"HMGS Post Fall-In! Updates" Topic

The HMGS-East Announcements Forum is the official source of HMGS news however in the interest of full disclosure and to discourage the practice of "snipping" only the information that supports only a given individuals point of view without painting the full picture I will be posting regular HMGS-East updates here as well as on the Yahoo group and other places.

Fall-In! 2009 – Fall-In! has come and gone. The BoD would like to congratulate Convention Director, Andy Turlington, on a great convention. There were some minor speed bumps such as the Eisenhower Hotel double booking the facilities on Friday which caused some hotel room problems and also delayed the start of the Tournaments, but over all it was a very well produced show. We'll post attendance numbers as soon as they are compiled. It was an honor to listen to the WWII veterans as they spoke of their war time experiences at the show. Additionally, HMGS helped raise almost $3,000 for Toy's for Tots at the convention. Andy Turlington will continue on as convention director for Fall In! 2010.

HMGS Board of Director Update – Pete Panzeri has stepped down as President of the Board of Directors for both personal and medical reasons. Pete will continue to serve on the BoD as the Director of the Awards Program. The BoD would like to thank Pete for his years of service as president and we are grateful to retain his corporate knowledge.
Jim McWee has decided to resign from the Board of Directors due to work commitments. The BoD wishes him well and thanks him greatly for his service. The Board has appointed James Petrie to fill Jim McWee's vacated seat. Welcome to the Board, Jim.

The current BoD positions are as follows:
President: Frank Preziosa
EVP/Education: Jim Petrie
Treasurer: Dudley Garidel
Secretary: Michelle Preziosa
Convention Operations: Orest Swystun
Awards Program: Pete Panzeri
Outreach/Member Communication: Heather Blush

Cold Wars 2010 Update – Here is a reminder that CW '10 is officially a four day convention! It's "unofficially" been four days for the past few years now with gaming on Thursday evening, but now all the fun and goodness will be four full days of gaming, painting, shopping and socializing. Revolution – Napoleon's Enemies will be the theme (was there anyone who wasn't one of Napoleon's enemies in the end?)

HISTORICON 2010 Update – The BoD has some concerns regarding inconsistencies with the Baltimore Convention Center contracts for HISTORICON 2010 and is having the contract, addendum and memorandum reviewed again by an attorney. The BoD is also practicing additional due diligence with the Convention Director, Bob Giglio and his team with regards toward a fully formed Plan B should this situation not be resolved to our satisfaction. The BoD is expecting to have these inconsistencies ironed out by Nov 23rd and plans to announce the results shortly thereafter.

Heather Blush
HMGS Board of Directors
Vice President, Member Communication/Outreach

Thnak you for the update. Good luck with the hard work and I hope that all of the fears can be resolved with the Society looking towards the future

Wow…on time, in your face info! This sounds promising…

And good luck to the new crew there…

Now..let's see how long before the "comments" begin…

Now..let's see how long before the "comments" begin…

Shouldn't see any. And if the previous group had made the info available as the new group has there wouldn't have been many of the comments.

Thanks for the heads up.

Thank you for the support.

I must point out that the HMGS BoD is very much like the Borg and every director gets assimilated and just becomes the collective BOD (who get blamed for EVERYTHING whether it happened on our watch or not) . . .

It's a rolling group and in the interest of full disclosure, I am technically part of the "old group" being in the first year of my second term on the BoD.

I am going to do the very best I can to make sure that membership communications is a top priority in this new "configuration" so stay turned for more timely announcements.

Heather Blush
HMGS BoD of Directors
Vice President, Membership Communications/Outreach
titaniaswing@aol.com

I am going to do the very best I can to make sure that membership communications is a top priority in this new "configuration" so stay turned for more timely information.

*picks self off the floor*

The new BoD is already learning! And having a lady BoD member post the info makes it MUCH less likely for us to see insults and worse in response!

Please keep this up.

Speed bump -- not listing the table or even room locations of hundreds of games?

