "witch hunt" and it won't be pretty."

If the next witch hunt is as good as the one you guys on the CYABOD conducted It will focus on the wrong witches and prove to be full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Pat Condray

John for the win.

I guess they don't know that I already won!

pancerni2 10 Jul 2009 6:45 p.m. PST
…..

You understand very little about academic scholarship or libraries for that matter…with limited space no librarian with an ounce of sense would have put that publication on a shelf.

……

*NJH: I make no judgement as to the worth of the material in question. However, my wife informs me that shelf space is not a worry for her, or for most other librarians in academia. Their primary concern when considering acquisitions is money, which is in very short supply these days. Then, they have to consider print versus some other media. Some libraries also have off-site storage. There is also the possibility of dumping something old to make space for the new acquisition. My wife's main point was that when considering a single volume purchase, space is not a concern. I post this interjection to return the discussion to the worth of the Military Forum and not the esoterica of library and information science.

Cheers
Norris H

Kyoteblue are there no HMGS chapters where you live? Are there no work farms or debtor's prisons? Forget HMGS east. Join one of those other chapters and get a life. Run like the wind, Kyote, be free, free as a; as a coyote. Yes that's the ticket. Okay Dave and Pat, you were saying. Why don't you two just exchange email?

kyote: Start one.

kyoteblue 12 Jul 2009 7:54 p.m. PST
Sadly vonLoudon there are no more…..shrug.

BuddyBoy2 13 Jul 2009 6:00 a.m. PST
kyote: Start one.

*NJH: I'll join, if for nothing else than to force KB to write a newsletter.

HMGS Podunk Newsletter

Hello,
I have nothing to say, or not. Shrug! The unicorns haven't spoken yet. That about wraps it up, more next month.

KB, President, HMGS Podunk

Just for the record I was out of the net, taking care of ANU (Assigned Nuptial Unit) who went into surgery for a total thyroidectomy the day the announcement was made. Sorry, but this is one time HMGS comes second (but all went well :).

Regards, Bill Gray
Webmaster

Bill

I'm glad to hear that all went well.

Kind regards

LIG