CW update 1

I think with HISTORICON fast approaching it might be a good idea and get proactive with reporting on COLD WARS 2007. So here goes.

The CONVENTION THEME will be "The Road and the Wall: Greatest Feats of Military Engineers throughout History". This is my first "non period" theme choice for COLD WARS, and I think it's a great idea. Thematic games will have some connection to a battle or event where ENGINEERING was a decisive factor in the outcome. Types of battles will naturally include Sieges, which are the ultimate feat of battlefield engineering, but might also be a battle where a significant feat of engineering proceeded the battle, such as digging out a canal (see Vicksburg) or cutting a road to get at the enemy from another angle.

THE BIG MONEY GAME: The redoubtable Otto Schmidt and I are working on a Theme Prize program for featured games. We will be putting information about this contest on the web shortly. I'm still trying to budget this one. This is a fairly major thing, and needs some work.

SIEGE ENGINE WORKSHOP: Assistant Director Geoff Graff will be in charge of an idea the both of us got to talking about and the more we talk about it, the more we love it. We will be running several "heats" of SIEGE ENGINE WORKSHOP contest during Saturday. The concept is simple: Contestants will be given bags of materials. These materials are standardized with VERY MINOR variations. At the end of two hours, or at such point as the contestant deems his or her design complete, the design is then "proofed" by firing at a target on the wall-- Success is scored like archery. I'm still scouting out prizes for this one, they won't be very pricey but they will be "thematic".

SPEAKERS: I'm trying to find a good guest speaker(s) for this theme. Alas, my contact list in academia is low so if anyone out there can help, contact me offline. Cold Wars has not had a strong seminar program lately, and I would like to change that.

PAINTING: I'll be asking Heather Blush if she can see her way clear to bringing back the painting program... Possibly we'll resurrect an idea for "Found Object modeling" that I wanted to run two years ago as part of the program, but I don't want to clutter up their space. In any event, the painting program is a sure fire hit and I don't wish to mess with a good thing.

CLUBCON: There have been some rumbling about moving CLUBCON to FALL IN, given Mike Pierce's cooperation. This is mostly because of space measures. I don't know how to approach this yet. Discussions are ongoing with the organizers.

SHIRTS: Given the success of last year's design, I'm using Sun Dog again (and hopefully we can sell out again!) I will be working with a different artist this year (rather than use my own terrible efforts) so I hope we can turn out a great shirt.

OTHER FUN STUFF!: Otto Schmidt has come out of retirement to run MILITARY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (aka MST3K) in all its effusive, stinky glory, same place as the last three COLD WARS, back of the bar in the billiards room. I will also run THE STANDARD "MOVIE ROOM" program there during the convention. Please SUBMIT YOUR MOVIE REQUESTS! With an eye towards a theme, of course. As always, free popcorn included.

But Walt, how will you improve communications?: A very good point, "voice inside my head". I had big problems with communications last year, because of several (reasonably avoidable) mistakes and calamities. One issue is that I can't receive webmail at work. I try not to do convention business during the working day in any event (unless it is lunch hour), but this really puts a hamper on things. In addition, my wireless provider proved to be less than reliable at HOME as well. I've approached this by setting up a web-based intranet that will have a bulletin board on it for public access. Links to this will be on the COLD WARS WEBSITE. I will also have non-filtered email from this location. As soon as I work out security issues, I will publish the URL. Secondly, I've bought a brand spankin' new wireless laptop that allows a little lunchtime activity if I walk across the street to the Starbucks, so I will have some access to webmail during the day.