I did not play in one event, of three that were correct in the program. One of my own on saturday, was listed as being on Sunday. Another was listed in IKE1 but there was no table. Thanks to Pete Panzeri for helping me after I dropped a large box of figures, getting jostled in the Ike 1. Also the locking out of the whole DBA group and moving them to AllStar, but not telling anyone.

I must say, however, that this is the first time of some 20 HMGS cons I have attended that had so many problems, so the con was just a speed bump in the flow of all cons.

Heather: this is a good start. However, there are a lot of rumors flying around about the financial part of the BCC contract and alleged financial commitments to various hotels in Baltimore. In the interest of complete transparency, which would go a long way towards re-establishing the BoD's credibility, it would be worth your while to peruse some of the HMGS related threads today and dispell the rumors with some hard facts.

The truth and full disclosure is the only way to go.

Cafe Vienna –

I have read every bloody HMGS thread here and see the rumors – unfortunately, this is a legal dispute and at this point in time, I can't comment on any of the Baltimore contracts.

I will be happy to address these issues as soon as I am legally free to comment on them.

Heather Blush
HMGS BoD of Directors
Vice President, Membership Communications/Outreach
titaniaswing@aol.com

Useful if the title of this thread contained the word "official" to differentiate it from the others.

I'll remember that for next time.

Heather Blush
HMGS BoD of Directors
Vice President, Membership Communications/Outreach
titaniaswing@aol.com

Good job. I think this type of straightforward, timely and direct communication is the ideal. You've addressed where things stand, who's in and who's out along with who is currently in charge and given us a target date for a next decision point. I'm looking forward to hearing something right after the 23rd. Thanks.

Well done.

yes, well done Ms Blush.

And now we hopefully will look forward to the opening up of 2-way timely communication on the HMGS-East Yahoo group.

Thank you very much for the update.

Heather;
Thanks for the heads up. Your honsety is very much appreciated. Well done and keep up the great work.

I thought it was a great time, politics included. I went home more informed about what was going on with our convention season, and played some games, bought some stuff, and saw people I don't get to see that often. In my mind, that's a success.

After action thoughts: link

Maybe it is just me but would HMGS-E be so kind as to actually refer to themselves as HMGS-East and not HMGS? As a member of HMGS-GL I feel that when East officials refer to the HMGS BoD and the like it makes the rest of the chapters look like subsidiaries to East. Am I the only one who is bothered by this?

John Adkins
HMGS-GL Member and former HMGS-GL BoD Member
Speaking only for myself.

John, Thanks for that info. I thought it was HMGS that happens to be in the east, the original HMGS, that gave out the charters to the regional HMGS.
One BOD to rule them all, One BOD to find them,
One BOD to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of BCC where the Shadows lie.

Yes.

Useful if the title of this thread contained the word "official" to differentiate it from the others.

Your welcome paints. Does this meet your high standards for discourse?

I believe that the organization we know as HMGS-East is actually HMGS, not HMGS East, as a legal entity.

Yes,

What most refer to as HMGS East actually holds the copyright to HMGS.

HMGS is a live trademark registered at the USPTO and the society is incorporated in Maryland.

HISTORICAL MINIATURES GAMING SOCIETY, INC. owns the TRADEMARK to HMGS.

HISTORICAL MINIATURES GAMING SOCIETY is also trademarked by HISTORICAL MINIATURES GAMING SOCIETY, Inc.

It is nice to have someone make the effort to communicate. It makes me hopeful this can all be resolved successfully.

HMGS-"East" IS "HMGS". All other flavors of HMGS are lesser mortals which require a tag, whereas East does not.

Now bow before the almighty East!!

The HMGS-East Announcements Forum is the official source of HMGS news however in the interest of full disclosure and to discourage the practice of "snipping" only the information that supports only a given individuals point of view without painting the full picture I will be posting regular HMGS-East updates here as well as on the Yahoo group and other places.

That's good news.

No John, you are not the only one! (And just my own opinion also!)

