Friday morning (22 July), I woke up in the room at the Doubletree Suites that I was sharing with my IPMS/Gateway clubmate Jim Victor. I then walked across the complex to the Bistro at the Marriott for a breakfast meeting of IPMS/USA Regional Coordinators (RCs). Eight of the fourteen RCs were present, including myself as RC-14, and we were joined with IPMS/USA President Dave Lockhart and Director of Local Chapters (DLC) Jeff Neal.
In the meeting, we had a full discussion of various issues affecting the regions and their chapters. These topics included updating chapter information online, what constitutes a Regional contest, and ways to increase efficiency in model contest entries and results reporting. It was great being part of this group within IPMS/USA. After this meeting, I headed to the La Vista Conference Center next door for Day Three of the IPMS/USA National Convention.
At the Convention, I browsed among the contest entries, which were filling up the tables in the Model Room, and among the vendors in the Vendor Room. I made a few small purchases from the latter.
That afternoon, I attended a seminar given by Michael Jones of Sprue Brothers Models, who spoke about his experiences during Operation El Dorado Canyon on 15 April 1986. At the times, Jones was an Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) in an EF-111 Raven that accompanied the F-111s that attacked targets in Tripoli, Libya from bases in Great Britain. It was rather fascinating to get the perspective of an EWO on this mission, when we usually get that from the crews that dropped the bombs. After Jones' talk, I went to the Squadron stand in the Vendor Room and purchased the F-111 Aardvark in action book. I then took it to the Sprue Brothers stand for Jones to sign it on a picture of the Raven he flew during El Dorado Canyon.
After dinner, I joined other contest judges in the Model Room for the briefing before judging began. We received our instructions for judging the models, and saw judges being recognized for service milestones (such as for three years, 10 years, and 20 years). Then, I gathered with other aircraft judges to get my team and category assignments from the head aircraft judge. My team did a category with 24 entries, and it took us about 2.5 hours to evaluate all the entries and determine the top three finishers. After that, I enjoyed a snack of cookies and soda before waiting about an hour until all aircraft were judged. We then looked over candidates for the Best Aircraft from the top First Place finishers in their respective categories. After that, my night was done and I headed to my room to sleep.
Saturday morning (23 July) after breakfast with some of my IPMS/Gateway clubmates at the Embassy Suites, I checked out of my room and put my luggage in the car. Then, it was back to the Convention. I sat in at the National Business Meeting, where the executive board (e-board) of IPMS/USA reported on the Society's operations in the past year and looking forward to next year. Overall, IPMS/USA is in good shape.
Following this meeting, the e-board listened to bid presentations for groups seeking to host the 2024 National Convention. There was only one bid, and this came from Madison, Wisconsin. It certainly looked like an excellent bid from where I sat. After these meetings, I made a last pass through the Model and Vendor Rooms.
I hosted a Region 14 Business Meeting in the afternoon, but only a few members showed up. It was a nice time, though, bringing the attendees up to date on what I learned from the RC and National Business Meetings.
After a light dinner, I filed into a meeting room to witness a livestream of the closing ceremony that came after the banquet. Unfortunately, the stream didn't work as it should, so I ended up going to the banquet hall to see for myself. I missed the opening remarks and National Honors but took in all that followed. The 2023 National Convention hosts from San Marcos, Texas made their presentation to invite all to come down there next year. Then, the Madison group made its presentation for 2024.
Announcements of the contest results came next. I heard they had 2808 entries--the third-most in IPMS/USA history. My IPMS/Gateway clubmate Rick Keasey won four category awards: A First Place in Figures, two Seconds in Dioramas, and a Third in Collections. He also won a theme Award--The American Soldier--for his bust of a soldier on D-Day.
One of the Aircraft entries was the big winner. A scratch-built Friedrichshafen FF.60 (an experimental German floatplane of World War I) not only won its category, but also Best Aircraft, Best World War I Aircraft, Popular Best of Show (by vote of attendees), and Judges Grand Award as best model of the entire contest. Absolutely incredible work.
This ceremony ended the Convention and most of us filed into the Contest Room to congratulate the winners and to pack up our entries. After making the rounds with my congratulations (including the hosts from IPMS/Fort Crook), I packed up my entries and put them in the car. Then, I stayed to help Keasey with taking his entries to this truck. With that done, I departed La Vista just before Midnight to begin the drive home.
The cruise control on the Toyota Corolla I rented from Enterprise sure came in handy on the long drive home. I made a few short stops to get snacks, refuel the car, and to take a cat nap before arriving home just after 8:30 am. My road trip covered 892.9 miles (1437 km) in all. After unpacking at home, I took a good rest. I was tired, but most happy about this vacation.
Later.
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