And Bob, I think it was HMGS National that gave out the present Regional Charters. Not really sure how we'd approve a new one now, the NCC hasn't met formally for some years!

Every Chapter is a separate entity, with their own Charter, By-Laws, etc. East gave permission to all of the Chapters then in good standing to use "HMGS" in their title in, 1990, I think, at the NCC meeting at Historicon?

Steve Smith
HMGS-GL Member

Sorry if I offended you other chapter members – as pointed out by others, technically the entity referred to as HMGS-East is legally HMGS and owns the registration for the name. I will make sure to include EAST in future messages so as not to confuse or upset anyone.

Heather Blush
HMGS East BoD of Directors
Vice President, Membership Communications/Outreach
hjblush@gmail.com

You didn't offend any of us Heather. In fact, you're the only person posting anywhere in this whole mess that has the guts to stand up and be counted and perhaps be held accountable, one of the very few that has anything at stake, and one of the even fewer who has such a huge amount of work to do in a very small amount of time. I commend your courage.

Truth be told, the rest of us HMGS Members from Chapters outside of HMGS East are just trying not to get tarred with the same brush!

"Truth be told, the rest of us HMGS Members from Chapters outside of HMGS East are just trying not to get tarred with the same brush!"

Steve, since we're talking gaming and miniatures -- and since Heather is the one who runs the Hobby University at Cold Wars, HISTORICON and Fall In! -- you really should say "just trying not to get splattered with the same paintbrush!" :-)

Ok, outta here…!

Regards,
Bob Giglio

I can get stroked with sable fur by Heather ?

That would certainly increase attendance at the membership meetings…

Here they are, hot off of the press.

Again another BIG thank you to Andy Turlington and his team for all of their hard work.

Attendance up from 2008 to 2009 by 83 to 1966

Shirt sales from 2008 to 2009 up by 44 to 221

All 3 fleamarkets sold out, 46 tables per session

Total Events up from 2008 to 2009 by 52 to 324

Heather Blush
HMGS-East Board of Directors
Vice President, Member Communications/Outreach
hjblush@gmail.com

I can get stroked with sable fur by Heather ?

That would certainly increase attendance at the membership meetings…

Or how about Pete in a dunking booth?
Five bucks a ball and the show might break even.

iPat

Just an historical note (I know, history is bunk), not an attack.

The National BOD was established and had its first meeting at the Annapolis Convention of October 1990. The meeeting was hosted by the original chapter, and intended to answer a question posed from time to time by Wally (of the Basement) Simon. Basically, "What is meant by referring to all these other organizations as "HMGS."

By that time there were already several "chapters." The oldest outside of HMGS (EAST) were MIDWEST (1985), MIDSOUTH (1988 I think), Hearts of America, and some others.

Effectively HMGS (EAST) delegated to the National Board of Directors (NBOD) the responsibility for vetting new chapters. The criteria included, IIRC, 50 members, $500 USD in the treasury, at least one convention, and a quarterly newsletter. Also some sort of requirement to seek 501.c.3 status or local equivalent.

To finance necessary expenses (there really weren't many) the NBOD treasury received $1 USD from each chapter for each member, and each chapter got one vote. Effectively HMGS (EST) contributed perhaps 60% of the funds and got anywhere from 6% to 8% of the voting power. But for practical purposes chapters were autonomous. The NBOD had some coordinating role in such things as the fight against the lead bill, and it could theoretically de-certify a chapter but, while I think it sometimes returned chapters to provisional status I don't think any were actually decertified.

I think the last chapter approved was HMGS WEST after a rocky start around 1997-1998. A problem over the custody of the treasury led to the disbanding of the National BOD, with the funds returned to each chapter except that HMGS EAST absorbed the cost of all funds expended.

An effort was made by HMGS EAST to re-establish a National Coordinating Committee at the instigation of Jerry Hurwitz while he was on the BOD in 2002, but as far as I know nothing came of it.

Sorry other chapters. But isn't being called a wargamer bad enough?

:D

Hang in there Heather, and keep fighting the good fight!

Regards,
Wayne